Journal of general internal medicine
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Comparative Study
Finding cancer in primary care outpatients with low back pain: a comparison of diagnostic strategies.
To compare strategies for diagnosing cancer in primary care patients with low back pain. Strategies differed in their use of clinical findings, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and plain x-rays prior to imaging and biopsy. ⋯ We recommend a strategy of imaging patients who have a clinical finding (history of cancer, age > or = 50 years, weight loss, or failure to improve with conservative therapy) in combination with either an elevated ESR (> 50 mm/hr) or a positive x-ray, or using the same approach but imaging directly those patients with a history of cancer.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
The effect of discussions about advance directives on patients' satisfaction with primary care.
Discussions of end-of-life care should be held prior to acute, disabling events. Many barriers to having such discussions during primary care exist. These barriers include time constraints, communication difficulties, and perhaps physicians' anxiety that patients might react negatively to such discussions. ⋯ Elderly patients with chronic illnesses were more satisfied with their primary care physicians and outpatient visits when advanced directives were discussed. The improvement in visit satisfaction was substantial and persistent. This should encourage physicians to initiate such discussions to overcome communication barriers might result in reduced patient satisfaction levels.
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Chronically fatiguing illness, defined as fatigue for at least 6 months, has been associated with various physical health conditions. Our objective was to determine whether there is a significant relationship between chronically fatiguing illness and 10 clinical conditions that frequently appear to be associated with fatigue, adjusting for the potentially confounding effects of psychiatric illness. ⋯ Chronically fatiguing illnesses were associated with high rates of many other clinical conditions. Thus, patients with chronic fatigue may present a complex clinical picture that poses diagnostic and management challenges. Nonetheless, clinicians should assess such patients for the presence of comorbid clinical conditions. Future research should provide a better understanding of the temporal relationship of the onset of fatigue and these conditions, and develop strategies for early intervention.
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The effect of care by medical residents on hospital length of stay (LOS), indirect costs, and reimbursement was last examined across a range of illnesses in 1981; the issue has never been examined at a community hospital. We studied resource utilization and reimbursement at a community hospital in relation to the involvement of medical residents. ⋯ Resident care at our community teaching hospital was associated with significantly higher costs but also with higher payments and greater profitability.
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A framework for understanding and evaluating physicians' skills at providing end of life care from the perspectives of patients, families, and health care workers will promote better quality of care at the end of life. ⋯ The 12 domains encompass the major aspects of physicians' skills at providing high-quality end-of-life care from the perspectives of patients, their families, and health care workers, and provide a new framework for understanding, evaluating, and teaching these skills. Our findings should focus physicians, physician-educators, and researchers on communication, emotional support, and accessibility to improve the quality of end-of-life care.