“Your Local Hospital Could be Forced to Close”
Posted by drbob2 on Jul 28, 2009
As the primary topic for the last segment of Super Health Mississippi last week and this week (which I did not have time for), I called attention to the astute and documented editorial written by Dr. Norman Traverse, editor of the website HEALTH MadeEasy.com. As you can read from Your Local Hospital Could be Forced to Close the current Democrat-sponsored HR 3200 is a disaster being cleverly and hastily pushed forward, as was the recent Cap and Tax bill. As details of this hasty and partisan attempt to take over American health care and extend the federal government’s control over all our lives are being discovered and made known, they are causing a firestorm of opposition. If you do not want to surrender control of your health care to bureaucrats who will not be subject to the very measures they are trying to rush through Congress, call your Representative and Senators and straighten them out!
Mosquito Activity Forecaster
Posted by drbob2 on Jul 8, 2009
Mosquito Activity Forecaster
As I mentioned on the program this morning, I ran across this website which purports to forecast the activity of mosquitoes in your city or zip code. Since we are just entering the West Nile Virus “season” and since prevention is most important for this disease, I hope it will prove useful. Mosquito Activity Forecaster
What You Can Do to Make Healthcare Safer
Posted by drbob2 on Jun 23, 2009
What You Can Do to Make Healthcare Safer
On the broadcast/webcast this morning I made a point of exploring in some detail a one page
Consumer Fact Sheet published by the National Patient Safety Foundation.
That document is available at: What You Can Do.
As you see when you access that link, there are 5 categories of actions to take to do what you and I, as patients, can to protect ourselves from medical errors.
1. Become a more informed health care consumer.
There’s a wealth of information available in seconds on the internet about all sorts of illnesses and conditions but you have to use your common sense in interpreting it. What you find may either scare you witless or minimize the realities of your specific problem. Perhaps the best use of information you find is to generate questions to ask your family doctor or the specialist, if that is the most appropriate person. If the answers you receive don’t make sense to you, remember that you always have a right to a second opinion and you should not be shy about obtaining one, either on your doctor’s referral or one you obtain by yourself. If you do seek a second opinion, be sure to ask the doctor providing it to obtain your medical history and all test results from your first doctor.
2. Keep track of your history.
Many patients assume that your doctor has an up to the minute record of everything you have told him or her and all the test results and medicines that you are taking and why you are taking them. While that may be the case, especially if your doctor cares for you within the concept of a Medical Home, don’t count on it—we’re talking about your health now. Take the time to write down, either on paper or on a computer document—which I strongly recommend—all the aspects of your health over the years: Illnesses, hospitalizations, operations, (with the years, if possible) current medications (and past meds, if relevant), any family history of disease and any allergies, bleeding tendencies, cortisone use, diabetes, or blood clots (in legs or lungs) in your past. Also include any tests that were done and their results (remember, you have a right to all medical test results so ask your doctor to give you a copy of them.) In this personal medical history it’s important to be complete and accurate and as specific as possible. It’s also a good idea to include the names, addresses, and especially phone numbers of all your doctors and other healthcare professionals who’ve treated you. If you take dietary supplements, aspirin, or herbal products, include them.
Once this is written down and dated, update it at least yearly and keep a copy handy. If you’ve entered it on your computer, you can copy it to a USB stick memory and keep it on your keychain in case you wind up in the Emergency Room. Just give it to the ER Staff and tell them to print it for your ER doctor to see and for a copy to be kept with your chart.
3. Work with your doctor and other health care professionals.
One way is to share your written medical history with them. Whenever you go to your doctor, take a minute or two to write down all the things that are on your mind about your health and be sure that your physician addresses them AND that you write down his or her responses to your questions. Sometimes it’s good, within the bounds of your privacy, to share your draft list with your spouse or another family member. They may have noticed something that you forgot to put on your list. Another reason to share is that they will reinforce the idea that you need answers to your concerns and you need to write them down.
If your doctor recommends an invasive test or a surgical procedure, part of that recommendation should include the goals and risks of what’s been recommended. If you do not fully understand what’s been recommended, and why, and what the risks, if any, are, just say NO until you understand everything and decide to go ahead with it. Remember, don’t be shy!
4. Involve a family member or friend in your care.
Again, this is just common sense. If you have any condition that affects your memory or judgment, it’s important to have someone that you trust who cares about you with you when you see your doctor. Ideally, you will have shared your written questions and concerns with that person so that, even if you forget to ask or record the answers, they will remember and get it done.
5. Follow the treatment plan agreed upon by you and your doctor.
Write down any instructions that you receive or get them from your doctor in written form. It’s ok to ask how much something costs, whether it’s a medicine, a test, or whatever. If the doctor doesn’t know, they should and your question should motivate him or her to find out. Take any and all medicines just the way they are prescribed. If something is to be taken once or twice a day, that’s easy; just take in the morning or the evening or at both times. If something is to be taken three or four times a day, it’s a good idea to ask your doctor so that you both have aligned your expectations about timing. If a medicine makes you feel bad or makes you sick, the first thing to do is to CALL the doctor who prescribed it. If you can’t get a call back pester them until you do so that 1. your doctor knows what’s going on and 2. they will give you advice about what to do, whether it is to take a med with meals, or decrease the frequency of doses, or change to a different med or just stop it. You should expect that your doctor will make a note in your medical record of your reaction and what he or she did about it. If a medicine makes you sick and, instead of CALLING the prescribing physician, you just take it less frequently than prescribed or even stop taking it, you may be endangering your health—and your doctor still thinks you are taking it as prescribed!
Remember the title of this very helpful fact sheet:
What You Can Do to Make Healthcare Safer
If you have a topic you’d like me to address, just send me an email via
the “Contact” page of this site.
Some Realities of Socialized Medicine
Posted by drbob2 on Apr 20, 2009
You may be aware of the Obama Administration’s plan to try and socialize American medicine. So, what’s socialized medicine like?
Based on what I’ve read, the Canadian system seems like it gives everyone the right to medical care. The problem is, a lot of the time—and depending on the Canadian province you live in— although you have a right to it, you can’t get it!
How about England and its National Health Service? Several months ago I read in British papers accessible on the internet of an English woman who wanted to take an expensive drug for her breast cancer. Since it was not covered by the National Health Service, she was going to pay for it herself and take it along with the other treatment that the NHS did pay for. According to the newspaper reports, this was not an unusual situation but in her case, the NHS told her that if she did pay for the expensive drug herself, they would not continue her regular treatment! The story said that the government official did this because, even though the woman was planning to sell her house to privately pay for the medicine (which is expensive but widely available in America) the NHS felt this would be unfair to other NHS patients who might not have the money to do what she did. How’s that for government controlled medicine? If you want to pay for a treatment that’s not provided by the government, the bureaucrats will stop providing you the treatment they do approve!
Here’s another example of the mindset of socialized medicine. About a week ago, a physician friend sent me a very revealing website www.18weeks.nhs.uk. I invite you visit that site and see for yourself how at least some aspects of socialized medicine work. The whole point of this particular website is that, as a quality improvement measure, called the NHS Improvement Plan, begun in June 2004: “By 2008, no one will have to wait longer than 18 weeks from GP referral to hospital treatment.” When I first read that, I thought it was a joke, but no—it’s deadly serious—check it out yourself! Why did I think it was a joke? Because here in the good old USA, where medical care does cost too much,* whenever you have to wait 18 weeks to get in the hospital, it’s considered a Quality of Care PROBLEM, not a GOAL! And, the NHS government bureaucrats thought that it would take them about 4 YEARS to achieve that goal!
In trying to better understand this matter, I accessed the 18 weeks site’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page and found 24 pages of bureaucratic language that, if you’re a patient, you might find scary, not funny. In fairness, I did discover, (but it was not particularly easy) that the “18 week goal” is for those patients without an urgent need for care. Although what the NHS defines as urgent, I did not find and, considering the overall drift of the “18 weeks” program, I was not reassured that the NHS definition of “urgent” and this physician’s definition of “urgent” would be the same.
There is, of course, always the possibility that my perspective, after just reviewing the 18week website, and not being able to interview NHS physicians or their patients, is unfair; but I have tried to present the issue as it is presented on the website—which I invite you to visit yourself.
* I have some ideas about the causes and remedies of the high cost of medical care here in America that I plan to explore in upcoming blog entries. If you have specific examples of the high cost of American Medicine, please email them to me (no names please) at; drbob@superhealthms.com
If you have a topic you’d like me to address, just send me an email at drbob@superhealthms.com.