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Privacy an issue when it comes to involvement
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BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Sometimes, patients or their family members can’t participate in doctors’ discussions about care.
An unconscious or incoherent patient, for instance, changes the boundaries of patient privacy, said Dr. Stephen Schenkel, director of Mercy Medical Center’s Emergency Department.
And some patients have not fully considered how much information about their diagnosis and treatment they wish to share.
Mercy doctors always try to have some private sessions with patients.
“I think we all work hard to involve the family in care,” he said. “Patients haven’t always thought about what it means to have their family there.”
Hospital design may also play a role.
At Mercy’s neonatal intensive care unit, patients occupy one large room, making group discussions of medical information impractical under federal privacy law.
In other cases, patients may not want to know.
Brian Reynold, 13, said sometimes he heard a little too much information after an accident with a leaf shredder left him with one finger on his right hand. He listened as University of Maryland Medical Center doctors discussed care — 11 surgeries to save what was left of his right hand.
“At one point, they thought they might have to attach my hand to my thigh, to regrow some tissue. I was freaking out about it,” Brian said.
Later, the doctor sat down and explained the procedure, which was eventually scrapped. “It wasn’t so weird then,” Brian said.
His mother, Katheryn Reynold, said being involved in the discussion relieved some of the trauma of the situation, at least for her.
“We’ve never had any concerns about his medical care while he’s been here,” she said. “The experience itself has been pretty horrific, but the medical care has been wonderful.”
khille@baltimoreexaminer.com
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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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