Medicine: Where do they send you for bad behavior?

In a recent decision of the Iowa Board of Medicine the doctor was ordered to obtain an evaluation from the Behavioral Medicine Institute in Atlanta, GA, (BMI).

Creepy Crawly Class Action Certified in Bed Bug’s Treatment Case

A class action has been certified in Iowa against a lower-income apartment complex by about 300 residents. Lawyer

Who determines medical tests are “frivolous”?

While we await the scientific answers let’s ask another basic question about you and yours. Should you (and yours) be given lesser medical treatment because you’re not a VIP? THE FACTS: A woman is in a car accident and injures her neck and head. She goes to the hospital where she is examined and released. She’s 46-years-old. The mva occurs at around 11:00 a.m. on a Saturday. The next morning at 8:00 a.m. a friend notices she is unconscious. She is later pronounced dead.

Iowa Workers Compensation: Which way will the full House vote?

Iowa’s Governor Chet Culver is in favor of the bill before the legislature that would allow injured workers the right to choose their own treating physician. Join us today on The Verdict as we discuss which way the full House will vote on the bill that would allow injured workers the right to choose who treats their injuries.

Iowa Workers Compensation: What is a company doctor?

In Iowa the employer, or in most cases, the employer's insurance company has the right to select the treating physician. The injured worker has limited rights to select the treating physician. There are times the insurance adjuster will ask the worker who he wants as the treating physician, but that's unusual.

Many employees don't like the doctors chosen by the insurance company. That's not unusual because many of those doctor decisions about treatment seem to require input from the patient. Company doctors as they are called, seem to have little concern for what the patient wishes to do. You could say the company doctors don't seem to care about what the patient may want. That's not far from the truth.

Think about it for a minute. Doctors know that they are being chosen by an insurance company. Insurance company's select conservative doctors who start off thinking all workers are liars and would love nothing better than to be on workers' compensation for the rest of their lives. That's an unjustified and stupid assumption but one not entirely without a historic basis. To stay within the insurance company's favor doctors must maintain a certain distance from the patient/injured employee. Thus they remain aloof from the injured employee who is the patient.

The company doctor will almost always espouse conservative opinions towards issues like going back to work, maximum medical improvement and permanent impairment. Conservative means the less the better and get the injured back to work. The company doctor resolves any doubts in favor of the insurance company. They will endear themselves to the insurance company executives to remain within their favor. That way they keep getting referrals from the insurance company.

So if as the injured worker you're frustrated with the way the company doctor is treating you, join the rest. So is everyone else.

The limited rights you have depends on what the Industrial Commission considers "reasonable". If the doctor and the adjuster get too far off the reservation, then your lawyer can file for alternate medical care and ask for a different doctor. That's as good as it gets under Iowa's workers' compensation law.

Who chooses the Medical Care? 

The employer provides medical care reasonably suited to treat the employee’s injury, and has the right to choose the medical care. If the employee is dissatisfied with the care offered, the employee should discuss the problem with the employer or insurance carrier. In certain situations the employee may wish to request alternate care. If the employer, or insurance carrier, does not allow alternate care, the employee (through appropriate proceedings) may apply to the workers' compensation commissioner for alternate medical care. (85.27)

If the employer-retained physician gives a rating of permanent impairment, which the employee feels is too low, the employee does have a right to another examination by a doctor of the employee’s choice at the employer’s expense. (85.39)

 

Medical Safety - Bacterial infection in Turkey causes 40 infant deaths while hospitalized.

Two prenatal units in Turkey had 40 newborns die of bacterial infection.

What hospitals are involved? "In July, the Ankara facility became the scene of any parent's hell. A total of 27 newborns died there within two weeks, most of them from infection.

Now Turkey is reeling from a similar tragedy at another hospital, this time in the western city of Izmir, where 13 premature babies died last weekend within 24 hours, apparently from tainted IV treatment.

What caused the deaths? "A preliminary investigation concluded that the infants died of a bacterial infection spread by IV treatment."

That the report on Turkey's progress towards modernization. You see Turkey wants access to the European union's economy to improve their own. Sort of like the Chinese wanting access to the U.S. economy. The E.U. has been slow to move Turkey along towards membership and now... it should turn glacially slow. I can appreciate a situation where a few babies become ill, but how do so many die? After the first one, then two and three why didn't the hopsital staff go into full alert? What did they do to determine the cause of death and to stop the infection's progress? Obviously, this demonstrates why third-world cultures should not have access to the more developed economies of the world until they show sufficient progress towards regulatory oversight that we are safe.

The recent melamine scare should give us all pause at the grocery store when purchasing food products. In what country was the product manufactured?