WhiteCoat Rants

Packing the Bags

WhiteCoat — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:57:11 +0000

It’s been a wild ride, but the airplane has come to a complete stop and the ride has come to an end. This is my last post on WhiteCoat Rants. Even though this blog will go dormant, I’m going to hang around. I hooked up with EP Monthly Magazine and effective today, I’m going to be blogging at [...]

Filthy Lab Jackets

WhiteCoat — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:50:55 +0000

Moondust asked me to comment on the following article on the WSJ online: Hospital Scrubs Are a Germy, Deadly Mess Bacteria on doctor uniforms can kill you. Are the scrubs and white coats as scummy as the article says? In my experience, doctors leave their white coats hanging on a hanger in the doctor’s lounge. I don’t see too [...]

A Loophole for Medical Bankruptcy

WhiteCoat — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:19:51 +0000

In 2005, special interest groups pushed for, and obtained, changes in the bankruptcy laws that made it more difficult to eliminate debt in bankruptcy proceedings. An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal Health Blog notes that the Obama administration intends to change bankruptcy laws again – this time making it easier for patients filing medical bankruptcy [...]

Radical Ideas to Improve the House of Medicine #2

WhiteCoat — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:04:24 +0000

Question: Who cares most about the cost of medical care? Answer: The ones that have to pay for it. Idea #2 for improving the House of Medicine: Force patients to “Get some skin in the game“ Providing all patients with any available medical care all the time will result in nobody getting much of anything most of the time. [...]

How Dare You!

WhiteCoat — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:02:59 +0000

Amusing anectdote of the morning … The medical floor nurse got mad after about the fourth admit we sent them and said that she is “writing up the ER” because we’re not “spacing out the admits.” Like this is the DMV or something and we can dictate how fast the patients come in. All you ambulances that keep [...]

Free Care – Heading in the Wrong Direction

WhiteCoat — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:53:40 +0000

No sooner did I hit the “publish” button for the previous post than did a recent news story catch my eye. Ties right in with the post. In the January 2, 2009 NY Times there was the following article: Hospitals Picked to Offer Patients Free H.I.V. Tests. Emergency departments in some states now are getting the [...]

Radical Ideas to Improve the House of Medicine #1

WhiteCoat — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:19:46 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to improve the house of medicine. I have several ideas that are going to get put into several posts over the next week or so. Here’s idea #1. People’s perception of medicine as a “free” service has to change. I won’t go into the discussion about whether health care is a right. [...]

Back To The Grind

WhiteCoat — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 22:10:10 +0000

Happy 2009! Cruising back from Florida after cleaning out Nanna’s apartment and then stopping in Disney for a few days to “relax” Instead of worrying about medicine I’ve been busy wondering about such things as why half the animals in the “Its A Small World” ride nod their heads up and down and the other half shake [...]

Christmas Joy

WhiteCoat — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:42:38 +0000

Whoever came up with the idea for Pixos needs to have a Pixo suppository. Unless you are working in a “zero moisture” environment, little bits of moisture from hands and mouths of children gets onto the balls and then they get stuck in the damn gun. If you try to dislodge the balls by blowing [...]

Choosing a Doctor

WhiteCoat — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:33:04 +0000

The December 29th edition of American Medical News has an article about how patients choose physicians. For primary care physicians, more than half of patients choose their doctor by word of mouth and another third choose their doctor based upon a referral from a health plan or from another health professional. With specialists, a vast majority of [...]