Saving Lives and Stamping out Disease

Crappy Hospitals? Tired Docs Killing People? Drink Coffee!

It is a sad day when government controlled hospitals have to be taken over by the government because they are so poorly run.   Wait...  The government runs them and they suck, yet there is a push to have the federal government take them over?  Anyone else going WTF?  Plus, their solution to tired health care workers who are  "being forced to work up to 80 hours without a break" is to drink six cups of coffee.  Is it any wonder why they are having issues getting doctors?  Take note folks, this is the future of government controlled health care.  While I LOVE coffee, it isn't a panacea for the woes of a poorly run medical system.  Enjoy the train wreck below.

Sleep-deprived doctors told to drink coffee

By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Exhausted Australian doctors have been told to drink up to six cups of coffee a day to stay awake during extended shifts, building pressure on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to seize control of state-run hospitals.

A document on fatigue management released by health officials in Queensland state recommended doctors ingest 400 milligrams of caffeine to stay awake on the job, or the equivalent of six cups of coffee, after warnings that patients were dying.

"For management to just say go and have a cup of coffee and get over tiredness, it cheapens the whole issue," Australian Medical Association Vice President Steven Hambleton told Reuters.

"We are talking about serious issues here, and this is not just a serious suggestion at all. It can't be a weakness to say you're dog tired," he said.

The recommendation followed warnings from a union representing Queensland doctors this week that public hospital patients were dying because dangerously tired medics were being forced to work up to 80 hours without a break.

Australia's national center-left government is under pressure to seize control of the nation's ailing public hospital system, currently managed by state governments with federal funding support, in a $20.5 billion takeover.

With fresh elections a year away, repairing the health system was a key promise that helped underpin the 2007 victory by Labor over rival conservatives, with Rudd campaigning tirelessly on health and promising to fix public hospitals.

Rudd last month delayed a decision by six months, but said the option of a "full monty" takeover was still on the cards.

In advocating the use of caffeine by doctors, the health department document said that compared with other psychoactive drugs, such as the prescription-only stimulant modafinil, caffeine was more readily available and less expensive.

Salaried Doctors Queensland, representing medicos, countered that pumping doctors full of caffeine was not an effective way to deal with fatigue and doctor shortages, often filled in Australia through recruitment overseas.

Queensland Labor Health Minister Paul Lucas said the state was aiming to train more doctors and cap hospital work shifts at 12 hours over the next two years, but had no immediate solution to fatigue and staff shortages.

"If the doctors are not there, we can't do it," he said. "We can't say we'd rather not have it as it is and create doctors out of the air."

Original Link

Technorati Tags: epic failure, socialized medicine, australia, coffee

Our Surveys are Stupid and Painful

I think most everyone wants to improve the environment they are working in.  If there are solutions to problems at hand, they should be shared with those who have the ability to change the process and make life better.  There are some institutions, perhaps one attended by myself and others, that have instituted mandatory surveys following sections in lecture.  On the surface, it is quite a good idea.  Everyone gives feedback, problems are solved, and everyone is happy.  Sadly, this just isn't the case.  When every instructor has exactly the same mostly-irrelevant questions asked long after we have blocked out their lecture, things aren't helped.  Sure, on paper it looks like something is being done.  In reality, I would question their efficacy.  It is easy to rate everything a 4 or 5 to get it out of  the way and move on and I know that this is a frequent occurrence.  Of course when you ask questions like "Does the  lecturer listen to the students?" what do you expect?  How does one gauge that?  What is the frame of reference of a 4 or 5?   How crappy does someone have to be to get a 1? (Attend certain immunology/cmb/neuro lectures to find out)   Why not just ask "Do you think the lecturer actually looked at their notes before class?"  or  "Do you think the lecturer wrote on the never-used chalk board to be EDGY or they just forgot all their stuff?"  Perhaps these would be more relevant? Perhaps "Do you think the lecturer has ever touched a patient or worked outside a lab?"  or "Do you feel that the material tested was actually covered in class and not placed blindy in the exam to lower our freakishly high class averages?" would be better.  Maybe if there was more thought placed in the questions and tailored to the instructor things would improve.  Also, it may be worth considering offering surveys at the time of testing to gauge how well the material was taught relative to the exam while the wounds are still open it is fresh.  Unless the powers that be get serious about improving their programs, real and positive change won't happen. 

Technorati Tags: school, surveys, failure

Another Vehicle in My Yard

It's 4:30 in the morning and sleepy time has jut set in.  Dreams of mowing down zombies with high power rifles are dancing in my head.  All is right with the world.

Knock Knock...  Bark Bark Bark Bark Bark !

"Uh high...  uh...   I drove into your yard.  I need to get your permission to get a tow truck to pull me out."

Genius here missed the fact that the road goes left and right.   Thankfully he got out after a short tour of my front yard.  Dumbass....

Refrigerator Cleaning Fail

I tried to do something nice.  I tried to clean the refrigerator.  I made the decision to clean the bottom glass shelf in the bathtub.  I figured that it would be much easier with the extra space.  I soaked the whole thing in lukewarm soapy water to allow the goo to dissolve.  I let the water out and proceeded to wipe it down with a cloth.  It then exploded in my hands.  It is a terrible feeling.  I think that this is a sign to never do brain surgery. Sorry Honey....

I Don't Think She Understands "Fisting" - PG Rated It's Cool

For the Non-Youtube Friendly
Download Barack and Michelle Obama do WHAT together


 I know that everyone hasn't worked in a major metro emergency department and learned the "ways of the world", but I thought that this term was better understood.  Remember kids, only use words whose meanings you know.  If not, you will become famous.

My First Failblog Submission

On a recent trip to Lowes home improvement paradise, I happened upon some VERY disturbing interesting sights.  The first thing I saw has become my very fist submission to failblog.org.  I always wanted to do the whole, "long time viewer, first time poster" thing.  Maybe it is just me, but I am confused on the instructions found in the picture below.  Enjoy.  Keep your fingers crossed that they post in on the site!

moar funny pictures

When 911 Fails WTF Do You Do?

Let's say that you were sleeping comfortably at home.  You're all snuggled into your bed, you're recovering from yet another day of studying mind-numbing medical school pain, and you wake to a sound much like something exploding outside your bedroom window.  Suffice it say that you are extremely awake.  You look around your house trying to figure out if anything important has detonated... Nothing...  You fly over to the window to discover a single light shining up from your front yard.  It is a light that should not be there.  This is what happened to us about a week ago. 

So, of course, I call 911 and report a MVC car vs. pole, unknown injured and request PD and fire/rescue.  My wife and I suit up in our handy Carhartt cold gear and head to investigate.  Here is what we discover:

We discover 2 individuals that have self-extricated.  1 is vomiting and the other has complex hand lacerations.  Fortunately, a good Samaritan stops and the poor bastards take refuge in his SUV.  I call 911 again to update the situation with 2 patients.  The operator informs me that there has already been multiple calls and there were units dispatched.  The Good Samaritan informs me that he has also called 911, hand lac guy says he called 911, and apparently the douche neighbor of mine did as well.  This makes a total of 5 911 calls for this accident.  This is about 5:30 am.  We wait and wait.  I get the Good Sam to pull off the road and into my driveway.  45 MINUTES AFTER MY 911 CALL police pull in.  Of course, this is after a police cruiser drives right by us waving, shouting, and flashing our lights at him.  The officer realizes there are injuries and calls for EMS.  1 hour 2 minutes after my call, they arrive and transport.  This is simply unacceptable. There were multiple epic failures here.

#1 No ambulance was dispatched
Why?  I reported injuries.  I reported car vs. pole.   Unacceptable

#2 45 minutes for PD
The officer tells us that he wasn't very far away when the call came out, but that it was close to shift change.  When he picked up on the fact that I was pretty pissed that they seriously f'd up, he shut up.

Thankfully they were able to get out and they didn't die.  Also, big kudos to the guy that stopped and offered 2 hurt strangers the warmth of his vehicle.  It is a rare things to see such kindness.  Good job.  I notified the mayor's action center about this incident and have yet to hear back.

Remember, when seconds count, the police are just minutes away.

BONUS PICS

Here's where they slid clear across our front yard. You can't see the neighbor's mailbox (or what is left of it) or the demolished cable box.  Hitting ice is bad.

Here is where they were airborne. You can just see where they landed past the red cup.

Here is my poor tree.  It looks like this is what they hit before they rolled onto their side.

This is what the bottom of a car looks like.

The Calm Before the Storm

It's quiet now.  Most of the little kiddies are in bed dreaming of government bailouts sugar plums and unicorns and I've finished reviewing last year's exam for neuro...    All I could think was:  Sweet Baby Jebus.  Tomorrow is a three hour exam full of despair with a slice of sadness and regret on the side.  I'm sure there are a substantial number of people that are masters of the brain and all the pain that it contains.  I'm not one of those people.

The exam contains 132 action packed questions guaranteed to find out just how much you will eventually forget after boards.  I would love to be able to master the material, heck at this point I would be happy with mediocrity.  I just had to whine like a sad little girl who just discovered Barbie's head would come off vent for a moment and create some demotivators.

Bonus Demotivator:

Technorati Tags: medical demotivators, medical school, neuroanatomy

WaMu Now WTF

The largest bank failure in history occurred this week.  Home of failure WaMu Free Checking, Free Checks for Life, and billions of dollars in junk debt sub-prime mortgages, Washington Mutual held the world's largest yard sale yesterday.  WaMu investors got some unlubricated butt love unpleasant news as their stock hit $1.50/share down from $36.47 one year ago.  Their knight in shining armor, JPMorgan Chase, came in and aquired the sad little company for a paltry $1.9 billion. For that bargain price, they get $307 billion in assets and $188 billion in deposits.  Of course they took a tax write-off devalued the assets by $31 billion due to the quantity of albatross sub-prime mortgages.

Who brokered this deal?  The MAN FDIC.  Once again when the government fisted helped the shareholders of the company by finding the best deal for them.  Hooray for government intervention!   I can't wait to see how they help us next!Technorati Tags: WaMu, Epic Failure, demotivators, JPMorgan, Chase

Neuroanatomy Makes Meh Teh Dumb

[BEGIN PITY PARTY] Once I thought I was a reasonably intelligent person.  Once, I thought that I could learn just about anything if I worked long enough and focused myself on the material presented.  I now find myself actually dumber than I was before I started.  I am retaining little, if any material.  I find myself listening to lectures and hearing only a dull roar in the background.  I would really like to learn the material.  I want to be a doctor when I grow up.  I want to be smart again.  I certainly don't feel that way now.  I felt really unprepared for the last web exam, I feel worse about the one this weekend.  The brainstem is like trying to understand post-modern performance art.  I find myself thinking WTF?  about every 5 minutes.  Tomorrow I am going to start fresh and take on the material with a new mindset.  There has to be some kind of trick to make my mind understand this.  I think I'll hit the bookstore to look for some hidden gem of a review book.   Right now I am going to put my helmet on and watch cartoons. [END PITY PARTY]