Cautious Doctors Use Telemedicine to Diagnose Flu

[Jesus Malverde]

Some doctors in Tennessee are asking patients with flu-like symptoms not to come into their offices to avoid spreading the virus to other patients in their waiting room.

Instead, these doctors are evaluating patients over the phone or on computers as part of something called "telemedicine."

"If you're really feeling crummy and you have the symptoms of influenza, your chances of having influenza are very, very high -- over 90 percent," Dr. William Schaffner, chair of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. "Doctors are saying I don't need to do a test because sometimes the test is negative even if you have influenza."

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/cautious-doctors-telemedicine-diagnose-flu/story?id=27950338

[SheilaT]

1. Here in New Mexico, it is not at all uncommon

for an entire extended family to show up in the ER when one member is sick. Babies, toddlers, the elderly grandparents, all of them. Which is beyond dumb for lots of reasons. The first of which, there is simply no need to drag everyone along when only one needs medical help. Second is that everyone is exposing themselves to who-knows-what in the ER waiting room

And as miserable as the flu can be, most people don't need to go to a doctor's office or an ER for it. You have to exercise some judgement about just how sick you really are, treat the symptoms, and try not to expose others unnecessarily.

[Laffy Kat]

4. The elderly and children don't always present as sick as they truly are.

Also, the "entire extended family" showing up in ERs and hospital rooms is often a cultural norm that should be understood and respected.

[lpbk2713]

6. It could also be that some family members don't speak English well.

Bilingual employees aren't always available. And if some members of the family just know bits and pieces of English it could require a collaborative effort to comprehend something really important like what a medical professional wants to convey.

[SheilaT]

9. It is a cultural norm, and that's exactly the problem.

There is no need for ten, twelve, sixteen or so family members to come along when only one needs medical attention. If translation services are needed, that's only one additional person. And here, the availability of bilingual employees is extremely high, so for the Spanish speaking people there's no need to bring along someone to translate.

Cultural norms should not outweigh good medical practice. In fact, it's cultural norms that are at the heart of the spread of Ebola in Africa. To continue to respect those is to continue the unchecked spread of that disease there.

[spanone]

2. a procedure that sen. bill frist relied on for the terry schiavo diagnosis...

Freshly-released autopsy results reveal that Terri Schiavo was blind:
Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin concluded that…her brain was about half of normal size when she died. …

Thogmartin says her brain was “profoundly atrophied” — and that the damage was “irreversable.” He also says, “The vision centers of her brain were dead” — meaning she was blind.

Which makes Dr. Frist’s expert “diagnosis” all the more outrageous:

Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a renowned heart surgeon before becoming Senate majority leader, went to the floor late Thursday night for the second time in 12 hours to argue that Florida doctors had erred in saying Terri Schiavo is in a “persistent vegetative state.”

“I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office,” he said in a lengthy speech in which he quoted medical texts and standards. “She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli.”

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2005/06/15/1100/schiavo-was-blind/

[dilby]

3. What I find suprising is people rush to the doctor the second they show symptoms.

If I feel like I have the flu I pretty much just sit tight in my room and have as little contact with people as possible. There is nothing the doctor is going to be able to do unless I have some serious symptoms like excessive fever or I am unable to hold liquid and food down for a couple days and as of yet I have never gone to a doc for the flu.

[Brickbat]

5. Same.

[pnwmom]

8. Except the anti-virals that help with the flu should be started in the first 48 hours.

So people who are at risk of complications from the flu, including people with asthma and older people, should at least call the doctor right away.


http://www.cdc.gov/flu/antivirals/whatyoushould.htm

When should antiviral drugs be taken for treatment?

Studies show that flu antiviral drugs work best for treatment when they are started within 2 days of getting sick. However, starting them later can still be helpful, especially if the sick person has a high risk health condition or is very sick from the flu. Follow instructions for taking these drugs.

SNIP

Who should take antiviral drugs?

It’s very important that antiviral drugs are used early to treat hospitalized patients, people with severe flu illness, and people who are at higher risk for flu complications based on their age or underlying medical conditions. Other people also may be treated with antiviral drugs by their doctor this season. Most otherwise-healthy people who get the flu, however, do not need to be treated with antiviral drugs.

[Downwinder]

7. With all the Ebola distraction,

Fifteen children have died from complications of the flu so far this season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted, as it officially declared the illness an epidemic.