Marc

What do you think about your health care?

 Health Care, Politics  No Responses »
May 242012
 

If you’re one of the 27% of Americans defined as having had a serious illness, medical condition, injury, or disability requiring a lot of medical care, or who had been hospitalized overnight in the past 12 months, you probably don’t think very highly of it.

In a poll conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NPR, and Harvard School of Public Health, of those 27% of Americans

…… more than 40 percent say that the cost of their medical care over the last 12 months has caused a “very serious” (20%) or “somewhat serious” (23%) problem for their or their family’s finances. …………One in six sick Americans say that there was a time in the past 12 months when they could not get the medical care they needed (17%). Among the sick Americans who could not receive care, 52 percent report that it was because they could not afford the needed care, and 24 percent say it was because their insurers would not pay for it. Lastly, about one in ten sick Americans (11%) report being turned away by a doctor or hospital for financial or insurance reasons at some time during the past 12 months when they tried to receive care.

Not only that, but many of those respondents also complained of quality of care issues,

  • ……..about one in eight sick Americans believe they were given the wrong diagnosis, treatment, or test (13%).
  • About a quarter of sick Americans say that their condition was not well-managed (26%).
  • A quarter of sick Americans report that a doctor, nurse, or other health professional did not provide all the needed information about their treatment or prescriptions (25%) – or they had to see multiple medical professionals, and no single doctor understood or kept track of all the different aspects of their medical issues and treatments (23%).
  • Three in 10 hospitalized Americans say there was poor communication among the doctors, nurses and other health care professionals involved in their care (30%).
  • About one in six sick Americans believe they did not get the tests they thought they needed (18%) [I find that hard to believe], while 15 percent of sick Americans surveyed were tested or treated for something they believed to be unnecessary. [That I can easily believe.]
  • Nearly three-quarters of sick Americans say they want their doctor to spend time with them discussing other, broader health issues that might affect their long-term health (72%), as opposed to just talking about their specific medical problem (21%). [Like that's ever going to happen, in a time of continually reducing reimbursements!]

Shocked! You should be, but then again, maybe not. I wasn’t. For-profit health care has never been about the patient. It’s only about profit, and how to maximize it.

Someday we [the US] will come to that realization, as those numbers increase [and they surely will], but how bad do the numbers have to get, and how many people have to die, or suffer needlessly before we do something about it?

A headline for the ages

 Health Care, Philosophy  2 Responses »
May 202012
 

CANCELLED SURGERIES COSTING HOSPITALS MILLIONS

From Anesthesiology News:

Between patient no-shows and cancellations on the day of surgery, hospitals are losing millions in revenue each year, researchers have found…….

Astonishing isn’t it! I might have even been appalled if I weren’t so disgusted.

Nowhere in the article is there any discussion of the possible harm to patients due to missed surgeries. Nowhere is there any discussion of why patients may have cancelled, e.g. cost to the patient in terms of missed work and/or lost wages.

Based on this article it would appear the only ones suffering here and risking harm are the health care providers.

For me, this article simply further highlight how inadequate our health care system is, and how distorted our value system has become in this country, when lost “opportunity costs” (profit) is what’s on the mind of health care providers the most.

But then again, a fee-for-service, for-profit health care system was never meant to promote concern for the patient!

 Posted by at 6:02 am

Is it all down hill from here?

 Life, Philosophy, Politics  No Responses »
May 172012
 

So far, this has been a lousy year.

It started out with a cold in January, putting me out of commission for 10 days, followed by another cold in April, putting me out for another 10 days, and as if that wasn’t enough, I needed (a slightly more than expected) minor surgery this past week which has now left me with a fear of excess exposure to the sun.

On top of all that my mind has just been awash with so many other things as well, e.g. my wife, my spleen, health care, politics, etc. I can’t seem to keep anything straight in my mind. My thoughts are all a jumble, and I have difficulty articulating them, even during conversations on things I’m passionate about. Then I spend all my time afterwards fretting over what I should have, but didn’t say at the time.

I thought retiring would be a lot more relaxing. No more dealing with the daily routine of work, and all the hassles that went along with it. Instead, I could just do whatever I wanted, whenever I chose to do it. But all a year and a half of retirement has really done, is to swap one routine for another, and give me more time to think about all the things I’d really rather not think about.

The worst is over?

 General Health  No Responses »
May 152012
 

The operation to remove my basel cell carcinoma went well. I was taken in right on time at 10 AM, and I was out by 10:50 AM. There wasn’t any pain, as the doctor numbed things up pretty good, but hearing all the cutting an snipping of whatever he was cutting out, and smelling the singing of the skin, as the doctor cauterized some of the veins, made things a little unnerving.  Still, it’s hard to believe that was the easiest part of the entire ordeal.

The most uncomfortable part was the bandaging of the wound. Not only did I look like something out of a horror picture, receiving a few strange looks in the hallway as I exited the hospital, it was extremely uncomfortable. It was supposed to stay on for 24 hours, but that didn’t happen. I took the extra [unnecessary IMO] bandaging off shortly after getting home.

Even worse though was the pain afterwards as the lidocaine wore off. The pain, and the headache caused by it, was more than I could endure. I eventually resorted to taking two Tylenol, which helped alleviate enough of the pain, to allowed me to sleep for about 3 hours, and get through the worst part.

Gradually the headache went away, and I was able to have dinner, and watch some things we recorded on the TV, but there is still just enough residual pain left over, which coupled with the 3 hour nap earlier, is making it difficult to get any sleep now when I should be sleeping.

Fortunately I had something else to occupy my time, and now maybe I’ll have better luck getting some sleep.

If Mantle Cell Lymphoma can’t get me

 General Health, Treatments  3 Responses »
May 112012
 

Hopefully a basal cell carcinoma can’t either.

My dermatologist called Friday evening, and informed me the [small] growth on my forehead (that he biopsied two weeks ago) was a basal cell carcinoma, and since he had a cancellation on his schedule, he could squeeze me in Monday morning to have it removed.

The operation seems simple enough. It’s outpatient surgery, using a local anesthetic, and I can go home immediately after it’s finished. The only issue being I can’t exert myself at all for the rest of the day.

Normally that wouldn’t be so bad, except Monday is my bowling day, but I think my health is just a little more important, and there’ll be plenty more days to bowl. Plus I’d have to wait another 6 weeks if I didn’t do it this Monday, and I’m not willing to do that.

One other thing was the doctor informed me I shouldn’t drink any alcohol, as that can sometimes cause excessive bleeding. I only wish he’d told me that before I opened a good bottle of Pinot Noir for dinner. So I just drank a little less than I normally would have.

So now it’s just more wait and worry, but I should be used to that by now. After all, I’ve been doing for the past 10+ years.

Legitimate, opportunistic, or ????

 Treatments  1 Response »
May 072012
 

Glenn Sabin, a reported 21 year Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) survivor, who, other than having had a splenectomy soon after diagnosis, has not received any conventional chemotherapy treatment. This is even after

……experiencing the full force and effect of his leukemia [in 2003]. A low grade fever and night sweats persisted for months. Glenn’s hematocrit dipped to 22 as severe hemolytic anemia set in…….

Believable? Well yeah, sorta, kinda, maybe.

Certainly surviving 21 years with CLL is believable (even without treatment). There’s lots of evidence of that. Even surviving a splenectomy for that long is believable, despite the fact after a splenectomy, not only do the other organs take over the functions of the spleen, they typically also take over the leukemia/lymphoma.

I just have a problem with everything else.

I especially have a problem with after having a full blown attack of CLL, i.e. low hematocrit, night sweats etc. he was able to obtain a complete remission without any chemotherapy, and by simply using a concept he calls integrative medicine.

My issue being nowhere is the concept of integrative medicine clearly explained. Nowhere does he identify what approach(es) he took. Did he take any medications?  Did he take vitamins and supplements? Did he change his diet? I couldn’t find anything specific, other than the fact he embraces yoga.

Instead, he starts a company, FON Therapeutics,

…… [which] provides integrative oncology and integrative medicine centers consulting services focused on growing clinic utilization—driven by the right marketing, right messaging, proper brand positioning, all rooted in a business model that works.

So is he legit? I don’t know for sure, but the cynic in me tells me he isn’t.

The cynic in me says, if he’s not willing to more clearly explain his approach, and produce empirical evidence, backed up by clinical trials of the effectiveness of that approach, then he is nothing more than another scam artist trying to capitalize on his [supposed] good fortune, and preying on the hopes and fears of desperate people.

But you are free to make your own decisions!

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