Battling Healthcare

Dr. Betsy McCaughey thinks so. And states her case quite well in her testimony before the Congress of the United States.

Who’s Betsy McCaughey? Dr. Betsy McCaughey is the founder, president, CEO, chief honcho of RID: Reduce Hospital Deaths. She founded her organization in 2004 in reasponse to the alarming growth in the deaths of Americans due to hospital acquired infections.

She is a health policy expert, having concentrated on health legislation during her four years as Lt. Governor of New York State during the Pataki years. And how all she wants to do is save lives by making hospitals accountable for preventing the spread of infections which kill their patients.

More →

Share This

Unlike the other work I do, this blog crosses the border, back and forth, between Canada and the US. You may not realize it, but our host, Hart and the HEN Network, is based in Canada. What I enjoy about my participation here is that it encourages me to think more globally than I typically do with my US-focused work. (thanks Hart!)

I explain all that today because news a few weeks ago about what the laws in Canada will allow, or not allow regarding the legal permission for Canadian doctors to apologize to patients for mistakes they have made, forced me to think of doctors and their apologies on a much broader basis.

More →

Share This

If you are among the people who read my blogs on a regular basis, then you already know how dangerous healthcare can be. Sad, because healthcare is intended to IMPROVE lives, certainly not hurt them.

In fact, healthcare can be dangerous, sometimes randomly through mistakes and missteps. It can be dangerous for what is ignored or through mere laziness. Other times it’s dangerous because of access questions — if you don’t have the right insurance, or if you are lacking insurance, you don’t have the same options as others.

I do not believe any provider or payer ever sets out to make it intentionally dangerous, but then, the road to heaven, etc etc….

More →

Share This

My friend Angela is in the middle of a debacle that probably should surprise no one, but is just as difficult and frustrating all the same.

Several years ago she had surgery. Not long afterwards, she had new symptoms that made her surgeon take pause… eventually it was discovered that the cause of the problem was a mesh fabric used as a part of the surgery. It wasn’t left there by mistake; it was part of the surgery. It was supposed to be there. It was manufactured to be left in someone’s body. It was new to the market, and there’s where part of the problem is. It’s called Mentor’s OB Tape.

Follow up surgery has not rectified the problem. The most recent theory is that the mesh has migrated to other areas of Angela’s body. She is left with problems and pain. The next step is probably another surgery — seek and remove — find those other pieces of mesh in other places, dig them out, replace them, sew them into place. Bloody, messy, ugly, horrible.

More →

Share This

As Every Patient’s Advocate, I read mainstream media, medical and healthcare news all day every day. Study results, reports of medical errors, interviews — you name it, I read it!

One thing I’ve learned over time is that often the headlines, and sometimes the opening paragraphs of any given article, aren’t exactly representative of the real story.

It’s understandable. The people who write the headlines aren’t usually the people who write the stories and articles, too. The headline writer’s job is to condense information in such a way as to suck people into the rest of the story. They “sell” the article to the reader, so it makes sense for them to be sometimes inflammatory, often intriguing, and revealing of only part of the story.

More →

Share This

Among the general population, between 10 and 15% of us are addicted to drugs or alcohol. That means that if you think of eight or ten of your friends — chances are good that one of them is a substance addict.

It should come as no surprise, then, that in a group of eight or ten doctors, there will also be an addict. The number may even be higher because they have easier access to addictive drugs than a pedestrian would.

More →

Share This