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More hospital doctors bring parents into the loop
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BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Buffy Freeland had just gotten her 6-month-old daughter Desiah to sleep when a squad of doctors, students and interns gathered in the darkened hospital room.
She listened intently as they discussed Desiah’s problems breathing, reviewed X-rays of enlarged lungs struggling for air and considered possible treatments.
Then they turned to Desiah’s mother.
“What does Mom think?” Dr. Ina Stephens asked.
“Mom is happy that we’re not sent home to go through the same thing every few weeks,” she said. “I’m happy to get an official evaluation.”
At the University of Maryland Hospital for Children, Stephens and other pediatricians discuss medical care openly with parents every day.
Across town at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, doctors now open the discussions to parents as part of a growing trend in pediatric hospital care.
Locally, most emergency doctors include parents in discussions.
At Mercy Medical Center, doctors invite parents into the room during rounds, said Dr. Ronald Gutberlet, pediatric chair. “Our pediatric floor is all private rooms. ... In the term nursery, [newborn] babies are examined in the mother’s room, if possible.”
“What’s so important about it is the mom knows the patient more than anybody, and that’s a fact. Mom probably spent the night and may have new things to say, may not agree with the doctors and has a lot of questions,” Stephens said. “As a result, they’re completely comfortable with why we’re doing what we’re doing.”
The policy is also good business, said Dr. Jack Gladstein, director of the pediatric inpatient program at U.Md.’s Hospital for Children. Patients get out earlier during the day and spend an average of one day less in the hospital.
Parents are included in drawing up discharge instructions, he said. “If the parents hear those things in the morning, they can work on those things with the kid during the day. The parents are involved, they say, ‘Ah, now I understand what I need to do.’ They get out earlier.”
Hospital stays cost about $1,600 to $2,100 per day, according to the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
“What we found is what’s good for families is good for business,” Gladstein said.
khille@baltimoreexaminer.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
9:13 AM MST on Thu., Jul. 10, 2008 re: "Labor, liberal groups press for national health plan"
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Examiner Reader said:
Wait a second....40 million dollars to "roll" out a National Campaign and an additional 25 million over the next five months? Wouldnt 65 million dollars be better spent on providing health care to those who truly need it. Typical liberal program
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Examiner Reader said:
Health Insurance companies don't have to answer to anyones questions about there practices! They are mean people!
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Examiner Reader said:
The high cost of health care is a symptom that something is wrong. Attempts to reform the system have failed because insurers drive regulation and company rating practices are un-constitutional. In Michigan, the smallest entities, those companies that provide coverage with only one person covered pay an additional 25% of premium. This violates the Law of Large Numbers and the purpose of insurance, which is to provide economic security for random illness and accidents. The smallest entities are bearing the greatest economic burden. Insurance companies are also failing to manage catastrophic risks. We need to talk about the issues and their impact. Things like abortion consequences and applied reproductive technologies that result in catastrophic claims, which can cost $200,000; $300,000 or more.
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Examiner Reader said:
Another push for a socialistic society.
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Examiner Reader said:
It is the health insurance industry that is the problem. It's a private club for those that can afford it.Health care is expensive because of them!They are stealing us blind and nobody seems to get it!Universal health care is not for everybody.Because you will have those that are exempt from it because they work for the goverment.
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Shelley Trazkovich MD said:
I did some of that pulling myself up by my bootstraps and forgoing vacations and all the things that premed students and medical students and interns and resident doctors do. That other reader can call me lazy, but I work harder now just to survive some of the minutes in my days. I am a disabled doctor who knows that the US ranks 37th in health care quality measures. Unless you are a CEO of a health insurance company, you haven't worked enough to pay your medical bills if you get seriously ill in this country. I want a health care plan in this country that covers everyone comprehensively with quality medical care. I want health security for you and me and I want to stop having our health care dollars being drained away by the wasteful insurance companies that save money by denying health care as much as they can get away with it. Our health insurance is cruel to those who are ill. We need to open our eyes and look at what is working in the other industrialized countries around us.
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Examiner Reader said:
I do not want universal health care, and I don't want it forced upon me. What about working two or three jobs, foregoing vacations and pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps? Instead of crying "give me, give me, give me," be responsible for your miserable self and put in an honest day's work seven days a week. There are more of us doing that then you lazy people realize.
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Examiner Reader said:
I dont know about you people, but I love paying an arm and a leg for the worst healthcare of most civilized nations.
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Ron George said:
We appreciate your interest in "Healthcare Gaming Coming of Age" (May 13, 2008), but please be aware of several errors of fact in your story. * BreakAway did not recently win a contract with Texas A&M. BreakAway was hired by Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in 2005 to produce Pulse!! (two exclamation points). * The Medical College of Georgia has nothing whatever to do with the development of Pulse!! but has recently contracted BreakAway to produce a product derived from Pulse!! technology, which has been licensed to BreakAway by the Texas A&M System, which owns the Pulse!! intellectual property. MCG is a BreakAway customer not a developer of Pulse!! * Pulse!! was conceived and is designed, so far, to provide medical education for physicians. There are no Pulse!! cases in development for nursing education. Your news product would be more credible without these misleading errors of fact.
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Examiner Reader said:
The hispanic population grew and 99% of that growth is probably attributed to illegals. Let's reward them for breaking the law by giving them health care. Great idea.
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Examiner Reader said:
There are only 21 products meeting the CCHIT 2007 criteria - even fewer actually implemented products. Back-up data on a simple hard drive like the i-book - a terabyte (million million) of storage costs less than 300 dollars at Costco! The practice is less likely to burn down since there aren't so many paper files... and less paper cuts... and less lifting of heavy boxes of paper records... and let's just get with the program and stop dragging our feet - and make it work!
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