A decade ago, a children’s hospital in the Southern Orchards neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio–where half of the children live in poverty–began an experiment. Instead of only treating individual patients, the hospital would begin to treat the neighborhood itself as a patient.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is threatening to pull key funding from a South Dakota hospital on a Native American reservation after an inspection flagged dangerous deficiencies in care.
Studies show that female doctors tend to listen more, and their patients — both male and female — tend to fare better. Does gender matter when choosing a doctor? Whether your doctor is male or female could be a matter of life or death, a new study suggests.
There is little Laura Dolph has not tried to escape her physical pain. Tylenol, occupational therapy, oxycodone. A chiropractor. Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation. Methadone, Advil, physical therapy, Tylenol with codeine. A prescription fentanyl patch that didn’t work because its adhesive made her break out in hives.
I had just finished an eye examination for one of my patients and swiveled around to the computer. It was clear that he needed cataract surgery; he was nearly blind despite his Coke-bottle glasses. But even before I logged in to the scheduling system, I knew what I was going to find: He wouldn’t be able to get an appointment with an ophthalmologist for more than three months. Everyone’s schedule was full.
As a neurosurgeon who focuses mainly on spine surgery, I sometimes use medical devices like pedicle screws and intervertebral cages to treat spinal instability. Watching the Netflix documentary “The Bleeding Edge” made me wonder what the misuse of medical technology means for patients and for doctors.