Physician “Associate” Clarity
You may want to read this article from the UK. Disturbing. A couple of interesting quotes:
- “If they’re not properly supervised, if it’s not clear what they’re doing, and if they don’t make it clear to the patient who they are, then there is an opportunity for things to go wrong.”
- Ms Chesterton’s mother Marion previously told the BBC: “If I had known earlier that she had not seen a doctor, I would have marched back to the surgery or gone straight to hospital.”
We are facing this problem here in America more and more. It’s time to get clarity.
Oh geez! A missed DVT. Something so elementary for cry’in out loud! I was known to start a patient on Lovenox over night (if no contraindications) or stick them in the hospital on a heparin drip if the NIVL couldn’t be done stat! If a person had no contraindications, temporarily anti-coagulating them is harmless for a couple of days. Especially if they had risk factors. Once ruled out a big “Whew” and could go on their way. Back in the early days before routine DVT prophylaxis was the standard, I had some patients die while inpatient of PE’s. Was heartbreaking as some of them didn’t have life threatening conditions and expected to recover. Thankfully this was exceedingly rare and I gleefully accepted the recommended DVT prophylaxis standards for in-patients when they became established. The Orthopedic surgeons I believe pioneered the way as post ortho procedure patients had a much higher risk of dying from P.E. They jumped on anti-coagulant prophylaxis protocols that didn’t increase post-procedure bleeding but “DID” help prevent PE’s and DVT’s after an ortho procedure. Took the rest of the medical population to get on board but I’m glad they did.
Everything is a Business Model.. Everything relates to the bottom line. It will take organized Physicians to fix it. As a PA-C for 47 years,I still introduce myself as a PA. If they call me Doctor I stop them ,thank them for the promotin and tell them I am a PA.I explain the difference to them.. I love being a PA. I just wish my supervising Physician had taken a greater interest in my supervision over the years.More education for me.But I learned from them and the nurses,patients.Still learning. Keep plugging away,and do not allow yourselves to be compromised.. Take charge. Good Luck,good strategy.It will require much work.
If all physicians suddenly decided to refer to themselves as “ballerina”, the nurses would be in court fighting to call themselves ballerinas.
Nurse Ph.D = Nurse M.D? Patients know better, right? Sure they do. https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-physician-relationships/nurse-practitioners-sue-california-over-restricted-use-of-doctor.html?origin=BHRE&utm_source=BHRE&utm_medium=email&utm_content=newsletter&oly_enc_id=8585J4160845G6M
This makes me sick to my stomach. Ever since the money-men have learned to profit from health care, it has been all downhill and things are picking up speed.
And yet, there is not a hospital in town without cranes around it, doubling its size AND building Taj Mahal suburban branches. The money is being spent at a rapid rate–but not on quality and care.
The widgets are in place to produce, produce, produce. I’m glad I am old, but I fear for my children and grandchildren.