Medicine | Health and Hospital Resource

Questions to ask before you’re discharged from the hospital

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Hospital discharge planning is a relatively new term coined for the process of arranging adequate care for a patient after their discharge from the hospital. Many patients with chronic or long-term conditions will require further treatment after they’re discharged. It’s crucial to arrange this care while those patients are still stabile in the hospital setting.

Before you or a loved one is discharged from the hospital, ask to meet with their head of discharge planning. Often, the doctor in charge of care for the particular patient will require a discharge plan before signing off on their release. A registered nurse or social worker can also provide discharge planning.

In some cases, occasional care at home can be sufficient. If your doctor feels you will recover well at home, you can be discharged with nothing other than a course of medication and instructions. Other times, a nursing home or physical rehabilitation center may be required. If your physician thinks you need care after being discharged, pick a facility as soon as possible. Research their care, what programs they offer, and how affordable they are. Don’t hope for the best-case scenario – if an illness lingers, you may be stuck with a hefty bill. Another important consideration is how far away an aftercare facility is from family and friends. Try not to move too far away. Social stimulation is an important factor on the road to recovery.

Finally, it’s a prudent measure for patients to check that they have all the required billing and paperwork from their hospital prior to discharge. Especially if your stay ought to be covered by Medicare or an insurance policy, double-check that all your documentation is in order. Illness may come and go, but medical bills are practically forever!

Hospital discharge planning may be the furthest thing from your mind when your doctor says you can leave the hospital, but a little planning goes a long way to ensure you won’t soon be back in that hospital bed.

Filed Under: Health Care, Medicines Tagged With: Hospital, Medicine, Patient

What is the risk of a hospital medicine error?

Doctors and nurses admit patients to the hospital for treatment in a controlled environment where they can be closely monitored. Many patients, however, either bring their own medicine into the hospital, or fail to fully disclose the medications that might be in their system at the time they’re admitted. When doctors or nurses administer drugs without fully taking into account all possible interactions, hospital medicine errors can occur.

For starters, bring in all medication that you regularly took prior to admittance as soon as possible. The exact chemistry and quantity of various drugs can be confusing even to trained medical staff, so it’s safest to bring the actual pills in for inspection. If at all possible, make sure the hospital staff sees the drugs prior to administering any medicine.

It’s always a good idea to ask questions in the hospital, particularly with drugs. Whenever a staff member comes by with medication, ask why it’s necessary for you to take it. Learn about the side effects and alternatives, if any. Also, make sure that the staffer administering the drugs is aware of the interaction it may have with medication you took outside the hospital. Don’t just blindly accept medication because it’s handed to you with a glass of water.

Finally, remember to continue to be careful with your medication even past your discharge. For instance, it may not be safe to take a new medication prescribed during your hospital stay with a daily medication you had taken prior to your illness. Err on the side of caution and check all drug interactions with your pharmacist or physician.

Thankfully, hospital medication errors are largely uncommon. That’s not to say, however, that any level of medication error is acceptable. Take precautions and keep all medical staff informed to minimize the possibility of an error during your hospital stay.

Filed Under: Health Care, Health Tips, Medicines Tagged With: Health, Hospital, Medicine

Why is hospital food so bad?

Everyone knows the classic Jerry Seinfeld bit: “What’s the deal with airline food, anyway?” Of course, airlines are hardly the only institutional culinary offenders. As anyone who has stayed in a hospital knows, the food can be just as bad – even worse in some cases. And shouldn’t a hospital, of all places, serve food that is at least halfway healthy? Are they just trying to drum up future business?

As it turns out, the answer involves staffing, money and a captive audience. Few hospitals actually prepare the food served in their own cafeterias. Instead, they farm out their lucrative catering contracts to industrial kitchens that also handle bulk contracts for places like prisons and military bases. Of course, contracts go to the lowest bidder, who typically passes along their low costs with bulk-purchased, low-quality grains and cuts of meat. This is especially the case with large hospitals.

Additionally, hospitals tend to avoid ethnic foods that may not meet the tastes of all patients. They deliberately serve foods as bland and generic as possible. Why would hospital patients put up with all of this? Of course, they have no choice. Patients don’t get the opportunity to bring in their own food, or order take-out. Very few guests or visitors to the hospital want to go through the hassle of leaving in search of decent grub in an unfamiliar neighborhood, either. So, hospitals have a captive audience and are free to serve whatever dreg they wish.

It’s possible that there will be a shift toward higher-quality hospital food in the future. Chefs, nutritionists, and even doctors have suggested that serving healthier, tastier food could aid in recovery times and encourage patients with poor appetites to clean their plates. In the meantime, patients can either choose small, private hospitals less likely to utilize industrial kitchens, or rely on family and friends to smuggle in high-grade grub. Perhaps we need a Seinfeld stand-up routine: “What’s the deal with hospital food, anyway?”

Filed Under: Clinics, Health Care, Health Insurance Tagged With: Business, Hospital, Medicine

Is a training hospital right for your treatment?

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If you’ve ever seen the television show “Scrubs” before, you’re familiar with the concept of a training hospital, sometimes also referred to as a teaching hospital. Universities often own these hospitals; those institutions are also sometimes called university hospitals. The basic concept is interns and residents learn hospital medicine alongside experienced doctors and nurses. The medical care is ultimately comparable to that of a typical hospital, but at a reduced cost.

Are teaching hospitals still safe? Care at all teaching hospitals is constantly reviewed and supervised by experienced doctors. Teaching hospitals typically have very diverse staff, because many specialists train interns who also hope to specialize in a certain field. Due to the wide range of medical professionals in teaching hospitals, traditional hospitals often transfer in patients with complex medical needs, such as burn victims. In fact, a 2007 American Hospital Association study found that more than 97 percent of burn victims were at some point treated by a teaching hospital.

Teaching hospitals also commonly assign their interns and residents to community outreach, such as clinics for the uninsured or STD testing. Many times, interns and residents conduct research into new treatments for illness at teaching hospitals as well.

One disadvantage of teaching hospitals is that they are often overcrowded, since they’re poised to receive overflow patients pushed from other hospitals. Another downside is that you may get less one-on-one care from a physician, and instead interact with many medical professionals who are training for a license. Some patients complain that at teaching hospitals, they’re seen as a “condition” to learn from rather than a person to treat.

Despite some drawbacks, teaching hospitals provide a valuable service to both local communities and the medical industry. You may not run into Dr. Cox at your local teaching hospital, but it may well be worth a trip if you’re concerned about finances or a specialized illness.

Filed Under: Health Care, Health Tips Tagged With: Health care, Hospital, Medicine

Radiation Therapy: Behind The Scenes

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Although radiation therapy sounds ominous – and in fact, many of the people who receive it are gravely ill – it is an awesome field of medicine and it is tremendously useful in the battle against many types of cancer. Unlike diagnostic radiation, which is used in x-rays and CT scans, therapeutic radiation is much more powerful, and is actually designed to kill cells or sterilize them. This power makes the use of radiation therapy an extremely specialized and careful process, both for the doctors who prescribe it and for the technicians who administer it. Let’s take a look at a couple interesting things about radiation therapy.

Precision Is Everything

Since radiation therapy is designed to kill cancer cells, the doses of radiation involved are quite high, and can have harmful side effects like skin damage and even can cause new cancers. So, before any treatment is given, the physician involved must decide if the benefits will outweigh the costs. Once the decision is made to proceed with the treatment, the physician usually consults with a radiation physicist to determine a treatment plan, which details how often the radiation will be administered, as well as its intensity, the angle of treatment, and other factors.

Patient Marking

Once the treatment plan is complete, the patient must be treated. But before this can happen, the technician must enable a way to precisely target the same area of the patient’s body every time treatment is given. To accomplish this, the technician uses several methods: tattooing the patient, making a cast of the patient’s body for them to lie in (so they lie the same way every time), and also making a specific metal filter for the radiation for each patient. By doing this, the technician minimizes the damage to the patient’s healthy tissue. Typically, radiation therapy lasts several weeks, because the body can only withstand so much radiation at any given time. Not all radiation therapy patients are cured. However, the success rate is high enough so that it remains a valuable technique to help cancer patients.

Filed Under: Child Health, Health Care, Medication Tagged With: Cancer, Medicine, Radiation therapy, X-ray computed tomography

Alternatives to Traditional Medicine

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Antibiotics, pain medications, and cancer treatments have improved the quality and length of many lives; however, sometimes, it’s wise to consider alternatives to traditional medicine. Because the body has self-healing capabilities, many less conventional therapies can also provide relief and wellness.

Acupuncture
Originating in China more than 2000 years ago, acupuncture involves the practice of inserting needles into specific areas on the body to promote health and wellbeing. Acupuncture has also been used to support smoking cessation and weight loss. Usually, the acupuncturist will insert hair-thin, metallic needles into the skin to help with a variety of conditions, such as pain relief, nausea control, and encouragement of conception. Before beginning acupuncture, talk with your primary care physician about recommendations and research acupuncturists in your area.

Herbal Supplements
Many plants, or parts of the plant, are used for therapeutic purposes. Sold in tablets, capsules, powders, teas, extracts, and fresh or dried plants, herbal supplements can produce mild to more potent reactions. For example, peppermint and chamomile can aid with digestion and are frequently taken in tea form as often as the individual sees fit. However, kava produces an immediate, powerful affect on anxiety and muscle relaxation, so it should be taken under careful dosing. With all herbal supplements, follow the directions exactly, let your physician know what you are taking, and watch for any side effects.

Biofeedback
Improving your health by controlling certain bodily processes that normally happen involuntarily is called biofeedback. With biofeedback, you can learn to affect your heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, and skin temperature. Often, biofeedback can address conditions such as high blood pressure, tension headaches, migraine headaches, chronic pain, and urinary incontinence. Typically, electrodes are attached to your skin, providing measurements and information to the practitioner, who will lead you through relaxation exercises. Through trial and error, you will learn the exercises that create the desired impact.

Filed Under: Medicines Tagged With: Acupuncture, Alternative, Herbalism, Medicine