Thursday, December 17, 2009

CT scans are costly and have their risk

Read this article.
Posted by at

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Many of those scans, of course, bring in extra revenue for doctors, hospitals, medical-device companies and the like.."

Not right for author to say such scans are for extra revenue - it seemed to imply questionable ethics on the part of doctors, hospitals, medical-device companies and the like.

After all, patients do have a choice.

December 18, 2009 1:45 AM
A Singaporean said...

http://www.zaobao.com/yl/yl091217_008.shtml

My comment:
There seems to be an increasing number of kiasi doctors who don't dare to act themselves and refer patients to the hospital A&E department, driving up healthcare costs. This is a problem to watch out for.

December 18, 2009 6:48 PM
Vincent Sear said...

I was hospitalized last month and went through a CT scan. Fortunately, the scan result couldn't show anything wrong.

But the doctor told me, it's apparently not showing anything wrong but that doesn't mean that it's conclusive. He tried to schedule more tests and scopies for me, which I courteously but firmly declined, as the hospital has done a reasonably good job restoring me to health after days of drips, injection and medication, and lying on the hospital bed resting of course (i.e. daydreaming and waiting for the next injection, medication or blood extraction for testing).

Point is, if the doctor questions the reliability of CT scan, why did he recommend it? Why not straight off to some other procedures in which he has more confidence to be conclusive?

Anyway, I don't think that doctors are generally unethical in the aspect of overprescribing or overcharging. There're medical and hospital practice procedures to adhere to in order to avoid allegation of professional neglect or malpractice. There's scheduled rates to be charged and billed.

Indeed, when I declined further hospitalization and requested discharge, the hospital made me sign an indemnity form to the effect that I wanted to discharge myself and the hospital shall bear no responsibility after discharge.

December 18, 2009 9:40 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Blog Archive