I'm stuck writing!(Photo from this site http://www.webunlimited.com/blog/search-engine-optimization/25-sure-fire-blog-headline-templates-you-can-use-now/)
Why are you pounding those keyboards on your computer to journal your thoughts , experiences and maybe, your wisdom? Are you stuck?
With the explosion of other more convenient and uber popular social medium like facebook or twitter, it’s common nowadays that I get annoying questions like “You still blog? Why not just shout it out in facebook or twitter?”
Yeah, I’m beginning to ask myself this: Am I stuck with writing?or blogging? Are we a dying breed? Or more importantly, why are we (still) writing or blogging instead of hanging out with facebook or twitter?
Those questions I will throw to you all my fellow doc bloggers for the first ever blog rounds second edition! I’m hosting it too here at The Orthopedic Logbook. This is my call for articles. I’m sure many of you have one reason or many, personal or commercial, emotional or political to stay on writing this thing we do. I’m sure would be very interested.
Again read the rules of engagement for the blog rounds here.
Invited docs are listed here in my links. I’m adding a few others and I’ll tag you by FB (Blog Rounds closed group) or twitter with hastag #blogrounds2
Deadline: Maybe Sunday May 15, 2011 at around 12 noon? Just give me a link to your post, by commenting below, as soon as you can. I’ll do the rest as the HOST.
Well, lets just say I miss the blog rounds. Are you all game???
This year’s Phil. Orthopedic Association (POA) Mid Year Convention will be on May 5-8, 2011 at the KCC Convention Center General Santos City. POA-South Mindanao Chapter, the host for this event, chose the Tuna capital as its venue and has lined up interesting topics (Read this souvenir program) for the participating orthopods.
This year’s theme,”Habal-Habal sa Gensan” focuses mostly on orthopedic trauma resulting from motorcycle injuries and its socio-economic impact on Filipinos. Habal- Habal is the local vernacular for a motorcycle used as a passenger transport vehicle common in the countryside. As everyone might have noticed, traumatic injuries from motorcycle accidents tops the list for causes of acute trauma injuries in the Philippines.
So lets relax a bit off our busy cutting lives and enjoy this year’s mid year convention!
This question was thrown on me recently by a newbie colleague who was agonizing on whether or not to charge patients for an additional procedure he did to address a complication. I instantly went blank thinking what to say.
when surgery goes wrong…will you charge mr. bean?
In the field of medicine or at least here in the Philippines, there’s really no hard and fast rules on charging professional fees for services rendered to patients. This service for fee setup of our healthcare system is somewhat messy and often embarrassing to patients and doctors alike. The price haggling is totally unnerving. Sadly, this is what plague the professional practice of most physicians here in the Philippines.
Such charging “grey” is even more embarrassing in cases where patients entailed additional services outside of their routine or planned operative procedure. While explaining and appraising procedure risks and complications to patients is a requisite of any informed consent, most patients still think that additional procedures, should be an additional work for the physician and the healthcare providers alone. Patients or their financiers are not obliged to pay the healthcare providers for the services rendered for these additional procedures. Wherever, that notion came from, the stress on the attending physician(aside from that of managing the complication) is enormous, working on a very limited logistics to address complications. Besides, Docs have mouths to feed too.
This situation is akin to the “heroic” services rendered by physicians to dying patients. Just because the patient dies (despite the doctors valiant efforts to revive the patient), the fees for the physician’s services (resuscitation) does not “die” with the patient too. Services rendered have to be paid even if the service given did not achieve its original goal (that of reviving the patient). Can this situation be applied to procedures done to address morbidities?
It’s hilariously difficult to even get an IV line inserted. “Jesus, are you going to pin prick me to death?“
Or get a good symptomatic history. ” I had my stomach pains and vomiting since 10:30 but I could handle it till 1:00am so you can bring me to ER” She was dehydrated by then.
They have their own diagnosis. ” I only ate small amounts of pancit…maybe its my UTI!” Maybe. But her blood sugar is also 290. With some signs of dehydration..
And their treatment : “ I’ll just lessen what I eat so as not to perk up my sugar“
And discharge plans: “I’ll go home tomorrow, where are you?“
They also can be your chief of clinics :”When are you going to see me? Who is my doctor, what time will he be here??“..
Ugh, well. I just resigned my job and endorsed my patient! I’d rather just be, “the Son”. Good luck doctor!
Recently, I’ve been receiving complaints from patients regarding some attending physician’s “quality” of service. Complaints like, “the doc saw me late already” or “my waiting time is far longer than my physician encounter time” or “this was not explained to me” or the difficulty of some patients (or relatives) to talk to their physicians. In most cases, the attending physician’s technical competence is unquestionable, but the patients or relatives sometimes felt they still didn’t receive adequate care or service from their physicians. What must they do?
a patient unhappy with the physician services rendered to him (Photo credits from http://www.art-of-patient-care.com/doctor-patient.html)
I always tell these “complainants’ that any doctor-patient relationship is contractual by nature. Meaning both parties has to agree and deliver their end of the deal to consummate the “contract”. The contract is of course the delivery of health services required by the patient’s current health needs.(Read my perspective of this here.) This may sound simplistic but for purposes of discussion, this “understanding” of a contract should suffice. If one party, does not agree or adhere to the contract, then the relationship could be terminated after due process.
In non- emergent situation, and if the service is available, patients have the choice on who will be their doctor or what type of service they could avail. That by choosing or agreeing to be under the service of a particular physician, the patient also has the responsibility of paying the services of that physician. That is the contract, no matter how business like it sounds. In cases where one party felt that other party did not deliver the expected service , he or she may choose to end the contract after duly informing and after paying the services rendered by the physician. (By the way, the physician under certain circumstances and on valid grounds, may opt to terminate a patient-physician relationship too but let’s leave that discussion in my future posts.) In my practice, I always offer this option to all my patients even prior to our patient-physician relationship.
Problem comes in when patients just change physician services without adequately informing their previous and frequently, their succeeding physicians. Far worse is the situation wherein patients “leave” their previous physicians without paying their bills on the pretext of a “bad” service. This is not good practice either and probably will only harm patient’s reputation also. In the first place and except in emergency situations or some government health training facilities, the choice of any physician is really the patient’s responsibility. Health is the business not just of the physicians and institutions but of the patients as well. If you don’t know any of your physicians in the community, then you cannot blame someone else for receiving a bad service. Remember, that physician gave his or her professional service and in the context of a contractual form of relationship, that has to be duly paid even if you’ll change physicians.
Patient doctor relationship is based on trust (photo from http://harvardmedicine.hms.harvard.edu/doctoring/patient-doctor/index.php)
So if you want to change your attending physicians for a valid reason, inform your physician of the transfer. Pay your end of the contract, meaning the services rendered. Cultivate the habit on talking to your doctors. Pour in your concerns on them and seek necessary answers to lingering questions. But don’t forget to inform the physician if there’s something good also about his or her service that you liked. I always believe no doctor would want any patient to feel bad about their brand of service. Just be honest. If those physicians do not change for whatever reason, that’s their catch. Remember that health community is far more sensitive than we thought on issues like this. These type of service screw ups always catches up someone else ears. If you don’t like them, then do not patronize them. That way, you won’t complain at the end of your contract. That simple.
Or is it? What do you think?
“The essential quality of the clinician is an interest
in humanity, for the secret of the care of the patient is in caring
for the patient.”– Francis Peabody Class of 1907, Harvard Medicine
Again read the rules of engagement for the blog rounds here.
