Tag Archives: health care

29 Jul

Do Nurse Practitioners Give You Better Care than Your Doctor?

carypresant Affordable Care Act, Healthcare Reform, Nurse practitioners 0 0

With the expansion of health insurance from the Affordable Care Act and other insurance reforms, more patients will have access to physicians. In order to accommodate this increased burden on the healthcare system and increased availability of higher quality care for patients, there will be more widespread use of nurse practitioners.

A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine by K. Donelan and co-authors (New England Journal of Medicine 2013, Volume 368, Page…

15 Jul

How Long Should I Stay in a Hospital?

carypresant Hospitals, Medical Tips, Physician Communication 4 0

No one wants to be in a hospital, ever! But for many illnesses or accidents, hospitalization is needed. Lengths of hospital stays used to be very long, 7-14 days. But with the increased costs of health care in America, insurance companies, hospitals and physicians have taken steps to shorten the length of hospitalizations.

In a recent article, Dr. P. Kaoboli and coauthors studied how long patients were staying in VA hospitals (Annals of Internal Medicine,…

10 Jun

Know What to Expect from Your Treatments

carypresant elderly patients, Health Care, Physician Communication 1 0

You can develop potentially serious health conditions or illnesses. Good doctors develop excellent treatment plans for their patients, and you may get lots of information about tests, treatments and drugs you may need. But there is a possible problem in how you understand what the doctors and nurses tell you. In an excellent study http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1204410 J. Weeks and coauthors evaluated over 1100 patients with serious diagnoses of cancer. Between 69% and 81% of the patients…

31 May

How You Can Avoid Delays in Treatment After Breast Cancer Diagnosis

carypresant Breast Cancer, Health Care, Medical Tips, Uncategorized 0 0

After a woman gets a diagnosis of breast cancer, she has anxiety, depression and fear until she gets her treatment plan from her doctors, and begins therapy (surgery possibly followed by radiation, chemotherapy and/or hormonal treatment). This delay from diagnosis to treatment with surgery has been growing (according to Dr. Richard Bleicher and coauthors, J. Clin. Oncol. 30: 4485, 2013). The delay averaging 21 days in 1992 has grown to 32 days in 2005 (the…

20 May

Using an Online Patient Portal Can Increase Your Healthcare

carypresant Electronic Medical Records, Physician Communication 9 0

Electronic medical records are becoming more common in doctor’s offices. One part of these software programs in some but not all electronic records is the online patient portal. These portals allow people to send messages to the doctor, get messages from the office, and review their tests and records.

It has been felt that use of these portals might make healthcare more efficient and reduce office visits, ultimately decreasing the costs of health care.

But…

13 May

Preventing Falls Can Save Lives

carypresant elderly patients, geriatrics, Prevention 0 0

As people age, there is a loss of mobility and an increased tendency to falls. This can result in concussions (e.g. Hillary Clinton), brain bleeding, fractures, and even death. Because this is such a problem in aging, you need to be aware of how to prevent falls and preserve maximum mobility.

In institutions (hospitals, nursing homes) as well as in private homes where you are taking care of elderly family members, at least 20% of…

22 Apr

Increasing Your Voice in Medical Decision Making

carypresant Doctors, Medical Tips 0 0

Doctors have been talking about shared decision-making by patients with physicians for over a decade, at least since the Institute of Medicine reported “Crossing the Quality Chasm” in 2001. But for you to have your voice heard in making decisions about your own health care, doctors must be giving you honest and complete background information about your condition, and be discussing the pros and cons of proposed treatments.

In a recent analysis, authors concluded that less…

27 Feb

Health Awards at the “Oscars”

carypresant academy awards, Celebrities, illness, Prevention 0 0

In a spectacular 2013 Academy Awards show, many health and disease issues were in the background. Here are my nominees for my Award for Most Important Performance by an illness or an individual.

Amour, for the portrayal of stroke, cerebrovascular disease, and caregivers Silver Linings Playbook, for the portrayals of mental illnesses and adjustment to illness Michael Douglas, for demonstration of outstanding survivorship after throat cancer and its treatment Robin Roberts, for her appearance on…

18 Feb

Binge Alcohol Abuse is Epidemic

carypresant Alcoholism, Health Care, Medical Tips 0 0

Alcohol abuse has always been common. Now new information has discovered how frequently this occurs in young high school students as discussed in this CDC report http://1.usa.gov/VNlAGA. Binge drinking occurs in 17.1% of Americans, 11% of women and 23% of men. But in high school girls, 20% are binge drinkers (4 drinks per occasion or more at least once in the last 30 days). In high school girls 54% report using alcohol, and 50% of…

13 Feb

TV Medical Shows Can Provide Topics to Discuss with Your Doctor

carypresant Doctors, Health Care, Medical Tips, Physician Communication 0 0

A friend who works as an actor in health dramas is also a patient and a caregiver for an ill parent. We discussed the relevance of TV depictions of medical care and real-life health care issues.

TV programs are presenting issues that people are dealing with every day. Although TV scripts tend to over-dramatize the emotional consequences of problems in medical care (e.g. too little time for doctors and nurses to provide adequate care, insensitivity…

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