http://interplaygroup.com/wordpress Leading thoughts and research on the heart of medical care: the relationship between practitioners and patients Thu, 08 Jan 2009 04:14:27 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Wayne Parsons, an injury attorney at the InjuryBoard.com, has a nice post about the value of keeping a diary. He recommends it to all his clients. He references an article on About.com written by independent journalist Betsy Lee-Frye. There are actually two kinds of diaries that benefit patients. The first is ... http://interplaygroup.com/wordpress/2009/01/07/patient-diaries-improve-your-treatment-and-outcomes/ According to a 2006 pilot study by 4 Italian researchers reported by SpringerLink, mental health workers found relief from burnout by learning to better manage their interpersonal relationships. ...previous findings and a large part of the target group stated that the interpersonal relationship was one of the most important sources of ... http://interplaygroup.com/wordpress/2009/01/06/burnout-according-to-italians-managing-interpersonal-relationships-can-help/ The NursingTopics.Blogspot ran copies of two more articles about the looming shortage of nurses. The first article documents the size of the shortage now estimated to be 1.2 million nurses (700,ooo due to retirement and 500,000 due to rising demand generated by aging baby boomers) by 2014. The second article chronicles the ... http://interplaygroup.com/wordpress/2009/01/06/the-nursing-shortage-two-new-articles/ Headaches from overuse of medications. It's a problem with a growing global awareness according to a recent article in virtualmedicalcentre.com. "MOH is associated with severe disability, unmet treatment need and little clinical data to support current management strategies." Left untreated, they can have a bigger impact than migraines. So says ... http://interplaygroup.com/wordpress/2009/01/02/solution-to-moh-is-better-physicianpatient-communication/ Press Ganey published a white paper this past July 2008 documenting the link between patient satisfaction and medical malpractice risk. Here's the key paragraph. In many circumstances the filing of a claim is not due to an injury alone; it is a combination of an injury coupled with a “plus” factor. ... http://interplaygroup.com/wordpress/2009/01/02/reduce-liability-risk-by-improving-your-patient-satisfaction/ More and more patients are taking medication for cancer at home. While it's nice that patients get to go home, it also means more errors with medication. In a study of 1300 patients reported by Science Daily, 7% of adults and 19% of children had medication errors, often with harm to ... http://interplaygroup.com/wordpress/2009/01/02/medication-errors-for-almost-1-in-5-kids-with-cancer/ Here's a nice bit of detective work done by Dr. Michael Kleerekoper who blogs over at Endocrine Today. He noticed an op ed piece in Sunday's New York Times that quoted a source saying President-Elect Obama claimed he could save $80B a year by pushing preventive medicine. So, he set ... http://interplaygroup.com/wordpress/2009/01/01/osteoporosis-nonadherence-to-treatment-is-costly/ We're a remarkably visual species, aren't we? Pictures, it turns out, are worth a thousand words. The finding shows up in research about patient diaries - I'll post some articles here if I can find them and in informed consent. People simply understand more readily and express themselves more easily using ... http://interplaygroup.com/wordpress/2008/12/31/informed-consent-a-picture-is-worth-a-lot-of-words/ The Tennessean is carrying an article by Dr. William Stead that seems thoughtful and well-intentioned, yet introduces confusion by conflating two important issues: patient non-adherence and medication error. Dr. Stead is associate vice chancellor for strategy and transformation and director of the Informatics Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He starts ... http://interplaygroup.com/wordpress/2008/12/31/non-adherence-and-medication-error-are-we-confusing-the-two/ BBC News's Jane Dreaper reports on a growing sense in Great Britain that the healthcare system is showing less compassion and patients are paying the price. The case in point concerns Brigadier John Platt, a recipient of the Distinguished Service Order who led his troops across a river in Italy in ... http://interplaygroup.com/wordpress/2008/12/31/british-doctors-and-nurses-say-compassion-is-the-key-to-giving-good-care/