Saturday, November 29, 2014

Like Good Political Songs?


EMT's Unauthorized Use of Versed/Midazolam

EMT's use the "sedative" (amnesia and obedience drug ONLY) Versed/Midazolam to make their jobs easier too.  I include them in my "medical personnel" description, but some may not think of EMT's using Versed.  They appear to love it as much as the minions in hospitals and surgical suites do.  A friend of mine sent me this article:

Click here: 3 Texas medics suspended over drug administration

Pay special attention to the posts below the article.  They are ALL in favor of using the brain poison and without authorization from a person who has an MD behind their name.  They feel it its their RIGHT to inject Versed into anybody and everybody without MEDICAL DOCTORS permission.  The EMT's don't like it when a real doctor interferes with their plan of action.  The EMT's want us to know that Versed/Midazolam is "safe".  People don't DIE from getting shot up with Versed!  Of course not.  The EMT's did nothing wrong and didn't deserve to be disciplined.  Benzos are 100% safe, too bad for the dead people but it wasn't the Versed.  All kinds of excuses.

 Note; The article takes great pains to say that it wasn't the Versed that killed these people, that the EMT's were merely punished for using Versed without authorization.  If Versed was so risk free than why would the EMT's need authorization in the first place?  Why would the doctor(s) be upset with the EMT's for using the drug on the patients who later died, if they didn't believe that Versed/Midazolam wasn't inextricably tied to the deaths?  It makes no sense.

 Something about this drug makes normal (?) people write rabid responses to anybody who dares criticize its use  The author of the news report is wrong, sensationalizing etc.  Versed is good and necessary and they WILL use it. The EMT's don't care if a doctor authorizes its use or tells them not to use it.  Easy enough to fail to report what they are doing isn't it?  Except for this particular case where the EMT's were called on the carpet for using Versed without permission.  (and without a second thought as to the safety of the patients they were "caring" for.)

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Here's Your Obamacare

Obamacare aka "The Patient Predation and Unaffordable Care Act" is a disaster.  We have all seen little Jonny Gruber prancing around, telling us we are all stupid and detailing what the real deal on Obamacare is.  Like I and others who read the atrocity already knew, the law was passed on Christmas Eve when congress was not in session to conceal from the public what was in it.  The entire bill was nothing but a power/money grab by a duplicitous government in order to bail out the medical care/insurance industry and extract more taxes from a hapless public.  But don't trust me, after all *I* am one of the American public that Jonny boy claims is stupid.  Here is an essay from a doctor whom I follow on his blog here; In My Humble Opinion
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

The Not So Humorous Unintended Consequence of Healthcare Reform is Monopoly

Check

The administrator's voice wavered as I picked up the phone.  He was calling about the nursing home patient that I admitted the day before.  While normally forthright, I could feel the discomfort in his tone as he danced around the issue.  The patient's insurer had called.  Apparently they made an "arrangement" with the Mega ACO owned by the latest consolidation of Goliath health systems.  They wanted my patient transferred to another doctor.  Apparently the insurer now required all it's patients to be seen by only medical group physicians.

The administrator was almost whispering now.

The truth is, if it was up to me, I would have you see all our patient's!

The medical group doctor hardly ever rounded.  She was almost never available for urgent calls.  Her patients were transferred out to the hospital at the drop of a hat.  Yet, incredibly, she was managing three quarters of the nursing home population.   But the medical group physician had one advantage that trumped clinical quality or even cost of care.  She was measurable.  Her every move was recorded in an electronic medical system that could be beamed into the greedy hands of administrators, case managers, and insurers at whim.  This data could be analyzed and assessed, and spit back at her with ultimatums and extracted promises.

We sat silently on the phone at a loss for words.  The nursing home could not dare damage the fickle relationship with the ACO.  Otherwise the growing stream of patients coming from the local hospital would diminish.  It had been that way for some time now.  The threat was implicit to the arrangement.  The not so humorous unintended consequence of healthcare reform is monopoly.  And there is a power grab by huge expansive hospital systems for the billions of dollars, I mean patients, ripe for the picking. Physicians and nursing homes, doctors and nurses have all become pawns.  They are fodder for a game playing out around the country.

The administrator was the first to speak.

You know that the ACO will be merging with your other hospital systems soon.

He was right.  It was only a matter of time before they would be kicking me out of the nursing home business and replacing me with some no named company man.  As I began to hang up I sensed a ring of optimism bouncing over the phone line into my unwilling ear.

You might want to join the medical group, we really need you to see more patients here.

I hung up.

Check...mate.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

ANOTHER Amnesia Drug

A reader sent me this link.

 Anesthesia-related memory loss lasts days, study warns

This one is about yet another Versed style drug which causes AMNESIA.  The description of the effects of the drug are exactly like the description of Versed.  Amnestic, hypnotic, sedative used for CONSCIOUS SEDATION and ANESTHESIA INDUCTION.  Sound familiar?  The study needs to say that PRE-ANESTHESIA DRUGS and SEDATIVE DRUGS used as an adjunct to anesthesia are the culprit for continued memory loss.  Well duh, disrupt the delicate process of memory retention with a powerful drug and then be astonished when the memory loss that THEY WANTED AND CAUSED continues.  What the Hell?  Cause amnesia deliberately and then be all shocked like when it persists?  Are these people really smarter than the rest of us?

Oh yes, this Etomidate is a "good" drug except for the long term memory loss. Who cares that the patient is in a nursing home with Alzheimer's afterward?  The patient is out of their hair by then.  Good job medical people.

If you don't want your brain destroyed by the medical field decline ANY kind of sedation.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

...Costly, Unnecessary Sedation."

This article is from CBSNews, hardly an alternative health care site.  (for those of you who view this idea as somewhat less than mainstream.)  

 Click here: Study: Colonoscopies often come with costly, unnecessary sedation - CBS News

Sedation is over used, over valued and is detrimental to our health and our pocket book.  So why are medical people so determined to use it?