get better health

Elective Deliveries: A Sign of a Healthcare System Out of Control

My husband is always getting on me about the number of tabs I have open in my browser at any one time. I think one time I had more than 100 open.

Within the past few days, at least 10 of those tabs dealt with the same topic: medical tests and procedures that we either don’t need or that don’t work. There are simply too many for a single blog, so I’m focusing on one here and will write more about others in the coming days.

The lucky winner? Births.

Seems like an obvious medical procedure, doesn’t it? Baby is delivered when mom goes into labor or, if problems develop or mom goes over her due date, labor is induced. So why, as  Kaiser Health News recently reported, are 10 to 15 percent of U.S. babies  delivered early without medical cause, up to 40 percent in some hospitals?

Early delivery increases the risk that the baby will have feeding and breathing problems, infections, and developmental problems, requiring a stay in costly neonatal intensive care units. It also increases the risk that mothers will need caesarian sections (indeed, many of these births are scheduled c-sections).

Why the early deliveries? Convenience for … Continue Reading

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fraud get better health healthcare costs healthcare reform healthcare system; ineffective procedure payment Uncategorized waste

Preparing for a (Gulp!) Colonoscopy: What It Says About Our Healthcare System

As of November 30, I am now, as my gastroenterologist puts it, 39 + 11 years old. You know what that means! So, a couple of weeks ago I called his office to make an appointment.

I would have preferred to simply make the appointment online or even e-mailed the office, but since the practice didn’t offer this, I fought my phonaphobia and punched in the numbers. Of course, I went through five prompts before getting a live person and was put on hold for a few minutes. About 10 minutes later, I finally had my appointment.

I was told to arrive at 2:30 p.m., which I dutifully did. Then the receptionist gave me a stack of paperwork to complete. And a pen. Among the information I had to provide:

• My husband’s Social Security number, since our insurance comes courtesy of his job. Not sure why this was needed, since the receptionist made a copy of my insurance card, which has all pertinent information on it. Not to mention that in this day and age of identity theft, I don’t like giving out Social Security numbers to anyone. But the last time I refused to provide a Social Security number … Continue Reading

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Affordable Care Act customer service doctor offices get better health good health health insurance healthcare costs healthcare reform healthcare system; patient-centered healthcare prevention

I’m Hosting Grand Rounds!

Just what every non-MD fantasizes about: hosting a Grand Rounds! Ok, ok, it’s not the kind of grand rounds in a hospital where I get to impart my vast medical knowledge to other healthcare professionals (a good thing, too, given that the initials after my name are MS [master of science in biomedical writing] not MD). Instead, it’s the Grand Rounds for GetBetterHealth, a blog site for all things medical/health related. Grand Rounds is a weekly summary of the best health blog posts on the Internet.

What this means is that I will post a blog here (that will be carried on Get Better Health and other sites), aggregating the best blog postings in the health/medical field that week. For my Grand Rounds–which will appear Tuesday, June 22, 2010–-I’d like to focus on a subject near and dear to my heart: customer service in healthcare (you can read a post on the topic here).

So if you’re interested in having your blog on this topic promoted (or you write an awesome health/medical-related blog and want me to feature it), email me directly at debra@debragordon.com. Put Grand Roundsin the subject line and give me a one-paragraph description of your blog. You’ll … Continue Reading

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customer service doctor offices get better health Grand Rounds