Spine-Pain

TOKYO - An 89-year-old woman died after an ambulance crew spent two hours trying 30 hospitals before finding one that would accept her for treatment, Japanese officials said Friday.

Matsumoto said the other hospitals rejected the woman because they were full or their doctors were not immediately available to treat her.

Last year, a pregnant woman in western Japan died after being refused admission by about 20 hospitals that said they were full.

The latest case underscores Japan’s health care woes, in part created by a shortage of doctors in the country’s rapidly aging society. Critics say long working hours and a government policy change several years ago to keep the number of doctors down are to blame.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071228/ap_on_re_as/

Seriously ill suffer as relationship between physician and hospital unravels

By Christopher Lee

updated 1:39 a.m. CT, Fri., Dec. 21, 2007

Hospital emergency departments across the United States, already struggling with overcrowding and growing patient loads, are increasingly unable to find specialists to help treat seriously injured and ill patients, according to medical experts.

Crucial minutes, hours and even days can go by as patients suffering from trauma, strokes, broken bones and other maladies await evaluations by neurologists, orthopedic surgeons and other specialists because hospitals are having difficulty getting them to serve 24-hour emergency “on-call” shifts.

The shortage of specialists is the result of a fear of malpractice lawsuits, a reluctance to go without pay when seeing uninsured patients, and a growing intolerance for the disruption in their personal lives and private practices, the experts say. Many specialists are also decreasing their work for general hospitals.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22335941/

But Groopman — a physician and author of four books about doctors and patients — found it difficult to leave his internist of five years. “It sounds strange, but I didn’t want to insult him.”

Groopman is not alone. “I really think it’s a fear of the unknown,” says Robin DiMatteo, a researcher at the University of California at Riverside who’s studied doctor-patient communication. “But if the doctor isn’t supporting your healing or health, you should go.”

 http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/08/16/ep.fire.your.doc/index.html

I read an interesting medical related article titled ‘The 18-Second Doctor’ in the U.S. News and World Report magazine. I searched on the internet and found it.

The article hits home with me.

The 18-Second Doctor By Nancy Shute Posted 3/18/07 

Groopman explains how faulty thinking by doctors can lead to tragically wrong diagnoses and what patients can do to better the odds of getting the right care.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070318/26qa.htm