TelaDoc

From an AP story, as published in the Beloit Daily News:

DALLAS – Peter Beasley is a busy man who currently has no health insurance. He’s also a customer of TelaDoc Medical Services, a setup that allows him to call an unknown doctor and get medicine prescribed sight unseen.

Within an hour or so of his call to an 800 number, he gets a call from a doctor who discusses his symptoms and will often write a prescription.

TelaDoc provides its members _ which the company estimates at 30,000 _ with access to a doctor 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

While members like Beasley praise the service as a convenient way to address nagging medical needs at odd hours, others in the health care industry say treating patients without seeing them in person is worrisome, perhaps dangerous. California’s medical board is investigating TelaDoc’s activities in that state.

TelaDoc chief executive Michael Gorton said the Dallas-based company is merely providing a needed service and is not meant to replace the family physician. The company began offering its services nationwide this year after an earlier test run.

“For the vast majority of Americans, being able to talk to a doctor in an hour is next to impossible,” Gorton said. “Our motto is we’re there when your normal doctor is not.”

TelaDoc subscribers are guaranteed to hear back from a doctor within three hours of their phone call. After paying a registration fee of $18 and completing a medical history, an individual subscriber pays $4.25 a month and a $35 fee per consultation.

Crash mistake to face probe; Doctor, paramedics incorrectly ruled wreck victim dead

From Newszap.com

DOVER – The state Division of Public Health has asked for an additional investigation of the medical response to a fatal accident on Del. 1 last month in which a Frederica woman was mistakenly pronounced dead.

Two Kent County paramedics and a physician responding to the Nov. 19 crash pronounced Brenda Lee Pitner, 42, dead about 6:10 a.m.

Ms. Pitner was pinned under her vehicle, which rotated 180 degrees after hitting the pickup and continued approximately 50 feet southward before coming to a stop.

Medical responders pronounced Ms. Pitner dead at about 6:10 a.m., but Delaware state troopers investigating the crash found her alive about an hour later.

Emergency crews were called back and rescuers from Dover’s Robbins Hose Co. freed Ms. Pitner from her car. She was flown to Christiana Hospital near Wilmington, where she was treated for a cut to her head.

Hospitals Starting To Bill At Time Of Service

From The Day (New London, CT):

Nowadays, when you visit the hospital, you’d better make sure you bring your checkbook, cash or a credit card along with your insurance card.

The Westerly Hospital announced this week that it would start asking patients to make their insurance co-payment when they come in for care, rather than wait for a bill. Co-payments –– the portion of medical bills that private health insurance companies expect patients to pay –– vary widely, but $50 or $75 for an Emergency Room visit isn’t uncommon.

The Westerly Hospital is simply following the lead of other nonprofit hospitals, said Cristine Vogel, commissioner of the Connecticut Office of Health Care Access, which regulates hospitals. She noted that physicians’ and dentists’ offices have long collected co-payments from patients when they come in for their appointments, and hospitals should be no different. Hospitals are waiving the practice whenever care is needed immediately, she added, and are not withholding care from anyone who is unable to pay.

Medical Device Update

Two interesting posts in MedGadget today:

The ResQPOD

Advanced Circulatory Systems, Inc., an Eden Prairie, MN manufacturer, says that its ResQPOD® has been given a Class IIa recommendation by the American Heart Association in its recently released guidelines for CPR (covered by Medgadget here). Moreover, according to the company, “the ResQPOD is now more highly recommended by the AHA than any other device or drug used by emergency personnel for increasing circulation during CPR and improving resuscitation rates.”

The main benefit of the device, that is placed between a ventilation source (e.g., bag-valve or demand-valve resuscitator) and an airway adjunct, it seems to us, is in its ability to selectively impede inspiratory gases from entering the lungs of patients receiving assisted ventilation during the release phase of CPR.

and the
Q-CPR

CNNMoney.com is covering the latest innovation in resuscitative equipment: “a new defibrillator from Philips [that] talks paramedics through CPR and shuts up when they get it right.” Philips Electronics describes its FDA cleared Q-CPR™ technology for CPR measurement and feedback (currently configurable on company’s HeartStart MRx monitor/defibrillator)