Medicine
fromPsychology Today
1 hour agoHow Cognitive and Social Forces Shape Medical Decisions
Medical decisions are influenced by how options are framed, presented, and the dynamics of the situation.
For over a month, my office has been going back and forth with ICE officials about Andrea's condition. We have been ignored, put off, and frankly, lied to about the treatment she has received while in detention.
Most people leave doctor visits with prescriptions, but still feel unsure—instructions make sense, but no one asks about their life. In contrast, when a provider knows your name, remembers your story, and explains care in a way that fits you, the experience feels different—and that difference matters.
The emergency department at Michael Garron Hospital was built to care for about 150 patients a day, but now sees more than 300 patients daily, amounting to about 107,000 patients last year in a space designed for 50,000 annually.
The idea echoes a policy implemented during his first term, when Trump suggested that requiring hospitals to post their charges online could ease one of the most common gripes about the health care system the lack of upfront prices. To anyone who's gotten a bill three months after treatment only to find mysterious charges, the idea seemed intuitive. "You're able to go online and compare all of the hospitals and the doctors and the prices,"
"If you or someone you love is going to give birth in a hospital, there is a question you need to ask before you go that can determine whether you are likely to have safe care or not," said labor and delivery nurse Jen Hamilton. Her multi-part TikTok videos amassed a combined 300,000 views their first 24 hours. "You need to know whether the hospital you are going to give birth in follows AWHONN's safe staffing standards," she continued.
Nearly a quarter of hospitals in England have seen waiting times worsen since the government published its plan to tackle the backlog a year ago, BBC analysis shows. Hitting the 18-week waiting target for treatments such as knee and hip operations was Labour's key manifesto pledge for the health service, and last January it set out how it would get hospitals on track.
For Massachusetts emergency physicians, that dream captures a simple truth: long ER waits rarely steam from care inside the department. Instead, doctors say they're the result of bottlenecks across a system stretched thin by staffing shortages, aging patients, limited hospital beds, and gaps in primary care.
Today's data, from NHSE's latest weekly winter situation report, covers the week ending 25 January. It showed that bed occupancy in English hospitals remains dangerously high, at 94.6%, while more than 14,000 people medically fit to be discharged from hospital were still stuck in beds. On a given day, there were on average 50,368 patients who had been in a hospital bed for seven days or longer, showing problems lie at the 'back door' of hospitals.
If you find yourself in need of emergency care in Massachusetts, it could take a while. The Bay State ranks No. 3 in the U.S. for longest average time patients spend in the emergency department, according to World Population Review. Patients here spend an average of 189 minutes - more than three hours - in the ER before leaving the hospital. Only Maryland (228 minutes) and Delaware (195 minutes) report longer average delays.