The Medical Consultant

05/10/2022

Is quality still an option in healthcare?

It is often said that you cannot have something fast, cheap, and good at the same time and that you must choose the two that matter most to you. So why would we think that healthcare would be any different. We have a healthcare system which is completely broken because quality always seems to lose in this scenario. Unfortunately, there has been an affect in healthcare across the country which has led to commoditization of radiology and the care that patients receive.
The expected standard which hospital administrators and ER doctors are now looking for is a 30-minute turnaround on radiology reports. However, images are not sent one at a time with the radiologist having the time to analyze the images and review the patient’s history. Instead, exams are sent in batches of 10-20 imaging exams at a time leaving the radiologist just a few minutes to review the images and history.
As well over the last 10 years while other areas of healthcare see rising reimbursements, there has been a 15% decline for radiology. We far too often get the bill for thousands of dollars for an imaging exam which was performed. However, the radiologist that interprets your foot x ray or chest x ray gets between $4-$7 to read it. The remainder of the thousands of dollars goes to the entity that owns the equipment. This has led to radiologists having to read faster and faster.
Therefore, the system has chosen which two factors are most important for you as a patient. They have dictated that radiology interpretations should be done quickly and should be performed cheaply. So unfortunately, that means that the quality will suffer. It is not possible to read the large amount of radiology exams quickly, for a discounted price, and at the same time for the radiologist to provide you with a detailed report because if they did, they would fall on their face on the healthcare treadmill. It is no wonder that radiologists are missing more diagnosis than ever, and their reports often lack substance. This is where The Medical Consultant stands alone as they start with quality interpretations, they charge a reasonable price for the time they spend interpreting the images, and since there is no artificial timeclock, time is not an issue. The Medical Consultant can provide you with the quality you deserve and most importantly, the right diagnosis.

04/05/2022

An expert should be making your diagnosis

There is a misconception in the media and healthcare as to the radiologist’s role in a patient’s health care. I have seen countless medical television episodes that portray a surgeon or ER doctor sitting behind a computer directing an imaging exam and making a diagnosis based on these images as they come across the screen. This has led to patients and often other doctors not recognizing the value in the contribution that the radiologist is making towards patient care.

Like all medical doctors, a radiologist must complete 4 years of undergraduate school, then 4 years of medical school, then 1 year of internship, then 4 years of dedicated radiology residency, and finally a 1 to 2-year optional fellowship in a radiology specialty. The radiology training must be completed at an accredited hospital for the radiologist to become board certified meaning that very strict and challenging requirements must be met specific to radiology. A typical radiologist will review more than 150,000 patient exams in that amount of time so that they can become experts in the field of radiology.

Relying solely on the opinion of a midlevel provider or non-radiologist physician to make your diagnosis based on the imaging you had performed is at best a scary thought but at worst reckless. Sitting in on a weekend conference or having a radiologist review exams with a clinician does not even come close to replacing the years of training and hundreds of thousands of exams that a radiologist has experienced in their careers. You would not go to a radiologist to have your appendix removed so why would you have a non-radiologist make your diagnosis on your brain MRI or abdomen pelvis CT?

Get a second opinion from the expert radiologists at The Medical Consultant and you will know that you are getting the right diagnosis from a specialist doctor in radiology.

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03/31/2022

80% of patient diagnoses can be made with history alone.

As a doctor, we know that history is the most important thing that a patient can provide to their doctors to help make the diagnosis. It is well known amongst doctors that 80% of patient diagnoses can be made by history alone without any lab tests or imaging exams. There is a role for screening imaging exams in radiology although when a patient is symptomatic that is not the time to perform a screening examination. When a patient is symptomatic then the history should be obtained and then the imaging test ordered can be chosen based on the patient’s history and symptoms.

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0SharesAs a doctor, we know that history is the most important thing that a patient can provide to their doctors to help make the diagnosis. It is well known amongst doctors that 80% of patient diagnoses can be made by history alone without any lab tests or imaging exams. There is a role for screeni...

03/04/2022

Considerations before getting back surgery

Back pain can be relentless and can prevent you from carrying out your normal daily routines not only in your personal life but also in your job. It is therefore not uncommon to want to get better as soon as possible which often is the driving force behind seeking back surgery. However, it is important to know that 90% of back pain will improve on its own with or without surgery.

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0SharesBack pain can be relentless and can prevent you from carrying out your normal daily routines not only in your personal life but also in your job. It is therefore not uncommon to want to get better as soon as possible which often is the driving force behind seeking back surgery. However, it is...

01/26/2022

Getting the correct treatment starts with the right diagnosis.

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01/19/2022

The problem that many patients encounter is that they focus on the treatment rather than the diagnosis. A study performed at the Mayo Clinic showed that 21% of the time a patient received a different diagnosis after getting a second opinion.

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01/08/2022

Understanding the holiday pounds

It is not surprising that we all tend to gain a few extra pounds over the holidays and despite our best efforts to try to exercise ahead of time it still tends to happen. The reality is that there is good and bad news that comes along with these extra 3-5 pounds.

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0SharesIt is not surprising that we all tend to gain a few extra pounds over the holidays and despite our best efforts to try to exercise ahead of time it still tends to happen. The reality is that there is good and bad news that comes along with these extra 3-5 pounds. The good news is that it is n...

11/17/2021

Unbiased second opinions- the best opinion.

It is very common for physicians to review their own films, whether in the emergency room or in their own offices seeing patients. However, as we all experience at times, a clinician’s confirmation bias can heavily weigh on their opinion as is often founded on the type of doctor they are. This type of bias is common amongst physicians and is part of the reason that doctors tend to find what they are looking for when it comes to looking at a patient’s images.

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0SharesIt is very common for physicians to review their own films, whether in the emergency room or in their own offices seeing patients. However, as we all experience at times, a clinician’s confirmation bias can heavily weigh on their opinion as is often founded on the type of doctor they are. T...

11/14/2021

Choosing the right doctor.

If you’re like many people, you never ask important questions of your doctor before following treatments they prescribe. Many patients tend to look for health care providers who are friendly, spend the most time with them, or who smile and listen to their story intently. These are qualities perceived by many patients to make for a good doctor and although they are important, they are not the most important to consider. .medicalconsultant

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11/11/2021

Bone marrow changes on MRI with degenerative spine disease.

Marrow changes of the spine follow a pattern that assists the radiologist in determining the degenerative status of the lumbar spine. These marrow changes abutting the vertebral cortex are frequently seen with disk disease and are rare in asymptomatic patients. The early marrow changes are thought to be most symptomatic in up to 70% of patients and associated with mild instability.

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0SharesMarrow changes of the spine follow a pattern that assists the radiologist in determining the degenerative status of the lumbar spine. These marrow changes abutting the vertebral cortex are frequently seen with disk disease and are rare in asymptomatic patients. The early marrow changes are th...

10/30/2021

We give you the correct diagnosis.

Getting a second opinion is something that all of us are used to doing every day in our normal activities of life. It is not unusual to get two or three bids from a contractor before having them do work on your house or a mechanic before you choose one to fix your car. So why do we not take this same approach with our own lives?

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0SharesGetting a second opinion is something that all of us are used to doing every day in our normal activities of life. It is not unusual to get two or three bids from a contractor before having them do work on your house or a mechanic before you choose one to fix your car. So why do we not take t...

10/27/2021

Positive findings on a screening breast exam will lead to additional imaging with a diagnostic mammogram and sometimes an ultrasound. Understand why a call back is not always something to fear.

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0SharesScreening mammograms are a very important part of breast cancer diagnosis and prevention as they can detect an abnormality before it becomes cancer, find an additional focus of cancer, and ultimately lead to a diagnosis that will direct treatment. Positive findings on a screening breast exam....