Hospital ranking

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NZtechfreak

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#919192 21-Oct-2013 13:52

lxsw20: Mother had a brain tumor misdiagnosed as high blood pressure for 2 years. Luckily a very slow growing non malignant tumor.

The surgeons etc. were absolutely excellent but the initial GP I have lost a bit of faith in. I am very thankful we still have the neurological ward in Dunedin.

On the basis of the facts provided I can pretty much tell you that every GP in the country would have done the same. Can understand some loss of faith, and maybe there are performance concerns regards that GP, but nothing in the story as told here validates that.

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1080p

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#919206 21-Oct-2013 14:08

This has a lot of potential comedic value. :)

NZtechfreak

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#919207 21-Oct-2013 14:09

pctek: So why did the first 3 doctors spend several years ignoring it all until it got almost to the point of kidney failure?

Good question. I think the point is we don't know why things played out that way. Were there medical complexities or other issues that made it difficult to detect? Your assumption is that they are all bad doctors, and presumably you would rate them accordingly, but that may be well removed from the facts.

pctek: Because they don't look, they don't review it they don't pay attention to the blood results.

Again, assumption.

pctek: Latest doctor noted the past results had been showing this for ages....
Some doctors are good, some are shocking.

While it is true that the quality of doctors varies, your story doesn't really illustrate that. If you have a patient consult you who has presented multiple times to other doctors and comes to you dissatisfied with the care they have received, that establishes a very different context for that consult. The final doctor is unlikely to be any better/more knowledgeable/more diligent than any of the preceding doctors, they just started their process with the patient at a decidedly different point along the journey. But, instead of trying to understand that there is a more to this than you understand, you are going to rate the doctors up or down in ways that likely bear little relationship to their merit as doctors.

pctek: Here's another:
A friend of mine had a brother, he felt unwell in certain ways, goes to doc. Doc says you're stressed, move away, change jobs etc.

This persists for some time, back and forth, doc says same things....eventually he does move away. Goes to a new doc, doc looks at notes and prescribes anxiety medication. Argument ensues, nope, he's stressed.

By then he's really unwell and starts going to the hospital too, they look at notes and do nothing further.
He persists and by then he's as sick as a dog, so hospital finally does some tests.

Cancer.
Sorry, too far advanced, nothing can be done.
He dies.

Reading that what I see is that his cancer was hard to diagnose until bad/obvious symptoms/signs had manifested.

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Kyanar

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#919218 21-Oct-2013 14:29

NZtechfreak: Something like this *could* be worthwhile, but is a hugely fraught exercise. Struggle to see it really helping patients with selecting doctors.

Of course it won't. At a hospital, you don't get to select your doctor, so can't really see it helping either.

NZtechfreak

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#919220 21-Oct-2013 14:38

Kyanar:
NZtechfreak: Something like this *could* be worthwhile, but is a hugely fraught exercise. Struggle to see it really helping patients with selecting doctors.

Of course it won't. At a hospital, you don't get to select your doctor, so can't really see it helping either.

Yes, in that context it makes even less sense, however others in the thread broadened the discussion to include types of healthcare provision where patients can select their doctor.

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gnfb

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#919222 21-Oct-2013 14:45

I sometimes think I must be a lot younger than I am as having read a lot of the comments on this subject I am no way as jaded and cynical and negative as a lot of the comments.

I may look at a problem differently but simply. I always believe there is a answer for every problem

Problem = Solution

You just have to find the right tool for the job

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Batman

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#919283 21-Oct-2013 16:52

i think there are 2 issues here

1) the public want accountability and transparency in their dealings with their doctors

2) the problem is what the public perceives has usually got nothing to do with competency! it is usually one of these
- poor communication on the part of the health professional (top of the list)
- overworked/underfunded/too much to do with too little time/having a bad day
-> for example: the doctor in the hospital has 25 referrals to see in addition to his other duties and in the last 10 hours he has done 85% of the duties (5% of which took up 3 hrs of his time due to hospital systematic failings/inefficiencies) and he has seen 17 of the 25 referrals and rushing to see the other 8 ... even a robot can't do that properly
-> or other ...

this is a democracy so the public can darn well do what they want but they ain't gonna make things any better if the roots of the problems aren't sorted - communication and health system ...

of course there is the odd rotten egg that spoils the party for everyone else :D

PS we should work towards improving the health system - quality feedback in the hands of quality brains could do wonders :D

matisyahu

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#919990 22-Oct-2013 21:06

joker97: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/9304709/Patients-get-to-rank-their-stay-in-hospital

It's good ... only if the hospital gets to rank the patients and their relatives as well

Sigh and thus like restaurants you'll have people complain about a store to head office believing that head office will spend the resource to provide what is required but what really happens is head office blames the store and nothing improves. I can only imagine how demoralising it'll be for staff who work there with limited resources and complainers thinking that magically but giving a hospital a bad review will magically make the government intervene and give the hospital more staffing and resources.

As for accountability - mistakes will happen when doctors or nurses do double shifts because they're short staffed. Last night I had a 6am to midnight shift because the morning manager couldn't come in because she was sick? was I on edge by the 12th hour? sure but I could only imagine what it would be like in a more stressful job doing the same sort of shift.

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"

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