The patient hand off
How many times have you been the patient and been handed off from one shift to the next? And how often does that happen in a slightly overheard conversation between one nurse and the next or one doctor to the next? There never seems to be a formal system of it and it always seems to be rushed. It is a key place where misunderstandings over a patient's care can occur which result in medical errors.I have learned things about my care from hearing the nurse tell the next nurse that my gall bladder surgery did result in some fairly significant internal bruising during the surgery. The nurse had previously told me that it...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - December 4, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: being a patient hospital medical errors safety Source Type: blogs
Medical Mispronunciations and Misspelled Words: The Definitive List.
Hearing medical mispronunciations and seeing misspelled words are an under appreciated joy of working in healthcare. Physicians often forget just how alien the language of medicine is to people who don't live it everyday. The best part about being a physician is not helping people recover from critical illness. The best part is not about listening and understanding with compassion and empathy. Nope, the best part about being a physician is hearing patients and other healthcare providers butcher the language of medicine and experiencing great entertainment in the process. Doctors c...
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - October 2, 2013 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: Tamer Mahrous Source Type: blogs
Prince Philip Abdominal Surgery Worrisome for Cancer?
Although we are not participating in the care of Prince Philip, husband to Queen Elizabeth of England, we have noted news reports that the prince consort is scheduled for “exploratory surgery” shortly after findings of abdominal.
He was admitted to the hospital today under his own power after attending an afternoon garden party for a planned surgery for abnormal abdominal findings detected during a staged medical workup.
Prince Philip is expected to be in the hospital for two weeks.
This announcement by Buckingham Palace is very carefully worded and is likely not sharing all the details known to the Palace at t...
Source: Inside Surgery - June 6, 2013 Category: Surgeons Authors: Editor Tags: Medical News Wire exploratory Prince Philip Queen Elizabeth surgery Source Type: blogs
How To Dispose of Medical Waste? Take It Home and Frame It! (Picture)
I'm not sure what to think of this. A reader sent me a picture of their professionally framed gallbladder they saved after having it surgically removed for cholelithiasis. As far as I'm concerned, it's medical waste. Heck, it's wrapped in plastic and even has a biohazard danger sticker attached to it! We can't eat or drink at the nurses station, but patients can take their formaldehyde infested cancer causing medical waste home with their discharge papers? It says, "CAUTION, CONTAINS FORMALDEHYDE". That looks like a warning to me! I'm just waiting for the day a hospital gets ...
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - February 20, 2013 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: Tamer Mahrous Source Type: blogs
Cutting back
In the past several months, I find I run out of steam between my two jobs, home life, social life, etc. I decided I needed to cut back on life - to allow more down time, naps, and sleeping in general.Five years ago, I was happy to expand my life to add more work and do more things. That was great. I was through cancer treatment and feeling good and we even took a vacation to Acadia National Park for hiking and biking.Then I had my gall bladder out and my back pains started. Now my gall bladder is healed and my back pains have a treatment plan so they are usually under control. unless I do things like stand, walk, sit, or l...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - February 15, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: tired work schedules fatigue Source Type: blogs
Survivor: Hospital Edition
You knew it was coming. Reality TV has come to health care.
WDEY network began filming a new reality show last month; it’s called Medicine Unlocked (1). It follows real patients navigating the health care system in search of treatment for their ailments. Each two-hour episode focuses on four patients who share a specific preliminary diagnosis; one week it’s back pain, another it may be gall bladder problems or men with suggested prostate cancer. Each patient-contestant receives a pre-loaded health savings account and debit card and earns “keys” that allow passage through a series of decision “gates.” Gate 1 is ...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - January 23, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Consumer Health Care Cost Patients Quality safety Source Type: blogs
absite as myth
I’ve been thinking: the surgery in-training exam is really like a recitation of legends, orally recounted histories, not too closely related to facts, that define our community.
The test runs through a long series of stories, which are so familiar to surgeons and surgeons-in-training, that we only have to mention a few words of the story, to have the whole thing immediately recognized and understood.
These are some of the legends: gallbladder cancer, incidentally discovered after lap chole, invading through the lamina propria (snap answer: resect a surrounding rim of normal liver tissue); projectile vomiting in a 4wk...
Source: Cut On The Dotted Line - February 2, 2010 Category: Surgery Authors: Dr. Alice Tags: medical education Source Type: blogs
