The following original article which I wrote and was published today at Bioethics.Net website is reproduced here with permission. I will put some additional comments as an Addendum at the end of the copy. ..Maurice.05/03/2013MEDICAL SLANG L…
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Author Archive: Maurice Bernstein
“Incidental Finding”. The finding was one which was not sought for when a patient is being worked up to explain their symptoms and treat a disease, if present. The finding was not producing any symptoms. The dilemma for both the doctor and the patient …
04/29/2013
Patient Modesty: Volume 54
It seems that back and forth comments on this thread continues the disagreement regarding which gender is subjected to or is suffering more from acts within the medical community which intrudes upon the patient’s physical modesty, perhaps even causing …
“Creature comforts” have been usually defined as “things that contribute to bodily comfort and ease of mind as food, warmth or sleeping facilities” (The Free Dictionary). However, the “creature” in that definition is us. What if it is animal …
04/12/2013
Ethics: Not Hiring/Firing Those Who Smoke
There is a thread on this blog titled “Ethics of Smoking”. It was started in April 2009 In that posting, a visitor wrote that her insurance company was ” threatening their employees who will not quit smoking with a dock in pay of $25.00 per…
The content of this thread is about the ethics of texting when driving and my visitor’s views on this currently common activity. When one reads the statistics available regarding the extent of the texting while driving activity and the known stat…
04/02/2013
The Ethics of "Hand-Offs" in Medicine
The following original article which I wrote and was published today at the bioethics.net website is reproduced here with permission. I will put some additional comments as an Addendum at the end of the copy. ..Maurice.04/02/2013THE ETH…
04/02/2013
The Ethics of “Hand-Offs” in Medicine
Maurice Bernstein, M.D.
Here is a realistic scenario as written in the U.S. government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality “Web M&M” website which could occur in any teaching or even in non-teaching hospital with hospitalists on duty.
An 83-year-old man with a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and paroxysmal atrial fibrillation with sick sinus syndrome was admitted to the cardiology service of a teaching hospital for initiation of dofetilide (an antiarrhythmic medication) and placement of a permanent pacemaker.
The patient underwent the pacemaker placement via the left subclavian vein at 2:30 PM. A routine postoperative single view radiograph was taken and showed no pneumothorax.…
03/29/2013
Same-Sex Marriage: Is It Ethical?
While currently, in the United States, the issue of same-sex marriage is holding attention of the public and the United States Supreme Court, it is a settled matter in a number of other countries (Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Netherlan…
Unfortunately, unhealthy lifestyles are all around us and maybe even some of them belong to us. Iam writing about eating practices leading to obesity and associated diabetes or heart disease, smoking leading to chronic lung disease and cancer, alcohol …