Unfortunately, probably not.
From the local news today:
A New Jersey man wasn’t really a doctor, but he treated area patients – including a man having a seizure – anyway for 28 years. (1)
Ooops!
I’ve made t
he case on several occasions that if you have anything about which you are seriously concerned, you need to get a second opinion from an unrelated physician. You really do!
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The US was founded on the promise of “the Right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of 
Happiness” in Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.
From the start, the relationship between the country and this promise has been at best inconsistent and sometimes ironic. After all, the principal writer of the Declaration, Jefferson, was a slave-owner. So for whom was this promise made? Everyone? Or the wealthy, the planters, the slave-owners and the merchants? (Remember, there were no factories — that was before the industrial revolution.)
The inconsistency continues to this day.
We have groups concerned with whether babies or born, but not with what happens to them after they are born. How long do they live? What’s their quality of life? As Ed Cara notes, in some areas of the US, children will now have shorter lives than their parents. (2)
A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association talks about discrepancies in life expectancy. I’ve blogged about this before, but it’s nice to see authoritative sources recognizing the issue.
The new statistical analysis shows that there is a difference in life expectancy of up to 20 years based on the county in which you live. In this analysis, the issues affecting life expectancy are
These factors translate into differences in life expectancy in the US based on where one lives:
The states with the lowest life expectancy are those with the lowest spending on public health and health education.
One limitation of this study is that the analysis is at a county level, and there is only selected data available at that level regarding health. In particular, suicide is now one of the top 10 causes of death in the US. Suicide isn’t reported accurately or consistently, and there is limited data available on the causes of suicide.
A second limitation is the inter-relationships between some of the factors measured. For example, wealth is associated with having health insurance, with less use of cigarettes, and with living in an area with better access to medical professionals. By breaking the analysis into this much detail, does the report understate the role of wealth in life expectancy?
By the way, I use the image of Ben Franklin on some of these posts for the following reasons:
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Neurotic? Need something new to keep you up at night?
CDC photo, Candida auris
Here come’s Candida auris. Just as we have had the “Mother of All Bombs,” this may be the “mother of all fungal infections.”
The disease is just emerging globally. The hot spots in the US are New York and New Jersey, probably related to international travel. However, once here, it’s here, and cases have been identified in Illinois, Indiana, Maryland and Massachusetts.
Right now it’s minor, but it becomes another reason to avoid hospitals unless you really need to be there.
And you thought yeast infections were nasty.
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This is something that any senior or anyone caring for a senior should see.
Researchers at Southmead Hospital (UK) report that surgery within 24 hours of injury save lives among elderly patients with hip fractures.
They analyzed data from 241,446 British patients, measuring the death rate in the 30 days after admission. They found that if surgery were delayed past 24 hours, the death rate increased by 8%. The death rate increased by 20% if surgery were delayed 48 hours.
The concern with elderly patients is whether they need time to stabilize after an injury. It turns out that taking that time can add to their risk.
Has your doctor seen that report?
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This finding appeared today, and it raises all sorts of questions about the quality of care in some hospitals in the US:
South Carolina saw a 22 percent reduction in post-surgical deaths in hospitals that completed a voluntary, statewide program to implement the World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist. (1)
In the South Carolina test, 14 hospitals volunteered to use the checklist, and saw a decline in deaths within the thirty days following surgery. Other hospitals in the state saw a slight increase in deaths during the same period. The trial program was run in these hospitals between 2010 and 2013.
The writers make a point that hospitals need to truly commit to the procedure, not treat it as “a checkbox.”
There are two items that are shocking about this:
Has your hospital adopted this checklist? If not, do you want to find one that has?
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The US is seeing modest, steady growth in the incidence of diabetes among children and teens. A new analysis of data from 2012 to 2012 shows
While there’s a genetic component, diabetes risk is associated with
Europeans understand that how you care for yourself affects health care costs and health insurance rates for everyone around you. It’s not just about you. Teaching a child to veg in front of a computer or TV simply shortens the child’s life.
However, one of the frustrations with public health data is lack of currency. Has the situation gotten better or worse in the last five years? My guess is worse, but we simply don’t know.
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Facts to consider:
What you need to consider:
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