|
medpundit |
||
 |
 |
|
Tuesday, April 27, 2004At work, doctors now face a worsening shortage of time: that's time as in tincture of, one of the best drugs and diagnostic tools around. Time soothes pain, cures fevers, knits broken bones, and it can outperform the most expensive scanner on the planet. Combine a little time with some food, a bed and a set of good nurses, and wonderful medical care can result. So true. At my hospital, as in most others, each floor has a "care manager" whose job it is to facilitate discharge as quickly as possible, to make sure we doctors don't overextend the billable period of hospital inpatient care for whatever insurance the patient has. The hospital is no longer a place for convalescence. Home is. Or a nursing home. For most patients and their families, this works out OK. They frankly get better convalescent care at either place than they would at an acute care hospital where the nursing routine is constantly interrupted by sick patients' acute needs. Mr. Jones with the stroke isn't going to get the routine care he needs to prevent bed sores if the nurse is busy addressing chest pain, shortness of breath, and drops in blood pressure in other patients. But, for others, like the example in the Times column, going home or to the nursing home is a stress that they don't need in their time of illness. posted by Sydney on 4/27/2004 04:48:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
|
