Posts tagged as:

hospital

Discharged from the hospital without answers; the death of Jane Q. Patient

November 20, 2009

by Dan Walter
We found out that her real name was Cindy Chapman, and that she died alone and afraid.
Cindy was a paralegal, an activist and a fighter of lost causes who lived in Worcester, Massachusetts. She was part of an online community called RATEMDs, where she had many soul mates. Her posts on health [...]

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Are older nurses being forced out of the profession?

November 20, 2009

Originally published in HCPLive.com
by Colleen O’Leary, RN, MSN, AOCNS
Last time I talked about how I had never really experienced the concept of nurses eating their young in action.
However, I have seen the opposite begin to evolve. I see this as a bigger issue in nursing these days. The “putting out to pasture” of seasoned, [...]

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Can family doctors do safe first trimester abortions?

November 18, 2009

Originally published in MedPage Today
by Chris Emery, MedPage Today Contributing Writer
Complications from first trimester abortions performed by family practitioners are rare, and family doctors could help address abortion provider shortages across the U.S., a new study found.
Among more than 2,500 abortions performed by family physicians, abortion was successful without complications in 96.5% of patients [...]

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A lack of computer skills will make a doctor unemployable

November 18, 2009

How important is it for doctors to have computer skills?
It’s imperative.
Emergency physician Shadowfax is recruiting doctors for his hospital, and balances the typical choices one must make balancing clinical knowledge versus interpersonal skills.
One deal breaker, he notes, is the lack of computer skills:
Unfortunately, in this modern age, if an employee can’t use a computer effectively, [...]

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Why doctors are doing so many unnecessary Pap smears

November 17, 2009

by Matthew Mintz, MD
The Wall Street Journal and other sources reported on a study from the Annals of Internal Medicine that showed that most US doctors don’t know the guidelines of how often women should get a pap smear. More importantly, doctors were doing a lot of pap smears on women who didn’t need them. [...]

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Can primary care doctors actually increase health care costs?

November 17, 2009

Poor McAllen, Texas.
The much maligned city has been in the health policy crosshairs ever since Atul Gawande’s seminal New Yorker article on health costs.
Now, it has the added distinction of being the worst place in the country to live with allergies.
The reason? Apparently, there’s one allergist for the entire city. One. And [...]

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Learn how to conduct a family meeting by using a structured approach

November 16, 2009

by Alex Smith, MD
On my last day of ward attending, I handed out an EKG that resembled the Dow Jones industrial average over the last 10 years (not pictured). The normal pattern of an EKG was completely disrupted: ST segments were markedly elevated, P waves were hidden, and beats were grouped in odd patterns. My [...]

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Poll: Should obese patients pay more for ambulance transport to the hospital?

November 16, 2009

Nearly one-third of the American population is obese, and 5 percent is classified as morbidly obese, defined as more than 100 pounds overweight.
The obese are more likely to have health issues, and, subsequently require more frequent trips to the hospital. Ambulance workers say that patients weighing over 350 pounds present additional challenges to transport, [...]

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Medicine needs to get back to hands-on basics, rather than focusing on technology

November 14, 2009

by Rahul Parikh, MD
There is plenty to criticize in our bungling trek toward health reform. Leaders on the right, left and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue have sidestepped the crucial conversation of controlling the cost of care, in favor of partisan rhetoric about “death panels” and “rationing care.” Worse, the entire focus [...]

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Surgeons don’t receive enough training when resident work-hours are capped

November 13, 2009

by Crystal Phend, MedPage Today Senior Staff Writer
Limiting surgical residents’ work hours has compromised both surgical education and patient safety, according to an analysis concluding that an 80-hour work week isn’t enough.
The maximum 80-work week imposed in the U.S. for residents is too little to provide mastery in surgery, Gretchen Purcell Jackson, MD, PhD, [...]

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How teamwork is essential in the emergency department

November 12, 2009

by Edwin Leap, MD
I recently cared for a patient who raised my heart-rate a bit. Of course, any emergency physician will tell you, the potentially difficult and complicated cases often come at the end of the shift, as you’re trying to clean up all of the paperwork and ‘head for the house.’ Nurse [...]

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Many women report nerve-related persistent pain after breast surgery

November 12, 2009

Originally published in Insidermedicine
Nearly half of women who undergo surgery and other treatments for breast cancer report having persistent pain in and around the treatment area a year or more later, probably because of nerve damage, according to research published in the November 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Will video cameras in the OR decrease the rate of wrong-site surgery?

November 12, 2009

by Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Rhode Island Hospital, located in Providence, will pay $150,000 and install video cameras in all of its operating rooms after performing its fifth wrong-site surgery since 2007, according to the state’s Department of Health.
The hospital will also have to open its ORs to an inspector who will observe [...]

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The decision not to test is often the more difficult choice

November 12, 2009

Ordering that head CT scan is the easy way out.
In a piece from Newsweek (via Bryan Vartabedian), Yale emergency physician Christopher Moore details a common scenario: should he order a CT scan in an asymptomatic 15-year old who was hit in the back of the head while playing soccer?
Dr. Moore encapsulates his thought process: “In [...]

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How do people with dementia die?

November 11, 2009

Originally published in HCPLive.com
by Victor G. Dostrow, MD
Dementia is a terminal illness. However, people with advanced dementias often languish in skilled nursing facilities, far from the ministrations of specialists. And, with reasonable luck, they have directives that specify that they are not to be taken to the hospital in the event of a respiratory arrest. [...]

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Do home fetal heart monitors give mothers false reassurance?

November 10, 2009

Originally published in MedPage Today
by Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Expectant mothers may enjoy listening to their unborn babies’ heartbeats, but they shouldn’t rely on home fetal heart monitors to provide an accurate picture of fetal health, researchers say.
The devices may provide false reassurance in some situations, according to Abhijoy Chakladar, MD, of Princess [...]

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