Tag Archives: Quality

Comment: Problems with Student Health Services

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2020/07/13/college-health-centers-problems/?arc404=true I have practiced medicine – in the OR & ICU for almost 40 years. Any of us – including me – can misdiagnose a problem with which one of our fellow humans presents. Yet, the article’s clarity as to … Continue reading

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Quora Query: Have You Ever Witnessed Hospital Administration Turn Away a Patient that Should have Been Seen Right Away?

In the United States, complements of a law passed in 1986 – The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) – a hospital cannot turn away someone who has an emergency. Rather, the institution must treat it – at least … Continue reading

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Trump’s budget is a Stealth Health-Care Bill. And it Would Make Americans Sick.

Gentle Reader – Doctor Homer wrote this almost three years ago, yet it remains important today. While the Republicans attempt to whitewash Trump’s  crimes, and while we watch this in mixed horror and disbelief, behind the scenes the same people … Continue reading

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Trumpcare vs. Obamacare: Apocalypse Foretold

Gentle Reader – As Trump and the craven Republicans attempt to whitewash the impeachment allegations, clearing a clearly impeached President with no witnesses and no data, I want to remind you of other things going on in the background. This … Continue reading

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Quora Query: Will Trump Turn Out To be the Best Thing That Happened to the Affordable Care Act (ACA)?

[From 2016, slightly modified]: No. We are in for a rather wild ride, and I don’t mean that in the most pleasant or interesting way. The Trump administration – or should I say anti-administration since Trump has appointed government haters … Continue reading

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Quora Query: Does it Really Happen That Doctors Let Their Patients Die Because the Patient’s Family Can Not Provide Money for the Treatment?

[From 2014, Slightly Updated]: While there is much wrong with the American Health System, one of the things that is right is that patients are generally not allowed to die because of inadequate finances; at least not precisely in that … Continue reading

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Quora Query: What Would the Patient Experience Be Like if You Designed a New Hospital?

[From 2013, slightly updated] Great question. I have spent my adult life in these places – hospitals – and I both love them (they feel like…..home) and hate them (so, so far from home). Were I to design a new … Continue reading

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Quora Query: What Would a Typical Day be in My Life as an Anesthesiologist?

[From 2013, slightly updated] A couple of things first. Medicine is the coolest job on the face of the earth, and every specialty has its own “coolness”. One of the questions you should ask is: “Do I want to be … Continue reading

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Quora Query: Why Do Many Americans Think That Healthcare is not a Right for its Own Taxpaying Citizens, and Should it not be Considered as, or More, Important by the American Public Than is Education?

[Originally from 2012, slightly updated] I think first of all one need ask if the premise is correct: DO MOST Americans think that health care is not a right? And then I would ask: From where did you come up … Continue reading

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Quora Query: What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Warm Whole Blood vs. Component Blood Products in Treating Trauma Patients?

[Updated slightly from 2012] The essentials are as follows (and this is the SHORT answer !): Components come from whole blood that is split into, well, components…..so whole blood becomes Packed Red Blood Cells, Fresh Frozen Plasma, and Fibrinogen; this … Continue reading

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