[Reblog] Straight, No Chaser: The Drama of Gunshot Wounds and a Nation at War with Itself

A challenging provocative post from a physician

Excerpts from the 25 August 2014 blog item at JeffreySterlingMD.com

Somewhere in the midst of reconciling the parts of me that are physician, public health professional and African-American male, I realized that I don’t have the luxury to simply review the medical aspects of gunshot wounds. As an African-American, I have lived my entire life learning and having it reinforced that I and others of my kind are a misunderstanding or inappropriate interaction away from becoming a statistic. As a physician I get to treat, and as a public health professional I get to report and fashion broad solutions to various challenges, but as an African-American, I get to live a certain reality that for me began when my father died from a gunshot wound when I was a small child.

…

We live in a country that is without debate the most violent country on earth, both outside of and within all parts of our borders. From the individual’s rights to bear militia levels of arms to the police’s increasing position as military units, from the contradictions of allowing both “Open Carry” and “Stand Your Ground,” we are spiraling toward an inevitable conclusion.

You want to participate in a challenge? Stop being so deficient of attention about what’s happening before our eyes, and think and ask what the inevitable conclusion of all of this is going to be. Regardless of your political persuasion, there are issues to be addressed.

….

Consider the following facts from the Children’s Defense fund,

• approximately 2900 children and teens died from guns in the US in both 2008 and 2009. (Does anyone think the numbers have declined since then?) That’s one child or teen every 3 hours. That’s eight children or teens every day. That’s 55 children or teens every week for two years. What is our country’s response to this? What are you specifically doing to contribute to a solution to this?
• Young Blacks are being exterminated by gunshot wounds in this country.

……

Read the entire post here

Related articles

• Ferguson teen Brown autopsy reveals six gunshots

[Reblog] Health costs, journalism and transparency: One site opening door to price data

From  the 19 August 2014 blog item BY JOANNE KENEN at Covering Health: Monitoring the Pulse of Healthcare Journalism

Here’s a resource for health care costs – and a creative journalistic model of crowdsourcing, data collection, mapping, reporting and blogging.

ClearHealthCosts.com was started by formerNew York Times reporter and editor Jeanne Pinder. She received start-up funding from foundations (Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at CUNY and others listed on the website) and ClearHealthCosts now has a team of reporters and data wranglers chipping away at some of the difficult questions that patients need answered: How much is this treatment going to cost me? Can I find a better price?

It’s about shedding light on a health care cost and payment system that, to use Pinder’s word, is “opaque.” Some of what they are doing is specific to a half-dozen cities; other projects are building out nationally.

The data collected by ClearHealthCosts focuses on elective or at least nonemergency procedures such as imaging, dental work, vasectomy, walk-in clinics, screening (mammograms and colonoscopy) and blood tests. Much of the data is crowdsourced, and focused on New York area, including northern New Jersey and other suburbs; the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas; and Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio in Texas.
…….

 

Related resources

• Hospital Compare  US government website managed by Medicare and Medicaid services. Links include, Quality payment, Medicare’s Hospital value-based purchasing programs, Hospital readmission reduction programs, voluntary reporting from American College of Surgeons, American College of Cardiology readmission measure etc.
  Allows one to compare the quality of care at over 4,000 Medicare-certified hospitals in the country
• Joint Commission Quality Check The Joint Commission is an accredition/certification program based on performance standards. Quality Check® includes information on US health care organizations.

 

Related articles

• Clear Health Costs Wants to Save You From Medical Sticker Shock
• Consumer Healthcare Cost Literacy: A Primer
• How Much Does an MRI Cost In California: $255? $973.25? $2,925?

5 things that are bigger threats to your health than Ebola (with images)

5 things that are bigger threats to your health than Ebola (with images) · APHA · Storify.

Excerpt from an August 2014 post by the American Public Health Association

Ebola, the serious, often fatal disease spread by interaction with the blood or fluids of a symptomatic infected person, has been making headlines across the country. And for good reason: this is the largest Ebola outbreak in history. The public is asking questions and wondering if they’re at risk.

But the truth is, unless you live in West Africa, where the latest Ebola outbreak has been focused, or if you are a health worker whoworks with Ebola patients, you’re probably safe. 

1. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria
2. Severe weather

…….

Read the entire post here

Related articles

Ebola virus and the dread factor
       August 25 2014 item from Musings of an Academic Family Physician (and department chair) about this (dysfunctional) healthcare world and how to fix it

• 5 Viruses That Are Scarier Than Ebola
• Ebola kills treated Liberia doctor

[Reblog] Connections between housing, health: Finding stories and getting the reporting right

Connections between housing, health: Finding stories and getting the reporting right | Association of Health Care Journalists.

Excerpt

People who are homeless face many health threats and are among the heaviest users of hospital services. Safe and affordable housing, some experts assert, is a necessary first step to care effectively for people with chronic mental health and substance abuse problems who live on the streets. And there is some evidence that this approach may, in some circumstances, even save taxpayers money (but probably not as much as is often claimed).

In an influential 2009 study in Seattle, researchers analyzed medical and law enforcement costs for 91 people given supportive housing and found that costs dropped to about half the level seen among 35 comparable homeless people on a waiting list. But note that this savings estimate doesn’t include the capital costs of building and refurbishing apartments. Raising capital is likely to be a tall hurdle for many communities and this issue often gets ignored in news reports about the promise of supportive housing.

Read the rest of the core topic on this issue here

 

Related articles

• Housing First: A Different Approach To End Homelessness
• Glendale addressing concerns over downtown homelessness
• Exclusive: Housing shortage leaves homeless families ‘stuck’ in hostels for two years
• Denver homeless initiative, unveiled at CGI America, uses new model
• Stop Looking Down on Homeless People

[Reblog] Healthstyles Today: “Observation Status”–Policy Gone Wrong?

Healthstyles Today: “Observation Status”–Policy Gone Wrong? | HealthCetera – CHMP’s Blog.

Excerpt

 

Across the country, people on Medicare who become ill are being admitted to hospitals on what is called “observation status” or “admit to observation” to provide regular assessments to ensure that the patient’s condition doesn’t deteriorate and require a higher level of care. Medicare pays less for observation status since it’s assumed that the patient needs less care. It makes sense, but in reality it’s creating huge problems for some of the patients, their families and the hospitals. The issue has become a national concern and New York State has responded with legislation aimed to provide some protection for Medicare patients who are admitted to the state’s hospitals.

Today on Healthstyles on WBAI 9.5 FM (www.wbai.org), producer and host Diana Mason, RN, PhD, talks about this issue with Toby Edelman, Senior Policy Attorney in the Washington, DC, office of the Center for Medicare Advocacy. You can listen to the interview here: [link available at the blog]

Related articles

• Observation stays don’t count for Medicare coverage, many seniors harshly learn
• Medicare Recipients Get Short End of the “Affordable Care Act” Stick
• 2 Proposed Bills Could Affect Long Term Care & Skilled Nursing Facilities
• Medicare Fraud Effort Leaves Elderly Surprise Hospital Bills