Why We Do It
Medicine is a business. Of course we have bills to pay to keep the lights on and the phones running. No, as a rule, doctors are not starving. But if money were what we were out for, we sure wouldn’t have opted for seven (or more) grueling years of training followed by the 24/7 call of solo private practice. No; we’re in it for our patients. Aside from the still small voice that tells us when we’ve done well, there are those wonderful times when we get to hear our patients say it explicitly.
A recent email:
…I just wanted you to know that both the care and kindness you provided to me throughout my li...
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - January 18, 2017 Category: Primary Care Authors: notdeaddinosaur Tags: Medical Source Type: blogs
A Bird ’s Eye View from the Penalty Box
By NIRAN AL-AGBRA, MD
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) EHR Incentive Program—also known as Meaningful Use (MU)—initially provided incentives to accelerate the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) to meet certified program requirements. Many physicians were mandated to change over to electronic records at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars. Electronic records have never been shown to improve patient care or outcomes with statistical significance, the criteria physicians routinely use when making care decisions.
Physicians who failed to participate in MU would receive penalties i...
Source: The Health Care Blog - January 10, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
New Clinical Guidelines to Prevent Peanut Allergy
An expert panel sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, issued clinical guidelines to aid health care providers in early introduction of peanut-containing foods to infants to prevent the development of peanut allergy. Development of the Addendum Guidelines was prompted by emerging data suggesting that peanut allergy can be prevented by the early introduction of peanut-containing foods. The addendum provides three separate guidelines for infants at various levels of risk for developing peanut allergy and is targeted to a wide variety of heal...
Source: BHIC - January 10, 2017 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Carolyn Martin Tags: Children and Teens Chronic Disease General Source Type: blogs
Building Better Breastfeeding Awareness at UMMC
Breastfeeding is recognized as the best nutritional source for healthy infants. Unfortunately, breastfeeding rates in Baltimore city are well below the national average, so the University of Maryland Medical Center acknowledges the need to focus efforts on breastfeeding practices and do more to educate and support mothers within the community.
After a thorough evaluation, UMMC kicked off a commitment to embark on the journey to become a Baby Friendly designated hospital. UMMC follows the “10 Steps to Breastfeeding success” as outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNIC...
Source: Life in a Medical Center - December 13, 2016 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Chris Lindsley Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Medicine isn ’t just about accuracy and efficiency
As a family practice resident, I’ve found that a premium is placed not only on my clinical acumen but also on how well I respond to my patients’ mental and emotional experience of illness.
Yet the work of learning to be a doctor is just that — work. (And in overwhelming amounts.) Time management becomes ever more vital: As I take the time needed to gently break bad news and to console a patient, I must also stay conscious of the next patient’s appointment, the next phone call to make, the next exam to study for, the next lecture to attend, the next research project to complete and the next practice guid...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - December 5, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/christina-johnson" rel="tag" > Christina Johnson, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Hospital Source Type: blogs
CMS Issues Final Rule on CY 2017 Physician Fee Schedule
Conclusion
The CY 2017 PFS final rule is the latest showing of the Administration-wide strategy to create a health care system that results in better care, smarter spending, and a healthier population.
Related StoriesOpen Payments Having an Adverse Effect on Physician-Rep RelationshipsCMS Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Evaluation ReleasedCMS Releases MA and Part D Landscape Information for 2017 (Source: Policy and Medicine)
Source: Policy and Medicine - November 2, 2016 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
Physicians, paperwork, and paying attention to patients
Follow me @drmoniquetello
Have you noticed that when you go to a doctor’s office, the providers are on a computer or flipping through papers for much of the visit? Maybe they’re looking through your records, typing your history, filling out forms, or checking boxes from a questionnaire. Whatever it is, isn’t it kind of weird and awkward that you’re sitting there in person for an illness or an examination, and you are not the primary focus of attention?
Just how much of your visit do we spend on “overhead”? A lot.
In fact, you’re not imagining things, and it is weird and awkward. A recent study published in t...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - October 31, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Monique Tello, MD, MPH Tags: Health Managing your health care Source Type: blogs
There Are Pros And Cons To Having Email Access Between Doctor And Patient. Education Is Vital.
This article appeared a little while ago.To email your patients or not to emailAuthored by Cate SwannellIssue 35 / 12 September 2016 ONLINE portals using secure pathways may be the best available solution to the dilemma of doctor-patient email communications, which sees practices lagging behind the “willingness of their patients” to connect via email.A systematic review published in Family Practice showed that far more physicians want to use email communication with their patients than actually do use it. In Europe, for example, it was shown that only 7.4% of the European population commun icated with a physician using...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - September 20, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David More MB PhD FACHI Source Type: blogs
Switching EHRs, The Trends And What To Consider
The following is a guest blog post by Winyen Wu, Technology and Health Trend Blogger and Enthusiast at Stericycle Communication Solutions as part of the Communication Solutions Series of blog posts. Follow and engage with them on Twitter: @StericycleComms
In recent years, there has been a trend in providers switching Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems: according to Software Advice, the number of buyers replacing EHR software has increased 59% since 2014. In a survey by KLAS, 27% of medical practices are looking to replace their EHR while another 12% would like to but cannot due to financial or organizational constrain...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - September 8, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: John Lynn Tags: EHR Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR Healthcare HealthCare IT AthenaHealth Cerner Communication Solutions Series eCW EHR Switching Epic Stericycle Stericycle Communication Solutions Winyen Wu Source Type: blogs
Ambiguity and uncertainty
Humans vary in how comfortable we are with uncertainty or ambiguity: Tolerance of ambiguity is a construct discussed in cognitive and experimental research literature, and refers to the willingness to prefer black and white situations, where “there is an aversive reaction to ambiguous situations because the lack of information makes it difficult to assess risk and correctly make a decision. These situations are perceived as a threat and source of discomfort. Reactions to the perceived threat are stress, avoidance, delay, suppression, or denial” (Furnham & Marks, 2013, p. 718). Tolerance to uncertainty is ...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - July 10, 2016 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: adiemusfree Tags: Assessment Clinical reasoning Coping strategies Pain Pain conditions Professional topics acceptance ambiguity healthcare pain management Research Therapeutic approaches treatment uncertainty Source Type: blogs
Focusing on Primary Care for Better Health
By ANDY SLAVITT
In the United States, we have historically invested far more in treating sickness than we do in maintaining health. The result of this imbalance is not only poorer health, but more money spent in institutions, hospitals, and nursing homes.
The road to a better health care system means correcting this imbalance. We should reinvest in what we value — primary care — as a practice, as a profession, and as an abundant resource for patients. In recent years, we have begun taking a number of meaningful steps to begin this reinvestment process. Today, we are proposing significant actions to improve how we pay p...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 7, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
MACRA Comment: CMS + MIPS/APM = Death of the Private Practice Physician
By NIRAN AL-AGBA
Small, independent private practices are closing, increasing numbers of physicians are retiring early, and fewer medical school graduates are choosing primary care. The old-fashioned practice my father and I have built is a dying entity. Parents say coming to see us for an appointment feels more like a visit with a friend than a medical encounter. I am fighting for the subsistence of rural primary care practices. Most will not survive MACRA proposed changes to the reimbursement structure.
Seven days ago, I attended an “informational listening session,” sponsored by the Center for Medicare and...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 5, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized CMS MACRA Reporting Small Practice Source Type: blogs
CMS + MIPS/APM = Death of the Private Practice Physician
By NIRAN AL-AGBA
Small, independent private practices are closing, increasing numbers of physicians are retiring early, and fewer medical school graduates are choosing primary care. The old-fashioned practice my father and I have built is a dying entity. Parents say coming to see us for an appointment feels more like a visit with a friend than a medical encounter. I am fighting for the subsistence of rural primary care practices. Most will not survive MACRA proposed changes to the reimbursement structure.
Seven days ago, I attended an “informational listening session,” sponsored by the Center for Medicare and...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 5, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized CMS MACRA Reporting Small Practice Source Type: blogs
Xerox Enters the Rapidly Maturing Telemedicine Business
There have been a number of bullish signs that telemedicine is reaching a critical mass such that larger hospitals without a program may start to feel anxious. This anxiety may also become more acute in the face of federal cost reduction programs because telemedicine provides a way to increase patient services without investing in bricks and mortar. I have been blogging about telemedicine for years but it has remained a marginal form of healthcare delivery until recently (see: Insurance Companies Can Use Telemedicine to Enlarge Their Provider Networks; Hospital Telemedicine P...
Source: Lab Soft News - June 18, 2016 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Information Technology Medical Education Telemedicine Source Type: blogs
Sh*t naturopaths say, part 5: Ozone therapy, honey, and attacks on Change.org petitions
Those of us living in Michigan who support science-based medicine have been forced to deal with a bill that, if passed, would grant practitioners of unscientific “medicine” a wide scope of practice—almost as wide as that of primary care practitioners such as pediatricians, internists, and family practice doctors. I’m referring to HB 4531, a bill… (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - June 9, 2016 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Complementary and alternative medicine Naturopathy Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking Britt Hermes cervical intraepithelial neoplasia HB 4531 honey Michigan NatChat ozone therapy Source Type: blogs
