Summer 2011
PMH STORY by Allan R. Kelly MD FACP
A Premium Medical Home subscriber was traveling to visit family. While in New York City on Saturday morning, she noticed pain and discomfort in the hip. Shortly thereafter, she noticed a rash and was uncertain of the cause, but it was both painful and visible. She called her Premium Medical Home doctor for advice.
Talking with the patient, the diagnosis was not immediately clear. The doctor knew that an examination of the rash would probably settle the diagnosis. He asked the patient to use her cell phone to take a picture of the rash and send it to him.
The picture was duly sent within two to three minutes. The photo demonstrated a rash consistent with shingles.
The doctor called the subscriber back and reviewed her symptoms and medical history again. The doctor asked her to look out the window of her hotel and see if she saw a pharmacy. There was one right across the street. The doctor called the pharmacy and ordered medication for shingles.
On returning to Fort Worth two days later, the patient had a consultation with a dermatologist, who confirmed the diagnosis that was made over the weekend. Medications were continued. Early treatment reduces the pain and suffering of shingles in mature patients. This patient got treatment quickly and conveniently.
Premium Medical Home encourages patients and doctors to work together in a way that is comfortable and convenient. We believe that this focus is not only valuable itself, but improves medical care, improves outcomes, and improves satisfaction. The patient would have received the same treatment, perhaps, in an emergency room or urgent care clinic. But ready availability of her doctor allowed for more comfortable, convenient, and timely evaluation. Such options are a benefit of your PMH subscription.
This is why we have changed our practice to the Premium Medical Home model. We believe that by focusing on the Premium Medical Home model, we can find better ways to help our patients.
ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS by Allan Kelly MD FACP
There is a lot of interest in using electronic health records. Recent legislation from Washington awards doctors incentives of up to $55,000 over three to four years if they will convert their offices from paper records to an electronic record…….
PREVENTING DIABETES by Robert Kelly MD FACP
Pre-diabetes is common. It predicts a high probability that in the person’s future, diabetes mellitus will develop.In the last 20 years there have been significant changes in the average American’s diet and activity. One measure of this was that in about 1990 only one of the 50 states had…..
SMOKERS SUFFER by Allan Kelly MD FACP
We all know that smoking is bad for our health, but did you know that current smokers suffer poorer outcomes of other illnesses, even when those illnesses are unrelated to smoking? A smoker may philosophically accept the fact that ……
CHANGES IN DIET/LIFESTYLE AND LONG TERM WEIGHT GAIN by Robert Kelly MD FACP
A recent study from the National Institutes of Health (this is not an article on wasteful government research!) looked at food habits associated with weight change. Four items were each associated with significant weight gain…….
Medical Quotes:
“Although scientific knowledge is available to all, there is a vast difference between the best and worst of doctors, that difference representing the art of medicine.”
– D. J. Weatherall, M.D., 2011
“While medicine is a science, in many particulars it cannot be exact, so baffling are the varying conditions of human life. ” –
Charles Mayo, 1909