In a bold move, the government is now publicly revealing how much hospitals charge. The differences are pretty amazing. Even within the same city, the difference in charges for the same services can be huge. These increased costs are not because of better care or outcomes. They are not for the normal reasons given about regional economy, older or ...

I suppose it was bound to happen. You can't go through your life being beloved by everyone you meet. Sometimes, for reasons difficult to understand, or for no particular reason at all, people just don't like you. I decided to pick up the weekend shift and help a buddy out who had overbooked himself. I was cruising along nicely on Saturday when I ...

The FDA has approved a new weapon to treat COPD. It is called Breo, an inhaled drug by GlaxoSmithKline of Britain and Theravance of the United States. It consists of a corticosteroid, fluticasone furoate, and a long-acting beta-agonist called vilanterol. The product is delivered through a palm-sized device called Ellipta. It is known as Relvar ...

It has been almost two years now since I graduated school and became a respiratory therapist. Which means it has been almost two years since I have studied something with the goal of testing towards an advancement in my education/career/life. It seems like a disproportionately large amount of my life thus far has been spent in an effort to obtain ...

The health care industry can learn a lot from business. If you do not think health care is a business, you're wrong. Just check out the forms you fill out, the charting you do, and the cashier's cage. One of the failures I see in health care is an inadequate attention to project management. Project management can cover everything from planning ...

You know sometimes I feel sorry for smokers. I had this guy come in the other day to see the pulmonologist and before I did his PFT I asked him if he smokes. He hung his head in shame and muttered a bit while shaking his head, ''Yeah ... dang it ... I've cut way back though...'' I try to make it a point not to pity nor shame patients of mine who ...

A new trend is catching on in schools. Some kids are now sniffing hand sanitizer, like the ones on hospital walls across the country, in an effort to ''get high.'' Germ-X seems to be most popular. These bottles are very easy to come by at the local pharmacy or Wal Mart store in small sizes that easily fit into a pocket or purse.  Hand ...

My wife and I are going to have a baby in late August. My plan is to take a few weeks of PTO and stay home with the kiddo once my wife goes back to work. I figure by that time I should have more than enough PTO in the bank to take a nice little baby vacation with some PTO to spare ... unless things stay slow... We have officially entered that ...

A few weeks ago a really gruesome code blue came into the ER on a Saturday morning. It was a suspected murder, one of the more exciting things that can pop into a small town ER. It just so happened to be  my day off and I was home in bed sleeping soundly at the time. I spent a great day at home with my girls and only heard about it Monday ...

When I am nervous my hands shake. I try to hide it, and have learned to steady myself down to a light tremor, but I just can't shake the shakes. I pride myself on remaining calm in a high-pressure situation: a code, a bad baby, etc., but my hands indicate otherwise. I have been told by a few of my co-workers that they had they not seen my hands ...