Going to an emergency room instead of scheduling a doctor's appointment has become a trend in this country. Translated into dollars and cents that means 40.5 million people paid up to three times as much for routine care as they would have paid at a physician's office. They probably wasted a lot of time too because emergency rooms are not set up to care for routine illness, and they do not work on a first-come, first-served basis as many people mistakenly believe. To ensure that the sickest patients get immediate care, emergency rooms use a triage (French for "sorting") system of evaluation so that critical cases, such as people suffering from heart attacks or injuries from serious accidents or violent crimes, are treated first. Everyone else may have to wait quite a while before being seen.
Abstract Although music therapy is an established allied health profession and is used with increasing frequency in the treatment of those with a terminal illness, there is a real dearth of empirical research literature supporting the use of music therapy in end-of-life care. This article reviews the empirical studies found in the literature and documents the emergence of an evidenced-based approach to the use of music therapy in hospice and palliative care. A total of 11 studies are reviewed; of these, six show significant differences supporting the use of music therapy in this area. Dependent variables positively affected by music therapy include pain, physical comfort, fatigue and energy, anxiety and relaxation, time and duration of treatment,
At MGH the decline was 87.6% in 1988 to 78.4% in 1993 as well. Because of their high medical cost and lack of primary care physicians, 30% of the hospitals revenues were at risk, giving the opportunity to other hospitals to provide these services and create price competition based on Chapter 495. The reduction of gross patient service revenue at MGH and BWH were affected by the changes in government programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and the enactment of chapter 495. These programs along with many insurance companies adopted the Prospective Payment System (PPS) which began monitoring hospital charges and refusing payment for unnecessary services. The hospitals were receiving a standardized payment for each service
A Kaiser Permanente Center survey found that people who smoke marijuana-only on a daily basis have a 19% higher rate of respiratory complaints than non-smokers. Fortunately, the hazards of marijuana smoking can be reduced by various strategies such as: use of higher potency cannabis, which can be smoked in smaller quantities, use of water pipes and other smoke reduction technologies or ingesting pot orally instead of smoking it. Unlike tobacco, marijuana does not appear to cause emphysema. Tobacco tends to penetrate to the smaller, secondary passageways of the lungs, while marijuana tends to concentrate on the larger, central passageways. The only evidence that suggests any type of brain changes is that persistent deficits in short-term memory have been noted in heavy marijuana
Approximately fifty patients required a dose of almost one hundred pounds of this drug, this demand could only be fulfilled over a period of one year with the current manufacturing infrastructure available at Merck. Merck Inc. also posed bottlenecks during the drug development process in form of corporate pressure from the government and AIDS activists. Since Crixivan was one of the most efficient and safe drug in the list of anti-HIV drugs, an emotional pressure from the public health officials and AIDS activists began to mount barriers in the Drug development process of Crixivan. There were multiple aspects that Merck Inc. had to look into before entering the production of the drug. As a precautionary measure Merck had learnt from the bad experience between the AIDS activists and Burroughs Wellcome’s anti-HIV drug AZT pricing and distribution.
Shazia Ovaisi, Judith Ibison, Miranda Leontowitsch, Geoff Cloud, Pippa Oakeshott and Sally Kerry Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability in the UK. Hypertension is the leading modifiable risk factor for stroke. There is increasing interest in home blood pressure monitors for selfmonitoring, but no published research on the experiences of stroke patients who do selfmonitor. Research Abstract Aim Method Results Background Stroke patients’ perceptions of home blood pressure monitoring: a qualitative study Design and setting Conclusion Keywords A qualitative study of 26 (66%) patients from the first 39 participants to complete the intervention arm of a community-based randomised controlled trial (RCT) of home blood pressure monitoring in 381 patients recruited from hospital stroke clinics in south London. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 26 patients.
Abigail Zuger discusses many topics in “We Love Them. We Have Them. We Take Them.” that probably would be denied by most doctors and unknown by most patients. The topic she covers in her essay though does not usually occur on a major scale (doctors do not usually prescribe Vicodin tablets for minor aches and pains), but does occur almost every day on a minor scale, which is usually routinely done for refills prescribed over the phone or for something as simple as a Cortisone shot for a patient to recover from the flu faster. Given this information prescribing medications for a better patient-physician relationship does not seem as serious as it is made out to be or is it?
It is evident in Shah’s essay that those participating in the these trials generally receive no medical benefit from the research conducted, and in many cases are being given drugs that do not have a strong correlation to the medical needs of the populations in which they live. Shah cites malaria for an example of an ailment that affects 500 million worldwide in developing countries, yet these people are participating in drug trials relevant to arthritis, obesity, and heart disease. Inherent in this system are questionable ethical practices. Informed consent is an example. In many cases when signing informed consent documents an alarmingly large percentage are misinformed as to the effects of the drugs they are taking.
Older persons experience the greatest amount of painful conditions but receive the least successful treatment of pain (Closs, 2005). A concise definition of pain is difficult but it is divided into two categories, acute and chronic (Touhy & Jett, 2010). The effects of inadequate pain assessment and treatment among older adults may lead to multiple problems. Pain is common in older people. The landmark study by the American Geriatric Society (AGS) conducted in 1998 found through a telephone survey that one in five older Americans are taking analgesic medicines regularly and 63% of those have taken prescription pain medications for more than six months (AGS, 1998, p. 635).
17, Issue 31). There is a direct correlation between poverty and rising health care costs that make it hard to afford the health care that is need for a family. This author wants to explore the affects this is having on our children, marriage and domestically. Review of literature Over the past 30 years researchers have demonstrated that the number of Americans without health insurance- mostly lower class has steadily risen. Economists estimate about 2 trillion will be spent on medical care in 2007.