patients

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Patients Setting In Abortion Clinic Waiting Rooms As Roe Fell Had To Be Turned Away

Patients were in the lobby, waiting, the moment it became a post-Roe America. The staff at Alamo Women’s Reproductive Services Clinic in San Antonio had just received a call from their attorney: Abortion procedures in Texas would have to stop immediately. The dozen or so patients in the lobby Friday morning would have to be turned away. The clinic staff would have to be the ones to tell them. Andrea Gallegos, the clinic’s administrator, and the rest of the staff walked out and addressed the room: “The Supreme Court made this decision today and, unfortunately, your geographical location affects your bodily autonomy,” she said they told waiting patients. Gallegos watched each word land like a blow. People cried. They screamed. They begged for help, she said. It was “complete despair.” Ho...

To Secure Oxygen For COVID-19 Patients Now And Into The Future, What Steps Must Be Taken

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

To Secure Oxygen For COVID-19 Patients Now And Into The Future, What Steps Must Be Taken

New waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in countries, such as Kenya and India, have exposed the poor management of oxygen supplies. Moina Spooner, from The Conversation Africa, asked Professor Trevor Duke, an expert on [oxygen provision] and editor of the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines on oxygen therapy for children, to provide insights into what countries, with limited resources, can do to secure better supplies. Why is oxygen so important for treating COVID-19? The SARS CoV-2 virus causes COVID-19 pneumonia and hypoxaemia. Hypoxaemia is a lack of oxygen in the blood – the most important complication of COVID-19 pneumonia and a major cause of death. A few antiviral drugs have been effective in treating COVID-19 infection however, in severe pneumonia, oxygen relieves hypoxaemia. It...

Hospitals And The Pitfalls Of Seeking Donations From Their Rich Patients

4Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

BUSINESS

Hospitals And The Pitfalls Of Seeking Donations From Their Rich Patients

Most Americans find a number of common hospital fundraising practices ethically unacceptable, according to a new study published in July. Examples of these sometimes troubling approaches included providing people who have a track record of making large donations with concierge services such as nicer rooms or doctor’s cellphone numbers, screening patients to identify those who are wealthy enough to give lots of money to charity and getting doctors directly involved with fundraising efforts that involve their current or former patients. Which conversations about hospital donations are unethical? CDC via Unsplash We found that 85% of the people who took our survey agreed that patients feel good when they donate to the hospitals where they received their medical care. Yet 83% said they felt ...

Doctors facing grim choice over ventilators told to put patients with disabilities at the back of the line

2Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, Journalism

Doctors facing grim choice over ventilators told to put patients with disabilities at the back of the line

As cases related to the novel coronavirus continue to strain hospitals, doctors face difficult choices about rationing scarce medical resources like ventilators – choices that will likely determine who lives and who dies. Several states’ policies tell providers to allocate scarce resources to those most likely to benefit. For example, Washington state recently adopted a policy that favors “the survival of young otherwise healthy patients more heavily than that of older, chronically debilitated patients.” Similar new guidelines have been issued in Massachusetts as well. In several other states, existing policies that were developed in anticipation of an emergency – including pandemics – recommend rationing that prioritizes giving ventilators to otherwise healthy people who are most likely...

Doctors are making life-and-death choices over coronavirus patients – it could have long-term consequences for them

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Doctors are making life-and-death choices over coronavirus patients – it could have long-term consequences for them

As the coronavirus spreads and demand for medical gear far outstrips the supplies, doctors in the U.S. may have to choose who among their patients lives and who dies. Doctors in Italy have already been forced to make such moral choices. In a recent article in The New York Times, six doctors at five of the major city hospitals said they were worried they would soon have to make painful decisions regarding who should come off lifesaving ventilators. In addition to the moral anguish of this decision, they also outlined their concern about potential lawsuits or criminal charges if they went against the wishes of a patient or family. The nature of these decisions shares many parallels with those that we studied in soldiers. These decisions not only involve life-and-death consequences, but th...

Minority patients benefit from having minority doctors, but that’s a hard match to make

2Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS, Journalism

Minority patients benefit from having minority doctors, but that’s a hard match to make

In today’s America, minority patients still have markedly worse health outcomes than white patients. The differences are greatest for black Americans: Compared to white patients, they are two to three times as likely to die of preventable heart disease and stroke. They also have higher rates of cancer, asthma, influenza, pneumonia, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and homicide. For many of them, structural racism and unequal treatment remain a contributing factor to disease and death. I am a physician who studies health disparities and ways to improve health care delivery. My work focuses on people of color, including those who are black and indigenous. Improving health care delivery for these groups of people is a complicated and multi-layered task, but solutions exist. One of them is to increase th...