Talking About Death – When Do We Begin?

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

 

It is never too soon to befriend this mysterious, unpredictable life experience that we will all undergo. Many of us cheat ourselves out of fully living life by refusing to discuss death until we absolutely have to. It’s impossible to experience the richness of life when we subconsciously cling to it.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.huffingtonpost.com

Elisabeth Kubler Ross brought it to attention to many.  Her ideas on death and preparing for it brought this once taboo subject into the daylight to be discussed among families and their terminally ill members, or any member.

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Grieving the Death of a Sibling

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

As a general rule, we hesitate to write about different types of loss.  To clarify, I am not referring to types of grief, which we’ve written about extensively.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.whatsyourgrief.com

A good article about grieving the death of a sibling.  This is more traumatic than one may think, especially if one is younger.  Even if older, it still a reminder of our own mortality.  Siblings are life long friends that out live even our parental relationships.  They are very key to who we are.  Losing one is something that needs its own specific type of counseling

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The Unlikely Doll Collector: Sentimentality & Holding Onto Items

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

This is my doll collection. For those of you who don’t know me, I am not meant to have a doll collection. I mean, just look at how dusty and slouchy those poor dolls are!  It’s as though they’ve been sitting in a laundry basket in a basement closet wrapped in Wegmans shopping bags for the past …

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.whatsyourgrief.com

Good article about how hard it can be to let go of possessions of our deceased loved ones.  While there are cases of extremism, there are also moderate cases of just wanting to hold on.  Most the times, this is harmless and a way for the person to grieve and cope.  Or in other cases a way to remember.

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Planned Parenthood and the Atrocity of Corpse-Selling

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

I must admit I was speechless for close to an hour. I saw a video posted online, of an undercover operation in which Planned Parenthood’s top doctor is selling the body parts of aborted children.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.crosswalk.com

The genocide of the unborn, the atrocities of Planned Parenthood and their concentration camps to the unborn where inhumane experimentation and dissection of human beings is done in the name of profit——this must be stopped.   Will it take a social revolution?  Will it take the hand of God?  Will it take an awakening to the laws of God?  I do not know but what I do know is, it must STOP.

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Grief demands more of a man than a stiff upper lip | Letters

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

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Letters: The empire is no more, but British males continue to psychologically construct themselves in contrast to women – tough, aggressive, reticent and invulnerable

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.theguardian.com

The old image of a man who does not cry is more our culture than gender roles.  Men should cry over loss and grief.  There is nothing un masculine about it nor should it be avoided.  The days of the John Wayne stuffer lip are not what we should try to emulate.

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Celebrating a Deceased Loved One’s Birthday

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

My family goes a bit overboard with the Happy Birthday song.  For starters, there are a lot of us so that means anywhere from 4 to about 20 voices depending on who’s present.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.whatsyourgrief.com

This is a way of coping for some and is dependent obviously upon grief support and how the recent the person died.  Still many of the ideas in here is a perfect way to commerate the loss of a loved one.  A lot of good ideas can be found in this article

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Learning A Secret After A Death

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

The topic of secrets has been a grief theme for me lately.  It started about a month ago when I watched the documentary Stories We Tell.  Haven’t seen it? No fear, the preview is below and it is on Netflix right now.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.whatsyourgrief.com

Another element that can complicate grief are secrets.  Secrets we may learn after their death can involve affairs, sexual tendencies, or debt.  These things can startle loved ones and have a tremendous effect on their image of the deceased or how they grieve.

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Perspective on Parenting: Protecting children from grief

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

When my first child was born, I experienced a tidal wave of emotions. As I embraced my infant overjoyed, I whispered in her tiny ear her that I’d always protect her.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.timesherald.com

There is a fine line between protecting children from grief and not helping them learn to cope with grief and learn important skills.  As parents we need to know when and how to help a child deal with grief.  Every situation is different depending on the childs age and the circumstances of the loss

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AIHCP: Technology and Patient Care

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Telemedicine and Obstetrics: How Specialists Are Using Technology to Help Patients

Telemedicine is revolutionizing access to advanced healthcare in rural cities. Telemedicine is defined as the remote diagnosis and treatment of patients through telecommunication technology. The system breaks down distance barriers by connecting professional physicians with patients all over the country via electronic communication systems. The implementation of telemedicine in rural healthcare locations can mean a vast improvement in areas with few specialty physicians.

How It Works

The use of high definition cameras and monitors can place specialists at the bedsides of patients, which allow patients to speak with specialists from wherever they are. Doctors can monitor the equipment in the room and the patient’s vital signs, as well as look into their eyes or mouth via a handheld camera controlled by the physician facilitating communication on the other side. Electronic stethoscopes allow physicians to hear from a distance everything that the on-site physician can hear in person. Through health information technology (a close ally of telemedicine) a patient’s x-rays, lab results, and other information can be shared through laptops to further establish the doctor-patient relationship.

Telemedicine and Obstetrics

The Medical University of South Carolina is one of 3,500 U.S. service sites using telemedicine to reach out to and assist patients in rural hospitals that lack pediatricians, obstetricians, and other specialty doctors. MUSC uses resources that hospitals in certain locations may not have access to. According to Scott Sullivan, M.D., the director of MUSC’s Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, telemedicine has been able to reduce extreme premature birth rate, the neonatal death rate, and the maternal death rate. The program helps women who, for whatever reason, are unable to travel to MUSC for treatment.

“We’ve shown a positive health impact and decreased costs overall,” Sullivan said of the program. The high-risk telemedicine program, which started out seeing five to 10 patients a week, has reached out to hospitals in Florence, Georgetown, Hilton Head, Bluffton and other South Carolina cities. The program now sees 40 patients a week and continues to grow.

Telemedicine in Other Fields

The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) also uses telemedicine for emergency situations and pediatric care. “97% of pediatric critical care specialists are in urban areas, but 27% of visits to community emergency departments are children,” says MUSC Pediatric Critical Care Specialist, Dr. David McSwain. “There is a major mismatch between the patients that come into emergency departments in the community and the specialty services available to handle those children.”

The pediatric specialists at MUSC can be contacted twenty-four hours a day, 7 days a week. Physicians at MUSC often provide council to physicians in rural hospitals through seminars and discussion groups. This education process helps rural physicians learn how to determine in the future whether children facing emergency situations can be handled in their community hospitals or if specialists need to be consulted.

Telemedicine is not limited to hospital communication systems. Monitoring links can also be installed in homes for people can’t travel to local hospitals. The monitoring link is used to monitor cardiac, pulmonary or fetal issues via a land-line or wireless connection. Mobile devices can also be used for immediate patient-to-physician contact.

Conclusion – Why It Matters

Telemedicine is redefining healthcare and obstetrics for people who aren’t close to big hospitals. It simultaneously makes access to physician assistance convenient for patients and allows physicians to expand their reach beyond their workplaces. High-risk pregnancy specialist Dr. Gilbert Webb says telemedicine has enabled expectant mothers who live in rural areas to stay in contact with their doctors without having to travel for consultation. This technology also decreases costs of healthcare, giving access to those who can’t afford treatment. The practice of telemedicine has progressed immensely over the past few decades and will continue to grow as technology develops, thus revolutionizing healthcare options for people in small cities across the country.

About the Author: Marlena Stoddard is a freelance writer who received her BA from University of Georgia.

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Customer Support and Healthcare Professionals

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Five Changing Trends in Healthcare Customer Support

Healthcare is continually changing for the better and the next time you visit the doctor, it’s possible you’ll see these trends first-hand. Healthcare is increasingly becoming dependent on electronic data that is kept in your personal medical file. As technology continues to improve, it will be possible to quickly access your medical history at any hospital or private practice you visit. This will reduce errors, costs, and improve your physician’s ability to help you. Solutions like the ADP AdvancedMD service are already helping to improve the way doctors and private practices interact with patients and offer better customer support.

Electronic Records
Electronic health records have been in existence for over 30 years, but only recently have facilities really started to use them on a large scale. In 2008, only about 38 percent of the health records had been converted to e-records. By 2013, the number has increased to 78 percent. In the future, all records should be entered into an e-record system, making it easier to provide your doctors with information on your health.

Digital Tools
There has already been an increase in the use of digital tools. Tablets have proven useful in many different areas of healthcare, but there is even greater room for improvement as the technology continues to improve. Digital tools include telemedicine and in-office ehr software to help improve the health of patients and E-visits may become a new trend that may eventually replace more than 10 percent of in-office appointments.

Specialty Drugs
Niche treatments can be very expensive to develop and aren’t generally worth the cost when they only treat a small portion of the population. It’s likely the cost of these specialty medicines will eventually go down as Congress attempts to control the amount that drug companies can charge for new medications. Hopefully more specialized cases will be able to be treated as they are tested and made safe for consumption.

More Affordable Treatments
As the cost of medications go down, new treatments will be more readily available to treat unique conditions. As Medicaid gets more power to push for better prices with drug makers, it will be possible to inspire new competition and create a more efficient method for creating generics. As technology advanced in medicine, we will be able to see more people able to afford treatment and medicine.

Bundled Payments
Health care providers are starting to use a novel approach to cost-cutting. Bundled payments group all of the services a patient gets under a single fee. This new system sets a lump-sum fee that covers the entire cost of treatment from beginning to end. This can greatly reduce surprises and make treatment more affordable.

As health care continues to get more affordable and becomes increasingly digital, patients can expect to get better care. Customer support will change as a result of new technologies, and the ability to provide patients with exact quotes on services. Better managed payment systems will enhance the entire patient experience and we will see a greater improvement all across the board.

 

Brooke Chaplan is a freelance writer and blogger. She lives and works out of her home in Los Lunas, New Mexico. She loves the outdoors and spends most her time hiking, biking and gardening. For more information contact Brooke via Twitter @BrookeChaplan

As health care professionals, we deal with the financial end of medical care on a daily basis.  Good support is key.  Please also review our healthcare certification programs

 

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