For 40 years, the tension over patient access has been playing out in hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices. Although medical records have always been accessible to clinicians, payers, auditors and even researchers, it was not until the 1970s that a few states began giving patients the same rights. While a handful of physicians were vocal supporters of these early efforts, the majority of doctors were far less enthusiastic. They worried that their notes might become a source of unnecessary stress for patients. Read without an experienced clinician’s interpretation, slight abnormalities like an elevated cell count from a viral infection could turn into a life-threatening cancer in the eyes of patients. Even routine abbreviations and jargon like "S.O.B." (shortness of breath) and "anorexic" (a general lack of appetite, not the disease anorexia nervosa) could be confusing at best and inadvertently demeaning at worst. Doctors, already pressed for time, shuddered at the idea of suddenly being responsible for the worries of a reading public.
Although Obama has signed the health care bill, it will be years before there’s universal healthcare. With the high unemployment rate and even higher co-pays if you are employed, many are turning to their local boards of health for free healthcare screenings. Municipal health departments in South Bergen put on a variety of programs for residents, ranging from screenings for diseases to lectures about staying healthy. Regina Guillen, the health administrator of North Arlington, said most doctors who perform screenings donate their time and volunteer to run clinics. Programs such as blood pressure, prostate and skin cancer and cholesterol testing, as well as lectures and educational programs, are often put on by doctors or other health care professionals who volunteer. "They do community service," Guillen said. "Some of your newer doctors do community service to introduce themselves to the community."
North Carolina State regulators have approved Rex Healthcare's plan to build a $60.1 million cancer center at its main campus in Raleigh.
The five-story addition is part of a bigger expansion planned at Rex. It's also the latest in a series of major medical projects under way or proposed across the Triangle.
The N.C. Cancer Hospital at Rex will coordinate patient care with the $207 million N.C. Cancer Hospital in Chapel Hill, which the UNC Health Care System opened last fall. UNC bought Rex 10 years ago.
Rex, which is Wake County's second-largest hospital after WakeMed, is expanding its cancer services to handle increasing demand from this region's growing population.
Shands Teaching Hospital must release peer review and internal risk documents to a couple who is suing the hospital for medical malpractice, a Tallahassee appeals court ruled on Tuesday.
First District Court of Appeal Judge Charles Kahn in a 15-page ruling opined that a lower court erred when it denied a motion compelling the hospital to produce the records. Kahn said the records must be turned over because of Amendment 7, a measure that was passed six years ago.
Shands argued that its own internal investigation showed that there was no medical negligence and, therefore, the documents don't need to be produced because Amendment 7 applies to adverse medical incidents.
The American Medical Association and 47 state medical groups are calling on health insurance giants to improve the accuracy of how physicians are rated for consumers enrolled in health plans.
The doctor groups are concerned that patients could be choosing doctors based on the cost of the physician services and inaccurate information of the health plan, rather than the quality of care the physician provides. The call comes as more employers are turning to such ratings to control premium costs and as consumers troll the Web for information on the best physicians, analysts said.
Insurance companies said physicians already are rated on quality and efficiency measures that allow health plan enrollees to choose the best doctors based on the amount of the plan's co-payment or deductible.
Entrepreneur Gary Wald wants to raise more than $800,000 to market NetMed Care, which is developing e-clinics staffed by an on-site nurse at large companies.
"Telemedicine has everybody intrigued," said Wald, who already raised $200,000 and helped start another telemedicine company. "This will change medicine as we know it."
In his latest fundraising effort, Wald on Wednesday pitched his company to dozens of potential angel and venture capital investors at the second annual MedVentures conference in Frisco. He hopes to open the first e-clinic at a Dallas office tower by the end of the year and projects revenue of $41 million in five years.
The consensus of entrepreneurs at the conference is that the fundraising climate is getting better after a rough few years, but there's still a dearth of seed and start-up money.