Friday, July 13, 2007

Good News For Humboldt Hearts?

Hard to say.

The Times- Standard reports this morning on a recently released report by the state on which surgeons and hospitals have the best record as far as survivability in coronary bypass procedures.

A local cardiac surgeon seems to have come out looking pretty good, whereas some highly thought of hospitals and doctors, UCSF Medical Center being one, were given bad marks. That certainly makes me wonder about the methodology used. Might places like UCSF tend to handle the more difficult cases referred to them by less experienced doctors?

I would think so but I bumped into this article from today's San Francisco Chronicle and it doesn't really clear up the issue. It says the study gives credit for doctors and hospitals that handle the tougher cases but it also says they include fatalities that might not be linked to coronary disease.

Not sure I trust the conclusions of the study.

12 Comments:

At 7:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would trust UCSF and UCDavis Medical over just about any hospitals in the country.

 
At 9:01 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This blog is worse than dead...it is downright BORING!

 
At 10:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fred, maybe its time for you to quit this blogging thing.

 
At 9:41 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

One of the Sutter Hospitals in San Francisco has good cardio doctors. Good enough that some doctors here go there.

 
At 10:06 AM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

The Santa Rosa Press- Democrat covers the controversy today from the Sonoma County perspective. For some reason I can't get to the article now but the title is Below Average Cardiac Care?

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/

 
At 1:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you go on the Blue Cross website you see that neither St Joe's nor Mad River cared to participate in their quality rating program. Hm.....

 
At 3:06 PM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

Interesting that you would bring that up. Just a minute before I saw your comment I checked the mail and found a letter from St. Joseph's Hospital.

The wife having spent a few days there a couple weeks ago, they sent one of those questionnaires out asking the past patient how she felt about the services and care at St. Joes.

I'll let her fill out the survey but, as far as my feelings go, I'm quite proud to have St. Joseph's as a Humboldt County hospital. I was very impressed. We're lucky to have such a fine hospital up here.

Can't comment on the other hospitals as I haven't had reason to go to any of them in at least a couple decades.

 
At 12:11 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dr. Lock and his team saved my life at St. Joseph Hospital when I was having a heart attack. Everyone there was exceptionally good.

 
At 12:13 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Let me add that several years later, my heart is as strong as it ever was.

 
At 1:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is this a joke or did you really write that you would "let" "the wife" fill out a survey?? Say it ain't so, Fred.

 
At 6:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Freds people don't train their women to read or write. So I think Fred's fibbing about even filling out the survey.

 
At 10:23 AM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

"Is this a joke or did you really write that you would "let" "the wife" fill out a survey?? Say it ain't so...".

Probably a poor choice of words. Then again, maybe she shouldn't fill out hospital surveys. She's too timid, imo.

We've gotten at least two such surveys from UCSF Medical Center. I think she sent at least one in but she didn't want to seem too critical, seems to me. Not that there was all too much to criticize, but there was at least one thing that, if not a serious issue, was at least very inconvenient.

Bone marrow transplant patients are supposed to avoid direct sunlight. Yet, their fifth floor oncology clinic doesn't have any blinds or curtains on the windows.

Not too big a deal if you can grab a seat on the north side of the building but, if it's full and you have to take a seat on the east side in the morning, the sun blasts right in on you. She's been through that a number of times and has had to go through some effort to keep her skin covered.

I suggested she write that down as an additional comment, in the space provided, but she didn't want to make any waves. Drove me bozonkers.

It would be a good suggestion to put some curtains or blinds on the east side windows of that place.

Funny thing is, if you go to their China Basin facility, they seem to have blinds on all the windows there, but they really don't need them. The surrounding buildings shade the windows. It's always nice and shaded there even outside.

 

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