On Grey’s Anatomy last week, Dr. Derek Shepherd (enough playing, McDreamy) is called in from home to soothe a young man unhinged with pain after a highly invasive surgery. The attending physician has already tried morphine with no relief. Where heavy narcotics fail, McDreamy flourishes. After placating the patient he turns to the worried mother, [...]
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 [...]
The following story was submitted by a reader: In June, I was rushed to the emergency room with bilateral abdominal pain. I spent twenty-two hours in the ER and there was told I had a malignant mass, gastroenteritis, Crohn’s disease, an ovarian torsion, or most unlikely, appendicitis. Following two inconclusive CAT scans and a sonogram, [...]
In a David Goldhill essay highlighted here last week, he closes a paragraph with the following: “In case you wonder who a care provider’s real customer is, try reading one of these bills.” Below is a single page from and eight page hospital bill from my first stay in the hospital. On two occasions, I’ve [...]
The following story was submitted by a reader: My dad had brain surgery this summer. He had to have fat tissue taken from his stomach so they could use it to plug up the area of the incision. The hospital defines the procedure of removing the fat tissue from his stomach as liposuction…well guess what…insurance [...]
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 [...]
For the past three months this blog has been focused on the experience of one person, one patient. Admittedly this offers a limited scope of healthcare. With the addition of the ‘Submit Your Story‘ feature, we hope that changes. It’s no secret that the best way to become truly informed is to be exposed to [...]
The waiting room is full of us today, anxious people waiting to see our doctor. There are 13 or 14 of us in this room, and in a another one down the hall, 13 or 14 more. This pattern continues on for quite sometime—this is a big place, like factory big. Before we found ourselves [...]
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 [...]
A. Anemia News
