It’s hard to imagine enjoying a hospital stay, however hospitals are trying to improve the patient experience. Back when I worked for a hospital the executives would bristle when someone joked that the daily room charge in a hospital cost 10 times the daily room charge in a nice hotel. The ratio is probably closer to 30 times now. Despite the massive price increase, hospitals still don’t excel at hospitality.
Category: COVID-19 and Public Health
CDC: Paid Sick Leave Would Reduce Foodborne Illness Outbreaks (Probably Not)
I met a doctor years ago who told me he didn’t like to eat in restaurants due to fears of catching foodborne pathogens. He worked in a community health setting and frequently treated food service workers with infectious diseases. He thought too many of his food service patients were fairly lackadaisical about taking their medications and too often worked when they should call-in sick. Apparently he was on to something. A new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found one of the causes of foodborne outbreaks at restaurants are food service workers handling food while they are ill.
AMA: Don’t Let Pharmacists Initiate Care for Covid Patients
Have you called your primary care provider lately asking for an appointment? If so it was probably farther away than you had hoped. The national average wait to see a physician is 26 days. Once you see your doctor he or she is probably cordial but somewhat hurried. The average doctor-patient encounter lasts from 10 to 15 minutes, but that figure is probably skewed by Medicare patients who require longer appointments than average. There is a significant shortage of physicians.
Fraud Alert: Unsolicited Covid Tests Sent to Seniors, Bill to Medicare
When Covid first began to spread it was difficult for patients to obtain Covid tests without going to an emergency room. When tests first became widely available there were drive-through testing centers with lines that snaked for blocks. When my wife began to feel ill in January of 2021, I made her an appointment for a Covid test at a Walmart Neighborhood Market pharmacy. The soonest appointment available was eight days away. We pulled up to the drive-through window and a pharmacy technician gave us the sealed swab and instructed my wife how to use it. My wife sealed it in the appropriate bag and deposited it in an adjacent laboratory collection box outside the drive-through. The results were relayed to us by phone a day or two later.