Off the Charts

“The chest pains—short, sharp, and frequent—had started in the early afternoon. I had been painting my children’s faces and pulling a picnic together at the home of my wife; we’re separated. When she appeared in the kitchen, I went home, shaved, changed into a skirt and blouse, rushed on some lipstick and foundation, and drove myself to the hospital.”

Sensationalistic NY Post outing of Ladin

I think it’s safe to say that no one likes a trip to the ED. In fact, I personally don’t like going to any health care practitioner, especially if I’m scared that something is seriously wrong.

A careful reading of the opening lines of Joy Ladin’s “Intake Interview,” this month’s Reflections essay in AJN, reveals that something out of the ordinary is happening. That’s because author Joy Ladin isn’t an ordinary woman—although that is, I’d wager, her ultimate goal. She began the long process of becoming a woman only a couple of years ago. Read the rest of this entry ?

At AllNurses.com: Can too much time be  spent on the resuscitation of a celebrity?

At NEJM: “some new hospice providers, which are predominantly for-profit, may be pursuing a business model based on maximizing length of stay, and thus profitability.”

At the NY Times, family caregiving on contract:

The elderly mother wanted to avoid a nursing home and remain in her house in Kansas City, but she needed hands-on help. The daughter, a nurse at a local hospital, was willing to shoulder responsibility for her mother’s care but couldn’t afford to lose income by substantially scaling back her work schedule.

So elder law attorney Craig Reaves drew up a care contract, specifying that the daughter would help her mother a certain number of hours each week and perform particular duties, for which her mother would pay the same hourly wage her daughter would have earned at the hospital.