Who runs a hospital better, a physician or a businessperson? And which is better for patient safety and healthy outcomes? As reported in the New York Times, the conventional wisdom that doctors should focus on patient care and managers should run the infrastructure was challenged by a study in the journal Social Science & Medicine…..
Continue ReadingArchives for August 2011
U.S. Doctors Lose the Paperwork War with Canada
In a stark reminder that the practice of medicine is a business as well as a service, a new study has proved what doctors have been saying for years: Meeting the paperwork needs of insurance companies costs U.S. doctors in a big way. According to the study published in Health Affairs, U.S. docs pay an….
Continue ReadingState Medical Boards Are Letting Patients Down
If you follow patient safety news, you’ve seen this headline before. Why should you care? Apart from retaining an attorney to represent you in the event of medical malpractice, what stands most prominently between medical consumers and the bad behavior of health-care providers is their states’ medical boards. These government agencies are charged with licensing….
Continue ReadingEmergency Room Use of CT Scans Soars
Another episode in the if-you-build-it-they-will-come (and pay) story of medical technology has been written recently by hospital emergency rooms. In 1996, about 3 in 100 ER patients were given a CT scan; by 2007, the figure had grown nearly fivefold, to 1 in 7 ER patients, according to a new study in the Annals of….
Continue ReadingWhy Aren’t Hospitals Any Safer with Fewer Sleep-Deprived Trainee Doctors?
No one wants to be treated in a hospital by a doctor at the tail end of a 36-hour shift who is falling asleep on his or her feet. So the organization that supervises training programs for resident doctors mandated an 80-hour work week limit. A provocative piece in the New York Times Magazine makes….
Continue ReadingFDA Reopens Discussion of Gluten-Free Labeling
In 2007, the FDA proposed guidelines for gluten-free labeling. The gluten component of foods is important to people with celiac disease, a disorder in which essential nutrients can’t be metabolized when gluten is consumed. Gluten is a constituent of many grains, such as wheat, barley and rye. Now, the FDA-approved definition of “gluten-free” is up….
Continue ReadingAntidepressant Drugs Increasingly Prescribed for Nonpsychiatric Diagnoses
As reported in the journal Health Affairs, antidepressant drugs are the third most commonly prescribed class of medications in the U.S. Much of the growth of these drugs has been fueled by prescriptions written by nonpsychiatrist caregivers, and are not accompanied by a psychiatric diagnosis. Between 1996 and 2007, the proportion of doctor visits at….
Continue ReadingBetter Treatment Decisions From More Accessible Research
You have lupus, the chronic inflammatory disease in which the body’s immune system attacks its tissues and organs. Sometimes the symptoms resemble the joint stiffness and swelling of arthritis; sometimes they present as skin rashes; sometimes your kidneys malfunction. There are four different kinds of lupus whose treatment might involve a variety of behavioral interventions….
Continue ReadingStudy of Hospitalists Raises Questions
In the 1990s, a new medical specialty emerged whose purpose was to help control the cost of hospital care and improve the outcome for hospital patients. “Hospitalists” are physicians who care only for inpatients; generally, they do not have a private patient practice. As noted in a recent report on NPR, the growing popularity of….
Continue ReadingProtecting Prescription Histories in the Era of Data Mining
Pharmaceutical companies love dish about doctors and patients almost as much as they love drug profits. One source of information they like to plunder to expand their markets is doctors’ prescribing histories. These “who,” “what,” “why” reports are one component of so-called “data mining” that has gotten much attention lately as a sometimes sneaky way….
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