Sunday, September 27, 2009

Rationing? Not My Kid! - Americans to reject evidence-based medicine? At times . . .

Adopting treatment guidelines based on studies of what actually works is downright un-American.

By Sharon Begley, Newsweek

With concerns over health-care rationing reaching near-hysterical levels, imagine this scenario in an ER in the not-too-distant future. A 4-year-old suffers minor head trauma, perhaps from falling off a swing and hitting her head on the ground. She is dazed, and although she doesn’t lose consciousness her worried parents—visions of subdural hematomas andconcussion dancing in their own heads—rush her to the local emergency room, expecting that the doctors there will immediately do a CT scan.

Surprise. The ER intake nurse talks to the child, who is able to say her name and explain what happened in the playground. She did not lose consciousness, her mother (who witnessed the fall) tells the nurse. The little girl is not vomiting, the ER doctor determines that there are no signs of fracture of the base of her skull, and she does not have a severe headache. Verdict: no CT scan.

Read the rest of Sharon’s Article

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