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San Leandro Chiropractor

Facts About Hospital Errors

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HOSPITAL ERRORS

Studies show that medical errors can occur in about one-third of hospital admissions. It is really scary to admit but the facts point out that medical errors are about 10 times more common than what was previously estimated. One study is authored by David C. Classen, MD who is an associate professor of the Salt Lake City’s University of Utah in medicine. Dr. Classen used a new tracking tool to be able to accurately determine where and what areas the common medical errors happen and for them to focus on improving these areas. He doesn’t want to ruin his profession by exposing these medical errors but his main goal is to promote awareness with his fellow physicians with what they need to improve in these areas. Through voluntary reporting and other methods, Dr. Classen was able to develop a new tracking method for determining medical errors.

Protecting Patients From Common Hospital Errors
To name a few most common hospital errors include some medication related issues, hospital acquired infection and procedure mistakes. These are the most common ones which Dr. Classen’s procedure was able to determine. But according to him, proper knowledge by asking question and talking with the physician could reduce the risk of medical errors.It is very important for a patients to know why they are taking certain medication and what effects does it bring to their body when they start taking it. And talking to the physician that would be responsible for the patient’s surgery is also very important. Talking with the physician about all the steps involved and asking questions that might be difficult for a patient to understand are just some of the important procedures that are sometimes taken for granted. A patient should also make sure that when they will undergo certain surgery they should bring an advocate, either a family or a friend that could watch over things and can also help them get a clearer view of things.There are times when a surgery needs to use certain devices like urinary catheter. A patient should ask their physician daily of when they will remove it. Because sometimes infection might develop through this and it should be removed as soon as it is no longer necessary.
Looking For A Second Opinion
It is very important that a patient should seek for a second opinion if they are not satisfied with the findings of their first physician. Some conditions has numerous ways of treatment and there are also several conditions which have the same symptoms and different physicians might have different findings.Another patient safety expert Peter Pronovost, MD believes that the new tracking tool is way too far from fail-safe. He is a professor at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine on anesthesiology and critical care medicine. According to him this tool is not really a good measure of the hospital errors problem.Though patients should be very careful in choosing where they will have their surgeries, like researching about the hospital’s bloodstream infection rate and such. And they should make sure that the physician that would handle the operation has a lot of experience in that area. Even in the medical field practice really makes it perfect says Dr. Pronovost. Though he doesn’t deny the fact that this new tracking tool shows the need for patient awareness and system improvement on the medical field, it is just another call to action to raise awareness on hospital errors.

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Back Surgery, Cost of Insurance and Ineffectiveness of Care

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BACK SURGERYAs the number of orthopedic surgeons in the USA is growing so is the number of back surgeries performed on patients with back pain. Often time it is a 50/50 chance that patient will be pain free after a surgical procedure due to the soft tissue fibrosis and lack of proper post surgical rehabilitation. Did you know that over 100,000 people die each year in this country from surgery complications. This number by far exceeds the number of automobile accidents in the entire country. The ratio is 23 percent for men and 32 percent for women.

It is not the secret that the health care system in this country is the most expensive in the world. Thus all U.S. citizens must get the best educated doctors who in theory would make the healthiest nation in the world and would provide the best medical care available. World Health Organization stated that as of 2000 the U.S. ranked #1 in cost, #72 in population health, #37 in health care delivery with 48 million Americans uninsured. France is ranked as #4, #4 and #1 and only 1% uninsured. The question is why French get more medical care for their money than we are?

TIME Magazine stated that U.S. spends more to get less then any other industrialized country in the world. Why such a waste of resources?  This country spent twice as much on a sick-care as it did on food in 2006 and more than China’s 1.3 billion citizens consumed altogether. Wow, we can feed countries like India and China for the whole year.

President Barack Obama stated: “Today, we are spending over 2 trillion a year on health care – almost 50 percent more per person than the next most costly nation. And yet, for all this spending, more of our citizens are uninsured; the quality of our care is often lower; and we aren’t any healthier. In fact, citizens in some countries that spend less than we do are actually living longer than we do.”

According to Forbes Magazine Back Pain cost over $40 billion for treatment alone. If we include disability, work loss and other factors the total cost would range somewhere between $100-200 billion per year. That is quite a large amount of money. Most of the countries do not even produce this much. About 3 million people went to Hospital E.R. for lower back pain which cost $9.5 billion. Low Back Pain is the number nine most expensive condition treated in U.S. Hospitals. If people could only maintain their bodies the way they maintain their vehicles things would be different. Regular Chiropractic care could prevent biomechanical vertebral misalignments and therefore save an individual from unnecessary expensive surgical procedure.

Pran Manga, PhD. MPhil health economist stated: “ There is an overwhelming body of evidence indicating that chiropractic therapy of lower back pain is more cost-effective than medical management.” Many other studies proved that chiropractic manipulation for none specific low back pain is far more effective than other forms of treatments. Millions of patients are satisfied with the results that they are getting with chiropractic care. Watch several video testimonials on this blog. Only 42 out of 131 military treatment facilities have access to a chiropractic care due to the medical bureaucracy within the Department of Defense.

What would you do if you had low back pain?

  1. Go To a Hospital and Get Pain Killers and Possible Referral for a Surgery?

  2. Go To a Chiropractor?

  3. Do Nothing and Wait Till the Pain Goes Away On Its Own?

 

 

 

10 Little Known Secrets about Healthy Knees

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healthy knees Healthy Knees and 10 Little Known Secrets

It is impossible to keep your knees healthy and in perfect shape even when you are getting older. What’s important is that you know the secrets in maintaining healthy knees. Prevention is really better than cure so if you are still not suffering from any knee problem, you must already start to follow these tips in keeping your knees healthy.

First tip is to warm up before doing any type of activity. It is very simple and it allows the synovial fluid to flow through your joints so you won’t experience more friction while working out. Remember, as you jump or run or do squats, your knee is absorbing a lot of the force and in time, it can deteriorate.

2nd, stay in shape and maintain a healthy weight. The more weight you carry around the more your knee joints get stressed.

3rd maintain good ankle mobility. Exercise your ankles to increase its mobility as the ankle’s function affects the health of the knee. Start by standing with your feet just a short distance (a few centimeters) away from the wall then keep the heels on the ground while trying to touch the wall with your knee. Repeat this several times while stepping back a little each time. Calf stretching is also necessary if you are feeling some tightness.

4th, improve hip function. Try some glut exercises to improve your hip function as this will ease the knees. Your hips can absorb more impact thus decreasing the stress on your knees.

5th, increase hip mobility. This is similar with improving the ankle mobility. If your hip moves well, you can squat in the right position without having your knees absorb the most weight and stress.

6th, diet supplements! If you’re an active athlete or perhaps you carry weights or go to the gym, most probably you are putting more stress to your knees than normal. This can deteriorate the knees but this can be prevented by taking supplements. Fish oil supplements have great benefits and also have anti inflammatory effects on your joints. Glucosamine and Chondroitin are also great diet supplements to keep your bones and joints healthy and strong.

7th, stop when it starts to hurt.  If you’re suffering from knee pain and it hurts when you do a certain action then you should stop it. Whatever is causing you pain could further add more damage and degeneration to the knee. Try to slowly integrate the action as you figure out the problem. If you are injured, doing the action won’t do you any good but this doesn’t mean you should stop it forever.

8th, stretch! Stretching is great for relaxing your muscles after an activity. Your muscles should recover after an activity to prevent fatigue.

9th, cycling for rehabilitation. If you do suffer from knee pain or injury, cycling is a great exercise to improve joint mobility. It is a knee friendly exercise with very low impact.

10th, muscle endurance is important. By increasing the endurance of your muscles, they won’t get into fatigue quickly. Low impact cardiovascular activities would do the trick. Improving muscle endurance during knee rehabilitation will also speed up the healing process.

Question: Was this information helpful? Please leave a comment. Thank you

Injured Knee Pain, Sprained Knee Ligaments and Knee Treatment Options

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Knee pain is one of the most common orthopedic problems encountered and its rehabilitation depends on the history of its injury. The knee pain can either be chronic or caused by a sudden injury. Runners usually experience pain due to sprain after they run or jog. If it’s a sharp and sudden pain, this could be caused by a torn ligament and this needs an immediate medical response. Other times though, the injury is caused by strain and the treatment for this can start right at home. For strained knee, resting is the first step to take the strain off. Then, apply ice on the area for short intervals at a time, 15 minutes on and 45 minutes off for every waking hour. Do not apply ice for longer then 15 minutes as it could damage your skin and create a reverse effect. After icing the affected area, wrap it with a bandage for compression. Then, elevate the injured area as you rest it. These 4 steps are called the RICE or Rest, Ice, Compression & Elevation method. If following the RICE method does not work, you must see a medical professional for proper knee rehabilitation.

If the knee injury is not caused by strain, it can be caused by rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, or an injured ligament. If ever you notice stiffness after running, you may need to speak to a medical professional for a proper diagnosis. He will then perform physical examination and perhaps an x-ray or an MRI to see what’s really causing the problem.

If the pain is caused by an injured ligament, you will be prescribed to take proper rest and wearing of a brace. The knee brace is useful as it helps in preventing further injury to the knee which could definitely worsen the problem. The brace would be providing you with support that can reduce your discomfort while doing activities such as walking or while exercising for its rehabilitation. Brace is also used by professional athletes even when there’s no injury as this will prevent them from having the injury in the first place.

Osteoarthritis is unfortunately incurable. Anyone can suffer from this and it is similar to arthritis but affects the knee’s cartilage which then weakens the articulate surface. Treatment for this condition ranges from taking anti-inflammatory drugs to wearing of a knee brace and even surgery. Of course the severity of the condition is greatly considered before going to the last resort which is surgery.

Rheumatoid arthritis is not like the other forms of arthritis. This is caused by a disease in the auto immune system as the body attacks itself. Just like osteoarthritis, anyone can suffer from this, even children. It can be a hereditary disease and kids suffering from knee stiffness after running should consult a doctor. Treatments for this condition are with the use of a support and/or taking of medication.

At my clinic I use PT modalities (Electric Stimulation and Moist Heat combination, Ultrasound, Erchonia PL 5000 Cold Laser, Elastic Wrap, CMT (Certified Massage Therapy) and Manual Chiropractic Adjustment when applicable). Electric Stimulation helps to bring the pain level down in the first couple of week of the therapy and heat brings more blood to the injured area as well as allows it to be more relaxed for the next step. Next modalities are Ultrasound or Erchonia PL5000 Cold Laser. I alternate them with every other session. Next patient sees my CMT for 15 minutes only if there is mucle strain around injured knee. My massage therapist breaks the scar tissue down and moves injured knee through its natural Range of Motion. After massage I adjust knee’s patellar if tendonitis is present and wrap the knee with elastic wrap for a better support.

If you are diagnosed with any of the conditions above, your doctor would go for the most conservative treatment first. This means proper rehabilitation is the first option before they consider surgery. It is a last resort and cannot even guarantee success all the time.

Below is 3D MEDICAL ANIMATION  – It is one of the best presentatons on Youtube.

Knee joint is the most complex articulation of the human body. It supports almost the entire body’s weight, while allowing wide flexion and extension movements together with rotation when the knee is in flexion. To accomplish these functional features it has a very complex anatomical structure.

Question: What did you do when you had knee injury?  Was the treatment helpful?