Posts Tagged ‘End of life care’

March 25th, 2014

The Next Big Patient-Centered Initiative: Spiritual Care

Medical student Nick Bergfeld shares his thoughts about a need that many patients have but that medical practice largely neglects.


February 22nd, 2012

What’s Good for the Goose Is Good for the … Swan?

A colleague of mine who is a cardiology fellow recently made this confession: “I really love doing procedures. I can’t wait until the new patient gets here so we can Swan him.” Playing devil’s advocate, I asked: “Would you want to be ‘Swanned’ if you were admitted to the CCU?” Astonished, she replied, “Of course not. I […]


January 6th, 2011

The Shame of Removing Reimbursement for End-of-Life Discussions from Health Care Reform

My recent postings have been about heart failure mortality statistics. Dry stuff! It’s not that I am fixated on death, but yesterday, I learned that CMS (Medicare) has decided not to pay for discussions with patients about prognosis and planning end of life care. Reimbursement for such discussions was a key aspect of the health care […]