hospitals

American and Canadian researchers have found that hospitals that practice drug and device studies could be better at dealing with life-threatening situations and they have lower patient death rates than hospitals that don’t do clinical trials. There was another study done that found that ovarian cancer patients at these types of hospitals have a 28 percent lower mortality rate.

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As a birth doula and childbirth educator I find myself entrenched in the medical establishments fear-based model of care for birthing mama's. What I see and feel discouraged by is the loss of the sanctity and sacredness of birth as a rite of passage because doctors are not even receiving the necessary training to see moms through a normal labor and delivery. Instead, they are being trained to manage the labor using drugs and other invasive procedures so that the birth can be more predictable, attempting to reduce the chances of something going wrong and therefore minimizing their liability. Unfortunately, it is often these measures that are taken to prevent "something going wrong" that actually creates a situation where something can go wrong. Ricky Lake has created a wonderful documentary about birth in our culture called, "The Business of Being Born". Here is a link to the documentary website where you can watch a preview and get more information. No pregnant mama should miss this one!

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I spent most of my day/evening yesterday at the E.R of Emory, here in GA. My kid sister went there because she has a bleeding ulcer and she was throwing up blood.

What is so very wrong is she had been to another hospital two days before, and the doctors there treated her like dirt! She has Medicaid, and yet she had to beg them to give her fluids, and then they refused to give her her prescriptions unless she divied up $200 dollars!

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Kosairs Children's Hospital saved my child's life.

Literally.

When my second child was born, he was unable to breath on his own. The pediatrician kept checking him, and finally he told me that he was going to have to be life flighted out. He told me straight out that the hospital did not have the resources or means to keep him alive there. Within a few hours, my son was sedated and taking his first helicopter ride.

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There is a service for doctors which allows them to check medicines and provides a drug and formulary reference on the fly. There is also a special version of the software which can be used on a PDA.

There is a premium version which allows them to diagnose different diseases via their PDA, or computers in the clinic or hospital. Another premium service is that they can check various alternative medicines, which would be good for contraindications. When I was a practicing herbalist, this would have been very handy. There were a few times I gave advice to people regarding herbs, and I always told them to check with their doctor, and told them the information they needed to know. For example, one infertile woman asked me what could help her conceive. We worked together and found that Chaste Tree Berry would meet her needs. And although Chaste Tree Berry is one of the most benign herbs I know of, with very few side effects or contraindications, it does not mean that everyone can take it. If I had someone come to me with a heart problem, I would not treat them, because I would want them to see a licensed practitioner. But say they did reseach on their own and found that foxglove would work. Then let's say that they took the wrong doseage of foxglove. If they go to their doctor, he would likely prescribe digitalis, which is the marketable pill form of foxglove. They would essentially be taking twice as much as they needed. And the doctor would not necessarily know. Just as I have not been trained in the correct doseaging of their medicines, they have not been trained in mine. With this software, potentially dangerous situations can be avoided, and the standard of care could be raised.

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