Patient Dignity (Formerly: Patient Modesty): Volume 94

Entering the " dirty pond " or " down the drain " , these expressions along with accompanying graphics are amongst a host of verbal expressions with their visual analogies which I have used over many Volumes to describe the status of the medical system as brought out in the views presented by the contributors to this blog thread over the years. And now with Volume 94 comes another: the medical system utilizing the conveyor belt image within the process of diagnosis and treating of its patients. This analogy is spelled out in a " Perspective " description of a clinical event in the January 3, 2019 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine with the title of " Walking Away from Conveyor Belt Medicine " .The story begins and the conveyor belt first starts moving when a community hospital notifies a major medical-surgical hospital that it found in a 70 year old demented patient who spends his life simply " walking " that his previously surgically stabilized aortic aneurism is enlarging compared to his previous checkup and he was felt to be in need of immediate surgical repair to prevent rupture. He was on his way by ambulance " and the conveyor belt started moving " in the major hospital to carry out all the preparations involved in what was to happen on the patient ' s arrival. On arrival " the conveyor belt is speeding up " . Then the " belt was moving fast " as all the many components which were needed to prepare and carry out this risky surgery were proc...
Source: Bioethics Discussion Blog - Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: blogs