On my way to meet a friend last week I happened upon a car going 20 mph under the listed speed and weaving like he just left happy hour. When passing (and hoping to make eye contact to show my displeasure) it was revealed the offender was too absorbed in his mobile to look up [...]
In two of the better essays on healthcare, The New Yorker’s Dr. Atul Gawande and David Goldhill,via the Atlantic Monthly, portray a healthcare system dreadfully disorganized and wasteful. While this is no new discovery, each offers a different perspective (Guwande is a M.D., Goldhill a businessman), and solution. In his trip to McAllen, Texas—a town [...]
Last week we addressed the patient’s lack of a seat at the healthcare negotiations table. Clarification: the patient isn’t even in the conference room. They are out pacing in the hall—maybe even on the wrong floor—oblivious to what’s going in the room or at the table. Think about it healthcare for a moment. Our employer [...]
A reader posted a comment awhile back about the hospital experience of her mother, who was just diagnosed with aplastic anemia. Briefly what happened: “… the hospital attempted to discharge her. They indicated that she could receive the treatment for aplastic anemia on an outpatient basis. My sister challenged that as being unacceptable based on [...]
Healthcare reform might not mean reform for some who need it most. Those who make too much to qualify for government subsidies, but aren’t exactly pulling down huge bucks should have a ton of interest in making sure that changes to the healthcare system ensure their care is affordable. This a well-cited problem in the [...]
On my days at the clinic it’s no surprise to see a long line of people awaiting a “meeting” with the billing department. Getting sick is expensive and not everybody has great heath insurance, let alone health insurance at all. There are a lot of different groups who have a interest in seeing that those [...]
Last week, at the clinic it started with a question. Does a transfusion dependent person need a type-and cross every three days or four? A type and cross is a blood test to determine the best blood for a patient prior to transfusion. The doctor said four days. Settled. That test would not be necessary [...]
We’ve talked about fee-for-service healthcare as being one of the the many current practices in need of reform, according to the Boston Globe, Massachusetts will be the first state to attempt to roll with it. The proposal will replace current compensation protocol with a global payment, where care will be issued by a network of doctors who will be rewarded [...]
A good friend was kind enough to alert me of a study headed by Dr. Lawrence P. Casalino of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City that researched how often abnormal test results are reported by doctors to their patients. The study’s findings were well covered nationally, I have taken the liberty to pull excerpts from [...]
A. Anemia News
