Last week I admitted an 89 year old female who had been treated for six weeks in the outpatient setting for a pneumonia diagnosed by chest x-ray. She had been treated with two rounds of antibiotics without resolution.
At about 6:30 pm I met her. Experience tells me that something is amiss. A CT chest reveals an 8 cm right hilar mass. Best practices as outlined by Kathleen Sebelius wouldn't likely not cover a CT in this setting. The ACO puts medical practitioners in the position of ignoring their instinct and practicing cookbook medicine. The doc's I know bristle at the notion of being told what to do and how to do it. I do! For what it's worth that mass was metastatic lung cancer. Treatable, not curable.
"Dr. ACO, just who are you accountable to? Isn't it obvious I am accountable to the Secretary of Health and Human Services."
Dr. Truth Hurts to the rescue...
Welcome to the future of medical care...not healthcare.
H/T Dr. RW, via Health Care Renewal.
Please bookmark!Update: Doug Ross puts this notion of medical care into perspective.
Welcome to the ObamaCare Emergency Help Line!
For Espanol, press 1.
For Urdu, press 2
For Arabic, press 3
For Farsi, press 4
For Hmong, press 5
For all other languages, press 6
As always, read the whole thing.
The PPACA is the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act".
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