Lauren Ellerman

Here in Roanoke – we have an interesting local issue regarding Health Care. The largest local hospital has announced a long range plan to associate most local doctors – what this means is the doctors will become employees of the hospital (or a subsidiary corporation) and they will no longer…

Check out USA Today – today, http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2006-10-15-health-concern-usat_x.htm.A USA Today poll regarding the quality and costs of the U.S. healthcare system found that a “growing unease” has brought on a desire for a major reform. Eighty percent of respondents were dissatisfied with the amount the nation spends on healthcare, which has…

In July, Dan wrote a quick blog about the Institute of Medicine’s report on medication errors. In sum, IOM disclosed that 1.5 million Americans are harmed every-year by medication errors.Are you ok with this? We are not talking about 1.5 million Americans who die of cancer because there is no…

Are you on any medications? Here is a great idea – look them up on the internet. Go to the manufacturer’s website – read not only the information for consumers/patients, but look at the links for physicians. Is the information on those two links different – you bet it is.…

I know, no one wants to sound like a whiny baby…. but maybe, there is a time and a place to let it all out.Where is that place? Your doctor’s office.Lets say you visit your doctor for knee pain – and tell her in September, “it hurts so bad I…

I have always thought Consumer Reports did a great job analyzing new cars, and technologies that hit the market. But last week, their reporting became very personal. A review of 16,000 nursing homes in the U.S. finds that poor quality care is still evident. The review of various facilities not…

This morning in the paper was a blurb – on a report released this week from Tampa Florida. The American Medical Association believes the federal government’s mandate to reduce Medicare payments will force more doctors to stop seeing elderly and miltary patients.AMA speaker Jeremy Lazarus stated that “over the next…

Almost daily, we have clients tell us “I wish I had known to keep a log before this all happened.”What happens is as follows – someone comes in to our office with a possible negligence claim against a nursing home, medical provider etc.We ask them – “did you ever make…

Are you allergic to ANYTHING? Nuts? Sulphur drugs? What about Penicillin?You wouldn’t dream of eating in a restaurant without asking the waitress what is in the chef’s special sauce, so why would you take a prescription from the pharmacy without question? You know where you “sign in” at the pharmacy…

I read an article today – http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=43631It’s interesting. Apparently, our federal government and its administrative agencies designed to regulate and police certain industries, such as Nursing Homes, have not been as strict, resolved, or hard on nursing homes as of late.The Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, in…