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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (743)	4/20/2005 1:43:45 PM
From: Lady Lurksalot	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

Peter, many physicians are loathe to accept results from diagnostic facilities with which they are not familiar, and I cannot fault them for this. Harking back to my emergency room days, patients might be transferred to our hospital from another, and we would ALWAYS obtain our own sets of lab and x-ray studies. After all, how could we know that the lab and x-ray results sent with the patient really belonged with that patient? FWIW, sometimes (albeit rarely) those results sent with the patient did not belong with that patient. Doctors may seem to order excessive tests because many patients have proven notoriously untruthful in relating their medical histories and present complaints. The doctors need to cover their bases for their own protection. A notable recent example of this which grabbed the national attention was Terri Schiavo, whose bulimia went undetected until it was too late for her. Testing would have, in all likelihood, disclosed her condition and precluded the fertility treatments she was receiving. Hospital-based physicians sometimes--emphasis on sometimes--do order excessive tests because the hospital encourages it, this being a ready revenue stream for the hospital. Conversely, something else I have noticed over the years: Time was, when x-raying children's hands, arms, legs, feet, etc., x-rays of the contralateral side for comparison were almost always obtained at least once. For some reason, it seems these comparison x-rays are no longer being taken. By law, medical facilities must give you copies of your medical records, including laboratory results and actual x-ray films and other readouts. You do have to pay for these items and they may not be immediately available to you, but the facility cannot refuse to provide them. - Holly