Credit Card Debt Leads Some to Skip Medical Care
HBNS STORY | April 25, 2013
People with outstanding credit card or medical debt were more likely to delay or avoid medical or dental care, finds a new study in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Teaching Patients about New Medications? A Picture Is Worth 1000 Words
HBNS STORY | April 30, 2013
Improving people’s knowledge and skills about their medications may be best achieved with multimedia patient education materials, finds a new systematic review in The Cochrane Library.

Birthing Centers Provide Equal or Better Deliveries
HBNS STORY | April 18, 2013
Low-income women who chose to deliver their baby at a birthing center under the care of a certified nurse-midwife had the same or better birthing experience as women under traditional care with a hospital-based obstetrician, according to a new study in Health Services Research.

Six Awkward Concerns in My OpenNotes
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | March 25, 2013 | Leslie Kernisan
I find myself relieved that I don’t have to figure out how to document (or not document?) concerns [in patient records]...Wondering what they are? Ok, I will tell you, but shhh...don’t tell my elderly patients that I may be considering these topics as I care for them.

What Do We Need Doctors For?
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | March 21, 2013 | Elaine Schattner
Should nurse prac­ti­tioners, RNs, physician assis­tants, phar­ma­cists, social workers and others including, yes, peer patients, take up much — or even most, of doctors’ tasks?

Primary Care Physicians Missing Early Signs of Serious Mental Illness
HBNS STORY | March 21, 2013
Primary care providers could help people with warning signs of psychosis get critical early treatment and potentially reduce the current burden on emergency departments and inpatient units, finds a study in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.

Email and Texts to Doctors: Not Just for High-Income Patients
HBNS STORY | March 12, 2013
Low-income patients served by “safety-net” community health centers want to communicate with their doctors via email or text or are already doing so, according to a new study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

The Team Will See You Now...What Team?
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | February 27, 2013 | Jessie Gruman
Have you heard that soon most primary care in the US will be delivered by teams? Yep. Team-based care is one of the characteristics of the patient-centered medical home, a way of organizing the care of patients that allows primary care clinicians to see more patients in a day while at the same time delivering better care.

Pharmacists Can Improve Patient Outcomes
HBNS STORY | February 28, 2013
In addition to dispensing, packaging or compounding medication, pharmacists can help improve patient outcomes in middle-income countries by offering targeted education, according to a new review in The Cochrane Library.

Retail Clinics: What's in Store for Health Care
PREPARED PATIENT ARTICLE
You're sick, but your doctor's office says the next open appointment is in two weeks. Or you're traveling, don't have a primary care physician or don't have health insurance. For all these reasons and more, potential patients are turning increasingly to retail clinics to cure their minor ailments.

When Getting to the Doctor Is Half the Battle
PREPARED PATIENT ARTICLE
All patients have their stories of hassles: hustling against traffic to inconvenient doctor appointments, not to mention waiting on hold to schedule a follow-up visit. But what if you couldn't read the road signs on your way or hear the options on your physician's answering service?

Retail Clinics Impact Continuous Primary Care
HBNS STORY | November 15, 2012
Using retail walk-in health clinics, often located inside pharmacies or big-box stores, for simple acute care problems can interfere with establishing and maintaining a relationship with a primary care provider, find a new study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Despite Access to Care, Male Veterans in Poorer Health than Civilian Men
HBNS STORY | October 9, 2012
Even with access to health care, male military veterans are in poorer health than both men in the National Guard and Reserves and civilian men, finds a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

How to Find a (Good) Doctor
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | June 22, 2012 | Conversation Continues
While the benefits of having (and keeping) a good physician may be evident, how do you find this just-right-for-you clinician?

Women and Minorities Face Barriers to Clinical Trials
HBNS STORY | June 1, 2012
Physicians have great influence over whether minorities and women participate in cancer clinical trials, according to a new literature review.

'Health Care Deserts' More Common In Black Neighborhoods
HBNS STORY | April 25, 2012
New research into "health care deserts" finds that primary-care physicians are especially hard to find in predominantly Black and/or low-income Hispanic metropolitan neighborhoods.

Women Veterans Report Poorer Health Despite Access to Health Services, Insurance
HBNS STORY | April 10, 2012
As more and more soldiers return from recent conflicts overseas, new research reveals that female veterans experience poorer health than other women.

Why Can I Only Get Health Care from 9 to 5, M thru F?
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | March 28, 2012 | Jessie Gruman
Last week, the waiting room of the out-patient cancer clinic looked like an airport lounge without the rolling suitcases. There were about 20 of us cancer survivor-types talking on our smartphones, fiddling with our iPads, reading The New York Times...What's wrong with this picture?

How to Choose a Doctor
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | March 23, 2012 | Harriet Hall
I get a lot of inquiries about how to find a good doctor. I don't have a good answer. I thought it might be useful to throw out some ideas that have occurred to me and hope that readers will have better ideas and will share their experiences about what has or hasn't worked.

Non-Traditional Reproductive Health Resources Reach At-Risk Youth
HBNS STORY | March 20, 2012
A new research review finds that if reproductive health services were more easily accessible, youth would be more likely to use them.

Hospital Games: Luring Patients to the ER
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | March 6, 2012 | Trudy Lieberman
You may have seen the billboards or gotten a message on your smartphone: 'Come to our emergency room; our waits are short.'

Few Depressed College Students Receive Adequate Care
HBNS STORY | February 16, 2012
Less than one in four college students with symptoms of serious depression receives adequate treatment. Current health care services on campus might not be sufficient for delivering good quality mental health care, according to a new study in the journal General Hospital Psychiatry.

Guest Blog: Opening Up the Doctor's Notebook
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | January 13, 2012 | Anne Polta
If you could see what your doctor wrote about you in your medical record, would this hurt or enhance your relationship? A new survey found that the majority of patients ' more than 90 percent ' are supportive and even enthusiastic about being able to read the doctor's notes. But among physicians, the reaction was mixed.

Who Accesses Health Care, and How?
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | December 19, 2011 | Inside Health Care
All kinds of people seek out health care, but studies show that not everyone accesses and receives care in the same way. Here, health care insiders look at how access varies among women, children and those with disabilities.

1st Person: Are Doctor Ratings Sites Useful?
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | November 15, 2011 | First Person
When it came time for Jennifer Stevens, an Omaha, Nebraska resident and mother of two, to find an obstetrician for her first baby, she was faced with a dilemma.

Prepared Patient: Using Physician Rating Websites
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | November 15, 2011 | Health Behavior News Service
User reviews and ratings on websites can help you locate a reputable handyman, the perfect restaurant for your anniversary dinner or the right TV for your den. So why wouldn't you turn to the Internet to find your next doctor? New health review sites promise to help you make this important decision for yourself or your loved ones. However, patients and physicians alike are finding that these doctor reviews aren't as transparent or useful as they might seem.

Take a Number
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | November 8, 2011 | Inside Health Care
Nobody likes to wait. And patients and doctors alike are frustrated by the general waiting that seems to be an inevitable part of delivering and receiving care. Here, Art Markman, Lisa Gualtieri, and anonymous patient blogger WarmSocks share their views.

Drop-kicked into a Foreign Country
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | October 26, 2011 | Jessie Gruman
We patients are always tourists in the world of health care. Whether we are coming to our doctor's office to rule out a strep infection, a clinic for a bi-monthly diabetes check-in, or a hospital for surgery, we don't work here.

Guest Blog: Instant Access & Old Faulty Assumptions
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | October 25, 2011 | Rima Rudd
The current literature indicates that we in the various health disciplines provide texts that are poorly written and organized, web sites that are hard to navigate, as well as charts and graphs that are difficult for many to interpret and use. I say that we can make information truly accessible and usable by adding needed rigor to our work.

1st Person: Acute Pain: Sudden Impact
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | September 22, 2011 | First Person
Dr. Jan Adams has had more than her share of painful experiences. A retired general practitioner and mother of two who practiced 'womb-to-tomb' medicine, she conducted humanitarian work around the world, notably with medical clown Patch Adams (no relation).

Prepared Patient: Getting the Right Help for Acute Pain
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | September 22, 2011 | Health Behavior News Service
Whether caused by injury, surgery or a toothache so bad it slams you awake in the middle of the night, acute pain is difficult. Receiving prompt and helpful treatment can make all the difference in the world. But lack of care or inadequate care means that the acute pain may develop into chronic agony.

Safety Net Hospital Closures Hit Poor, Uninsured Hardest
HBNS STORY | September 19, 2011
When safety net hospitals close or switch from not-for-profit to for-profit status, certain vulnerable groups suffer disproportionately, a new study finds.

Using Health IT to Address Healthcare Disparities
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | September 8, 2011 | Chris Gibbons
With almost a decade's worth of the National Healthcare Disparities Reports behind us, it is clear that addressing disparities defies simplistic solutions. As we all believe that the complexity of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and HIV/AIDS will not stop us from one day finding a cure, I firmly believe that this same tenacity of spirit is needed to successfully surmount the challenges of disparities.

Middle-of-the-Night Medicine is Rarely Patient-Centred
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | August 31, 2011 | Jessie Gruman
Here's is my recent interview for 'Middle-of-the-Night Medicine is Rarely Patient-Centred' by Erin Walkinshaw, a report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) on the subpar level of health care provided in hospitals on weekends or evenings.

Guest Blog: Recovery and Healing
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | August 29, 2011 | Katherine Ellington
Medical student Katherine Ellington grapples with reconciling her two roles as daughter and doctor-in-training as her mother recovers from a heart procedure.

Guest Blog: Matters of the Heart
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | August 22, 2011 | Katherine Ellington
When her mom is being treated for a newly diagnosed heart condition, medical student Katherine Ellington learns first-hand how her medical training applies to real life. This is the second in a series of three posts.

Americans Face Barriers to Health Care Beyond Cost
HBNS STORY | August 19, 2011
Just getting to the doctor, making appointments and taking time off from work or other responsibilities are major hindrances for some people to getting the medical care they need.

Taking a Closer Look at Chronic Pain
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | August 11, 2011 | Conversation Continues
This June, an Institute of Medicine report estimated that chronic pain affects 116 million Americans. Here, Tara Parker-Pope, Maia Szalavitz, and Elizabeth Cohen offer their perspectives on the findings. Kelly Young, RAWarrior, adds her personal experience, too.

Inner-City Health Centers Could Do More to Boost Breastfeeding
HBNS STORY | May 6, 2011
Health centers and birth hospitals serving largely minority populations could do more to promote and encourage recommended breastfeeding, according to a new study of Philadelphia safety-net health clinics.

Patient Navigators: Are They Necessary or Just Nice?
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | May 4, 2011 | Jessie Gruman
Each of the four times I have received a cancer-related diagnosis, I felt like I had been drop-kicked into a foreign country: I didn't know the language, I didn't understand the culture, I didn't have a map and I desperately wanted to find my way home.Over the years I have listened to hundreds of people describe the same experience following the diagnosis of a serious illness. As the number of physicians, diagnostic test sites and treatment options have grown and the lack of seamless, coordinated care persists, the majority of patients and their loved ones struggle to find the right care and make good use of it.

Health Reform Predicted to Increase Need for Primary Care Providers
HBNS STORY | March 24, 2011
Expansion of health care coverage mandated by health reform will push demand for primary care providers sharply upward, and thousands of new physicians are needed to accommodate the increase, a new study finds.

When Mental Health Meds Are Out of Reach, Hospitalization More Likely
HBNS STORY | December 10, 2010
Too often, mental health patients have problems accessing or paying for their prescription drugs under Medicaid. The results — longer hospital stays and more emergency room visits — are hard on patients and costly for the entire health care system, a new study finds.

Dialysis Center Choice Makes Difference in Death Risk
HBNS STORY | December 9, 2010
A large study found that patients in certain large chain facilities are significantly more likely to die than those treated elsewhere. Mortality was also higher in for-profit than non-profit dialysis centers.

What Can Health Care Professionals Do About Poverty?
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | October 20, 2010 | Connie Davis
A colleague of mine, Cheryl, has been trying to help a solo physician address a thorny issue. Through the use of 'How's Your Health', an amazing Web-based suite of health and practice tools, the physician realized that many of her patients struggled with maintaining an adequate income. Cheryl went looking for some ideas for the physician, and she came across this: Health Providers Against Poverty, an Ontario-based group that has a toolkit to help primary care professionals address poverty issues.

Direct-to-Consumer Health Care
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | October 19, 2010 | Chris Gibbons
On October 11, 2010, Baltimore Sun reporter Meredith Cohn reported that some U.S. health care providers are experimenting with trying to reach patients through social media and reaping big rewards. Providers are not just using Twitter and Facebook but trying new social media tools like Groupon, Foursquare, Scoutmob and LivingSocial that all blend social media with market forces to bring customers value and create new revenue for entrepreneurs, business owners and now health care providers.

Canada, US Immigrants Have Less Health Care Access Than Natives
HBNS STORY | September 2, 2010

I Want a Real Medical Home...Not a Dream
PREPARED PATIENT BLOG | April 15, 2010 | Dorothy Jeffress
When I first learned of the primary care medical home model it seemed to offer a great solution to medical homelessness a sort of permanent doctor-patient renter status, where both parties are bouncing around without a foundation, without a community and where a certain uncertainty exists and miscommunications and disorganization prevail.