The Los Angeles County Medical Association (LACMA) has begun organizing a physicians’ union completely separate from LACMA. Meanwhile, Los Angeles county’s 800 non-resident physicians voted to affiliate with the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD). The ability to organized physicians got tougher when, in a New Jersey case, the National Labor Relations Board upheld […]

Hospitals are doing what we call PEER REVIEW, where doctors reviews each other records to make sure everyone is giving appropriate care. PEER REVIEW works fine much of the time. But in recent years, it has been subject to considerable abuse. Some have estimated that in some hospitals up to 70 percent of the reviews […]

An 88-year-old woman came in for a complete examination. Afterwards she said she was concerned about her late husband possibly having had Herpes and asked if I could recommend someone to check her out “down there.” She was becoming quite daffy over a 77-year-old man who lived in her complex and wanted to know she […]

Sheryl R Skolnick, PhD, managing director at BancBoston Robertson Stephens, who is responsible for analysis and recommendations in the health-care arena, was the final speaker at the UCI Health Care Forecast Conference as reported in the The Bulletin of the OCMA. She concluded that 1998 was a disastrous your for health care. She stated that […]

Dr Linda Peeno, a former medical reviewer and medical director for three managed care organizations, testified before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Health. She stated: “I will begin by making a public confession: In the spring of 1987, as a physician, I caused the death of a man. No one held me accountable for […]

The American Thoracic Society composed of 13,000 pulmonologists and physicians with related interests, met in San Diego for their annual scientific meeting. For the last 7 years, this has become an international conference with 16,000 attending this year, including 6,000 from the international community. All fifty states were represented as well as nearly 50 foreign […]

At the last Editorial Board Meeting we received a report concerning the proposed medical board fee increase. We were told that there is absolutely no question that the Medical Board of California (MBC) needs an increase in fees from physicians. This is because over a 20-year career, a physician beginning practice today in California may […]

Last month we told you about two doctors who were targeted for loss of privileges. In each case they eventually won. However, all had fallen out of favor with Hospital A in the past. The attorney fees in one case were well over $50,000. In one case, the loss of income was so great that […]

My London Correspondent: GPs in England use computers to automate their medical records; the system, however, is extremely fragmented. There are 18 different OSs (operating systems). Moves were made to privatize and allow local budgets in the British National Health Service, but when New Labour was elected, they stripped the doctors of their funding. The […]

Since that some hospital foundation and HMO groups assign physicians to the inpatient service, where they take over the total management of patients with whom they are unfamiliar, Luis E Cebrian, MD, a GP from Chico has a word of caution. Coming from the National Health Service (NHS) in England, where “hospitalists” are called consultants, […]