Comments on: Healthcare Update 12-23-2009

By: WhiteCoat

WhiteCoat — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:35:10 +0000

Thanks for the update.

By: ERDocMark

ERDocMark — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:39:51 +0000

Could have handled that one over the phone and saved the trip to the ER.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:06:02 +0000

So Grandma really was run over by a reindeer!

By: LibraryGryffon

LibraryGryffon — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:37:17 +0000

Here’s the info: http://michellemalkin.com/2009/12/02/unbelievable-update-the-crappiest-nytimes-column-on-obamacare-just-got-crappier/

From Michelle Malkin’s site, on December 2nd:

“Today, I did something that Pulitzer Prize-winning NYTimes columnist Nick Kristof apparently didn’t do: I talked to a spokesman at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon.

“I called them up after OHSU’s Dr. Johnny Delashaw left a comment about Kristof’s piece spotlighting the horrible plight of John Brodniak, an Oregon man with a neurological condition that he says no one would treat.

“Kristof used Brodniak’s plight to argue for universal health care, decry Brodniak’s deadly lack of insurance (even though he got Medicaid coverage in August), and lambaste doctors for refusing to treat Brodniak due to low reimbursements.

“Well, OHSU confirmed for me two things:

“1) OHSU is a safety-net hospital not far from where Brodniak lives. The hospital accepts all Medicaid patients and would not turn Brodniak away.

“Okay, are you ready for Number 2?

“2) Brodniak is a patient at OHSU — and has been a patient there for the past three weeks.

“In other words, at the time Kristof’s article was published this past Sunday, Brodniak was already being treated and cared for by some of the best neurologists in the country!”

By: Mama On A Budget

Mama On A Budget — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:48:47 +0000

I lived in a rural area where our nearest hospital didn’t have ER docs on staff 24/7 – you had to call as you were coming in so that they could call the doc in.

True story – friend’s son grabbed a hot curling iron while she was getting ready to go to a party. She quickly called the host to say she wouldn’t be coming… taking kid to the ER. The host called one of the ER docs for her – since that doc was also supposed to be attending the party. Otherwise we never would have known the ER didn’t have a doc there all the time.

By: DefendUSA

DefendUSA — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:32:40 +0000

WC-
That story on Brodniak- by Kristoff is pure props. Michele Malkin found that the man IS being treated by OSHU for his illness. You can google it.

By: midwest woman

midwest woman — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 18:37:08 +0000

agreed wholeheartedly.

p.s. merry christams to you and your family

By: WhiteCoat

WhiteCoat — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 21:33:24 +0000

On the contrary, I think that end of life care is often wasteful and that hospice care is tremendously underutilized.
The problem is that the term “end of life care” is necessarily retrospective. We don’t want to spend wastefully in the “last six months of life.” So exactly how do we prospectively determine when the “last six months” starts? We can’t reliably pick the date that someone will die.
If a patient has a terminal diagnosis, we need to stop rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic while still providing that patient with compassionate comfort care.
On the other hand, the focus on limiting spending in the last six months of life has the potential to become a means for limiting care to patients who are likely to live longer than six months – nursing home patients, brain injured patients, ventilator patients, dialysis patients, etc.

By: Soronel Haetir

Soronel Haetir — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 18:39:26 +0000

You seem to think spending huge sums on end of life care is a bad thing, I just don’t get it. Is extending a terminal patient’s life from six months to six months two weeks really worth tax payer outlay? I would answer that question ‘n’.

By: Andrew Wiggin

Andrew Wiggin — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:50:30 +0000

I’d like to be the MD at a rural ED that served one person a day.