July 2009 - The Medical Quack .... by Barbara Duck

Hospital Admissions – Who Decides is A big Question

Sometimes you can’t win for losing as this video shows what happened in Texas, the ER docs were instructed to bring up admissions if they could on marginal cases, so they did, and the reward was getting fired when the business intelligence software said...

Published Fri, Jul 31 2009 9:14 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Insurance, healthcare, ER Room, Business Intelligence, healthcare reform, hospital admissions, Wall Street Journal Survey

Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut Has Prostate Cancer – Using Recess to Have Surgery

What is very disturbing about all of this too is Rush Limbaugh blasting him about where he’s going to have surgery and attacks him. Listen to the audio below and hear how mean and cold he is. This is ridiculous relating this to insurance ...

Published Fri, Jul 31 2009 8:45 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Insurance, Surgery, healthcare, Cancer, Congress, Prostate Cancer, Senate, Connecticut, Rush Limbaugh, healthcare reform

Saxagliptin aka Onglyza Approved by FDA – Diabetes Medication For Diabetes 2

It appears 2 drug makers are collaborating and as stated below will give Merck some competition in this new class of drugs which is using the action of hormones to increase the body’s usage of sugar. Diabetes treatments are getting a lot attention...

Published Fri, Jul 31 2009 8:02 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Pharma/FDA News, drugs, healthcare, FDA, AstraZenaca, diabetes 2, Bristol-Myer Squibb, DPP-4, onglyza

Doctor Self-Referrals – Physician Owned CT Scanners Questioned Again

Here goes the same question again, are they being over used. Well this time I’m going to speak out a bit from some personal experience where I worked with a physician’s practice, writing software that connected to the information from the CT scanner...

Published Fri, Jul 31 2009 6:51 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Insurance, My Commentaries, Hospital, patient care, health insurance, CT Scan, Diagnosis, healthcare reform, healthcrare, Self Referrals

Health Issues on Vacation, Call Your Insurer and Have Information with You in a Personal Health Record

This is a good bit of advice from a post in the New York Times about what to think about when you go on vacation as he stated even at Disneyland you might have a fall or in his instance his toe. The only one item that I would elaborate on here and...

Published Fri, Jul 31 2009 6:07 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Insurance, Hospital, healthcare, PHR, Google Health, ER Room, Travel, Personal Health Records, HealthVault, vacation

2 new Moms in Northern California Die from Swine Flu

We are not out of the woods yet and the H1N1 virus is still being watched with pregnant women being identified as a big risk. Also in the news recently pages at the Senate could have Swine flu, so maybe recess at this time is a good thing. ...

Published Fri, Jul 31 2009 2:23 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, healthcare, CDC, Swine Flu, influenza, H1N1, expectant mothers

Hospital News – California and Pennsylvania Money Issues

In California hospitals need to retrofitted to meet earthquake standards by the years 2013 and 1015 and most surveyed felt they were not going to be able to meet the deadline, which could in time force more closures. In Pennsylvania more hospitals...

Published Fri, Jul 31 2009 2:21 AM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, healthcare, Health IT, Hospitals, Budgets, Economy, Desperate Hospitals, healthcare reform

Customer Asset Protection Company (CAPCO) Reinsurance Firm – Can They Handle the Lehman Bankruptcy and Pay Claims?

New York is now investigating if the company sold policies without the assets to cover, sound somewhat like short selling without the funds to back it doesn’t it? The hedge funds are looking at CAPCO for information and probably some money too when...

Published Fri, Jul 31 2009 1:31 AM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Insurance, Other Items of Interest, healthcare, bankruptcy, AIG, Lawsuits, assets, reinsurance, Customer Asset Protection Company, CAPCO

Nearly 30% of Insured Are Already Covered by Government Healthcare Plans in the US

This is an interesting ongoing Gallup pole, so getting close to 1/3 of the population with a government plan of some sort and this includes Medicare, Medicaid and Military coverage, so it appears we have one big chunk already working through a government...

Published Fri, Jul 31 2009 12:42 AM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Insurance, healthcare, health insurance, Government, Survey, health reform, Gallup, poll

Burning Medical Records Found Near Shopping Center – Paper Records Bon Fire in Kentucky

It appears we still have a problem with shredders and perhaps the time it takes, and still stories like this one, medical records found in a small bon fire near a shopping center, but at least the report stated that most were burnt beyond recognition...

Published Fri, Jul 31 2009 12:25 AM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, healthcare, privacy, Medical Records, Health Care, Investigation, Shredders, fire

Strong Perfume Evacuates Office, Sends 30 to the Hospital and Paramedics to the Scene

Allergies must be among us, or at least they were at the Bank of America, but how does one confuse carbon monoxide with perfume unless it is one of those new blends that is supposed to smell that way (grin). Employees complained of having chest...

Published Fri, Jul 31 2009 12:13 AM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Other Items of Interest, Hospital, healthcare, hazmat, Bank of America, perfume, allergies, paramedics

FDA Approves Hypertension Drug (with Conditions) that You Inhale - Tyvaso

This is more than just a drug, it is a drug and a delivery system technically. More and more I seem to be seeing more drugs steering towards an inhalable formula. This is not the first one as there are others on the market. The first...

Published Thu, Jul 30 2009 11:18 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Pharma/FDA News, FDA, Hypertension, Migraines, insulin, R and D, inhaler, drug delivery, Tyvaso, inhalable drugs, United Therapeutics

Quest Diagnostics and Health IT – Interview with Rohit Nayak, Vice President of Sales, Clinical Information Solutions Group, MedPlus

Last week I had the opportunity to speak with Rohit Nayak, Vice President of Sales, Clinical Information Solutions group at MedPlus. MedPlus is the health information technology subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics and you may already be a bit familiar...

Published Thu, Jul 30 2009 4:59 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, healthcare, microsoft, Health IT, PHR, HL7, Personal Health Records, HealthVault, MedPlus, Lab Results, Informed Patient, Quest Diagnostics

The Medical Caduceus Has Taken On A Strange New Look

We all know the symbol and recently an anonymous group proposed that we consider the image below to reflect our current situation here in the US with the healthcare debate and reform in progress. (grin). Use this link for the history if you...

Published Thu, Jul 30 2009 3:09 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Need a Laugh, Physician, healthcare, Humor, Medical Humor, Caduces

Surgery, the past, today and the future – Robotics

If you not seen this video, it is well worth the watch as Catherine Mohr walks us through surgery of days past, where it was done as a public exposition without anesthesia to where we are today and discussed the DaVinci Robot and the next plateau with...

Published Thu, Jul 30 2009 2:41 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, Surgery, Heatlhcare, innovation, TED, robotic surgery DaVinci, history