Tuesday, 17 April 2012

Princess Health and University of Louisville delays choosing hospital partner.Princessiccia

Princess Health and University of Louisville delays choosing hospital partner.Princessiccia

To allow time for more "discussions and negotiations," the University of Louisville has put off deciding on University Hospital's new health-care partner until the end of June.

It is not known how many entities are interested in partnering with the indigent-care hospital, nor have any entities been identified. The deadline for applications, which was last month, has not been extended. "The university has said it needs a partner with deep pockets that can inject cash required to expand the hospital and attract new patients," reports Andrew Wolfson for The Courier-Journal.

Kerri Richardson, chief spokeswoman for Gov. Steve Beshear, said he is hopeful the hospital will find "a suitable path forward to preserve its public mission and continue to successfully serve citizens in the region."

Last year, Beshear rejected a proposed merger between University Hospital, Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's HealthCare and Saint Joseph Health System, which is owned by Catholic Health Initiatives. Because Saint Joseph would have had majority control in the initial deal, the other facilities would have had to adhere to Catholic health directives, which affect procedures like elective abortions, sterilizations, artificial insemination and euthanasia. Those limitations raised concerns and that the move would have been a loss of control of a public asset, meaning University Hospital.

After Beshear's decision, Jewish & St. Mary's and St. Joseph merged, forming KentuckyOne. (Read more)
Princess Health and NIGHTMARE PATIENTS ON THE HCG PROTOCOL. Princessiccia

Princess Health and NIGHTMARE PATIENTS ON THE HCG PROTOCOL. Princessiccia

There is predictability to whether or not people are going to be difficult to work with during the hCG protocol. The most telling information is their denial of emotional eating and their emotional reaction to when food is limited, even without hunger.

These patients complain immediately (even before starting) of their disappointment in the protocol restrictions. Like how punished they are because they can�t put cream in their coffee. How bored they are with the food, within days of starting. They�re miffed by the fact they can�t have cheese, or add oil to their cooking. Usually these patients feel it is their right to eat, and their right to lose fat. These patients are so entitled they are ignorant to their own addiction.

IT�S YOUR FAULT IF THEY FAIL AND YOUR FAULT IF THEY ARE FAT.
These patients are the most difficult to assist. Why? Because they want you to take on the burden of their issues. They want you to give them a pill so they never have to admit faults.
They complain they are feeling deprived, but admit they aren�t hungry. They obsess over the scale, are disappointed in the fat losses (no matter how miraculous), and believe there is someone else to blame. They admit they continually break the protocol with licks and tastes of foods that aren�t on the protocol, but deny they cheat at all. They ignore the science of leptin, but are astonished by their lack of fat loss eating less than 600 calories (after you include their cheats). These patients think the protocol is flawed and their body is flawed, but not their entitled view of gluttony as virtuous.
These patients don�t want any responsibility and think because they invested money in your program, they are entitled to you as their savior.  And if you don�t meet their unattainable expectations, you are at fault. They believe a pound of fat loss a day is guaranteed because they were told by some shmucky Internet person (selling an amino product with appetite suppressants) that, �By using our liquid drops, the hCG protocol (even though there is no hCG in their product) would allow your body to release one pound of fat a day!�
Despite the fact that you explained thoroughly not to expect that type of loss unless they have a metabolism they requires over 4000 calories a day. Despite the explanation of gains with minor cheats. Despite the warning that the hCG protocol is a hormonal therapy and that there is no guarantee they will adherence to the process, they demand a  100% return policy, even when they ignore every warning, and break all boundaries of the protocol.  
Even though they paid for real expertise, they go to the Internet for �credible� guidance, and continue to argue that you don�t know how the protocol works.  �I saw on YouTube this woman who said you could eat macadamia nuts to lose weight when you stall. I saw another video where they said not to load in the beginning. I called another clinic that said you can eat 1000 calories and the protocol would still work. I�m not hungry but I want an appetite suppressant. Can you prescribe those fat burning injections? I swear you told me fat loss was guaranteed. � What a nightmare!
Some people refuse to read anything. You�ve spent three hours preparing them, given them Dr. Simeons� Pounds & Inches,  a workbook, blogs, videos, Weight-Loss Apocalypse,  and everything possible so they have the tools to understand the process from every angle. But yet, they only want you to be there so they have someone to blame when they f*ck up. As if there was something you did that made them cheat!   They schedule appointments just to complain about the protocol, and they hate you because you�re the one who is punishing them.  And they want you to spend another three hours to verbally explain (again) how the entire protocol works.
They grumble about the cost of your program when Internet sales of hCG costs far less. REALLY? There is no value to our expertise and we should work as slaves to your emotional illness?  Should we take on this type of abuse, because you are entitled to ignorance? HELL NO.
I have very little tolerance for this type of bullsh*t. Ask anyone who comes to our clinic and has immediately been shut down and refused a prescription as soon as the complaining begins and entitlement surfaces.  If you are not willing to take personal responsibility for your problems, you are not welcome into our practice. Why? Because there is no one but yourself capable of changing your flawed view of yourself. I refuse to work with an abuser no matter how much money they offer. There is no value in accepting that type of abuse.
If this patient sounds like you, you are in denial. DENIAL. Do the medical community a favor and order your hCG on the Internet.  The people who give FREE help on-line will love to work with you!
Good luck with that and don�t call back. : )

Monday, 16 April 2012

Princess Health and Fighting prescription drug abuse back on legislative agenda.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Fighting prescription drug abuse back on legislative agenda.Princessiccia

As expected, finding a way to fight prescription drug abuse was back on the legislative agenda as lawmakers gathered for Day 1 of their special session. House Speaker Greg Stumbo introduced a bill today that will make it "mandatory for doctors to use the state's electronic reporting system for prescriptions, which would be moved from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to the attorney general's office," report Jack Brammer and Beth Musgrave for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Filed as House Bill 1, Stumbo said it "will correct damages caused by lobbyists for the Kentucky Medical Association in the final days of the regular session, when KMA inserted last-minute language that prevented mandatory use of this basic tool."

The bill also makes it possible for doctors who teach pain and addiction medicine at the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville to be appointed by the governor to the boards that license doctors and nurses. "The KMA's lobbyists can no longer argue that such experts do not exist or, if they do, that they should not be on the licensing boards," Stumbo said. "It is unfortunate that KMA lobbyists sought to obscure this provision."

The bill, slightly altered from House Bill 4 that did not pass before the end of the legislative session Thursday, is considered by experts to be the cornerstone of this legislative session. (Read more)
Princess Health and Online training could help rural doctors offer better mental health care.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Online training could help rural doctors offer better mental health care.Princessiccia

More than half of all U.S. mental health care takes place at the primary-care level, and that percentage is even higher in rural areas, where mental-health doctors are often hundreds of miles away, reports Newswise, a research-reporting service. A new online training program could help rural primary-care doctors better treat patients with mental health issues, and that could be important in Kentucky.

The Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska, a part of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, designed the program. Educational Director Howard Liu said primary care doctors are overwhelmed by the amount of mental health care they must provide. Newswise reports "the goal is to help primary care providers get more comfortable as they prescribe medications and refer patients to psychiatrists and therapists." The adolescent version of the program was released last fall and is being used by doctors worldwide. The adult and geriatric version will be released this spring.

Primary care doctor Angie Brennan estimates 35 percent of all visits to her practice have been mental health related. She said there are specific rural challenges to treatment, including "reluctance to see a counselor and a lack of mental health insurance coverage � combined with an intensified fear that someone in the community will find out a patient has mental health issues." (Read more)

Friday, 13 April 2012

Princess Health and Pill-mill bill does not pass as legislative session ends in failure; special session starts Monday.Princessiccia


Though it's considered by experts as the most important bill needed this year, the Senate failed to pass a measure that would crack down on so-called pill mills before the end of the legislative session last night. Gov. Steve Beshear, above, called a special session that will begin Monday to give legislators more time to consider the bill, as well as approve funding for a $4.5 billion road-building plan � which was the main cause for the legislative gridlock.

Beshear wasn't happy, and blamed Senate President David Williams: "His rank partisanship, his obstructionist attitude, have caused numerous special sessions and cost the taxpayers millions of dollars of unnecessary expenses." The special session will cost more than $60,000 per day. "He's Senate president. I can't do a thing about that," Beshear said. "But what I can do is make sure that the people of this state know very loudly and clearly what damage he is causing to Kentucky."

Beshear even criticized Williams in his agenda for the special session, which included "legislation to enhance and expand tools and resources critical to Kentucky's continuing efforts to address the scourge of prescription drug abuse that plagues our citizens."

Negotiators on the prescription-drug measure, House Bill 4, came up with a compromise that pleased the Kentucky Medical Association, which opposes moving the state prescription-drug monitoring system to the attorney general's office from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the doctor-controlled Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure. The compromise would still make that move, and still limit ownership of pain clinics to physicians, but dropped a requirement that all physicians pay $50 to use the system.

Beshear railed against the impasse. "Sen. Williams willfully ignored the visible misery of our communities and allowed this essential bill to die," he said in a press release. "Why? Because of his road projects." Some lawmakers said another factor was House Democrats' refusal to override any of Beshear's budget vetoes, in spite of what Williams said was House Speaker Greg Stumbo's pledge to override. Stumbo denied making such a pledge.

On the road issue, "Williams wanted Beshear to sign the transportation projects list into law before the Senate voted on the bill authorizing the road construction money. Without the funding bill, those projects couldn't get started," reports Ryan Alessi of "Pure Politics" on cn|2, a cable-company news service. "Williams didn't want to give Beshear the ability to veto the project list and be able to unilaterally decide how to spend the $4 billion in federal and state road and bridge construction money."

According to Beshear, $288 million was allotted in the funding plan for Williams' district, $130 million of which would have been funded in the near future. But Williams "made some last-minute fine-print changes that moved an additional $155 million of those projects in his district ahead of those in other communities around the state." (Read more)

Thursday, 12 April 2012

Princess Health and Docs must stop over-prescribing pain pills, summit speakers say.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Docs must stop over-prescribing pain pills, summit speakers say.Princessiccia


When a statistic showed the number of opioid prescriptions increased from 76 million in 1991 to 219 million in 2011, Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health, asked the seminal questions: "Do we really have this number of people requiring these prescriptions? Have we increased four times in terms of chronic pain? That's clearly not the case."

Dr. Ileana Arias, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said "opioid overdose death rates have risen in lock step with sales," reports Laura Ungar for The Courier-Journal. "In 2010, enough prescription painkillers were prescribed to medicate every American adult around the clock for a month."

These were more troubling statistics discussed at the National Rx Drug Abuse Summit, held in Orlando, Fla., and organized by Eastern Kentucky's Operation UNITE. "This is an epidemic. And at CDC, we do not use the word epidemic very lightly," Arias said.

Volkow pointed out opioids are very addictive, since they raise dopamine levels in the brain, which are triggered when people do pleasurable activities, such as eating or sex. Heroin and the painkiller OxyContin are nearly identical in their chemical structure, she said. OxyContin blocks pain but increases dopamine. "You are decreasing pain, but you are activating a reward," she said.

Treatment is one solution, but "we don't have sufficient treatments. We are far behind other conditions," such as cancer or HIV, Volkow said.

More research is needed to "develop better pain medications that are as effective as opioids that are not addictive," she added. Doctors also need to be aware of over-prescribing, with Arias recounting a story in which she was prescribed two-weeks worth of Demerol after she had her wisdom teeth taken out � an excessive amount, in her view.

U.S. Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers of Kentucky's 5th District said he wasn't surprised. "Time and again, we've heard that doctors have prescribed, say, two weeks of medication when only a few days are necessary," he said. "Then the rest go in a medicine cabinet for (others) to pilfer." (Read more)
Princess Health and Troubling statistics discussed at prescription-drug summit.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Troubling statistics discussed at prescription-drug summit.Princessiccia


Staggering statistics were revealed this week at the Orlando-based National Rx Drug Abuse Summit, including one survey that found 2 million people age 12 and older started using prescription pain medicine for non-medical reasons in 2010. A troubling 11 percent of active-duty military personnel reported misusing pain medicine in the past month, Department of Defense research shows. And more than 15,000 people die each year because of pain killers, 1,000 of whom are Kentuckians, reports Laura Ungar of The Courier-Journal.

"Prescription-drug abuse is causing untold misery among our families," Gov. Steve Beshear said at the gathering, which was organized by Eastern Kentucky-based Operation UNITE. The problem is "wasting away the future of many people in the Commonwealth of Kentucky."

As he's done several times now, Beshear asked conference attendees to push legislators to pass House Bill 4, which should be voted on today in Frankfort. The bill would require pain clinics to be owned by doctors, require doctors to participate in the state's prescription-tracking system, and move the system to the attorney genera's office from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

Experts said prevention is key, which involves education youth, parents, as well as doctors and pharmacists. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin doctors "need to be more cognizant of the problem," Ungar reports, recounting an incident in which a patient stole one of her prescription pads by using her 4-year-old daughter to district Benjamin.

Gil Kerlikowske, known as the country's "drug czar," said general practitioners and family medicine doctors accounted for 27 percent of all prescribers of extended-release, long-acting opioids. Internal medicine physicians were the most common specialists to prescribe, accounting for almost 17 percent of prescriptions of pain pills.

One of the problems, Kerlikowske said, is prescription drug abuse is considered more acceptable than taking other kinds of drugs. Children "see their parents taking it. It's not heroin. It's not coke." (Read more)