Jackson Jambalaya

Still not as bad as UMC. They leave their doors open late at night and armed felons have been walking in. I think one was hiding in a bathroom.

All I know is that parking sucks at both SD's and UMC. Suuuuuuucks .

BCBS MS considers annual PSA test low value, so much that they don’t cover or pay for it as part of their Healthy You checkup. Dr. says only way to detect prostate cancer early. So, I still do it, and contribute to low value ratings I suppose

1057 I guess you are one of those folks that think you deserve front door, ground level parking wherever you go, because of course, you are important and don't need to be inconvenienced.

Just what the hell do you expect places like these hospitals to do to accommodate your holy self? They have both built large parking garages, convenient as possible while still maintaining the ability for traffic to flow. And at St D medical tower, they allow you to drive up to the front door and will valet your car to the garage for you.

At the UMMC campus (an important word there, as the hospital is part of a university campus as well) there is a large parking garage on site within a short walk to the main hospital. Employees park across the street at the Veterans Stadium.

What do you do when you go to the grocery store or shopping center - park in the handicap spaces adjacent to the front entrance so that your holiness won't have to walk more than a few paces?

No $urpri$e here

So, to be sure I understand: "wasteful healthcare" is their definition of overused and unnecessary actions? Basically, unneeded testing and treatments? Sincere question. The premise of the study was unclear to me, so I'm just trying to make sure I'm understanding what the study is analyzing

@11,57
I couldn’t find what was considered “wasteful” either.

All right. Your comment was fine til the last word. Golf foxtrot Yankee won't get it done.

So they were giving my wife more pills and uneccessary pills than they should have ? Turned her into a damn zombie. All she went in there for was to talk about the issue that had her down.

For years St D was our hospital of choice. Not anymore. It’s definitely $$$ over care. We have been well pleased with Baptist care and service.

@11:32 AM - you may need a new doc. Mine was detected by a DRE (digital rectal exam), followed by a ultrasound guided biopsy. My PSA was very low and would otherwise indicate that I did not have PC. Treatment was proton radiation.

Can any medical professionals or anyone who has played one on tv weigh in on those 99.00 heart scans St. D offers? Just sounds like data gathering or fishing for patients.

Two of the handful of measurements were MRI's ordered for low back pain and surgeries performed for low back pain. Low back pain isn't considered a major indicator of need for either MRI's or surgeries.

@10:39 AM, you have no idea what statistics are, or what they indicate.

Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Mn will change your. Thoughts of going to any of these Ms hospitals.

Baptist offers a heart screening as well for a low fee. OF COURSE it's fishing for patients, but when you find a 75% blocked carotid artery or coronary arteries that have so much calcium in it that a heart attack is very likely over the next five years you're not overusing - your saving lives. "Overuse" means something as long as it's not YOUR back that's hurting, as long as it's not your belly pain that could be an impacted kidney stone vs perforated diverticulitis.

@1:55…

As someone who works in the field of emergency medicine and has no ties to any hospital here, I would not take a sick rat from the sewer to Baptist for care. I work in and out of every hospital in the region and Baptist is by far the worst hospital, cares they least about their patients in the emergency setting, laziest nurses, laziest ER physicians, etc. That is literally the emergency department you go to if you want to die.

Took my wife to Mayo. I thought I was on a different planet. Aside from the top notch health care, not a blade of grass was out of place. No litter on the ground.
I was shocked at the cornerstone on the Gonda Building. It said "1955." The building looked brand new to me, clean and well maintained.

Bill Dees - Take another Zoloft. 10:39 said nothing about statistics.

What this is is an indictment of the medical staff and staff leadership. Should the physicians on the staff be keeping an eye on unnecessary MRIs of the spine or hysterectomies? Absolutely. That is their job. Should the medial staff leadership be monitoring the performance of its spine surgeons (neurosurgeons and orthopedists? Absolutely. It almost looks like if a lame dog wandered by this Lakeland Avenue hospital, it would get a spinal fusion.

The numbers are far out of line with any sense of reason. The medical staff, charged with the responsibility of quality of care, has fallen flat on its face.

9:53, I have to disagree about Baptist. My wife has been to UMC and Baptist ER 2x each this past year. Baptist was better by far, far less waiting time, and excellent care from the doctors and nurses. The doctors and nurses at UMC ER were also very good, it was just they were overwhelmed with patients, which made the wait time much too long. I will also say that my wife has been through cancer treatments at UMC, and we have been very pleased with the care she has received. She had the blessing of having a very thorough and diligent doctor on her case. The nurses in the hematology department have also been very good. My wife is alive today because of the care she has received. When she was diagnosed we had considered going to MD Anderson, but there there were other complications with her case that precluded that option. As it turned out, the right decision was to stay here. We are grateful for both Baptist and UMC.

@625am
Very true words. The "Good Ol' Boy n Girl" status quo has been in charger for many years at St Dom. Now with FMOLHS/Baton Rouge looking at their sacred cow "Programs of Excellence" that have been losing millions and (?) lack of statistical improvement in patient longevity...interesting times at St Dom.
The "gold standard" for lumbar/cervical decompression/fusion is "progressive neurologic deficit and spinal instability" which can be documented via exam, nerve conduction study (fixed vs. progressive deficit), and flexion/extension films, with MRI/CT adding to the information, but not a "stand alone" reason to schedule surgery. "Degenerative Disc Disease" is not an indication; "Low Back Pain" is a symptom, not a diagnosis, and is not an indication. Trauma is a different animal and not a part of the JAMA criteria for analysis.
Yup, look around and see how many fusions on the lumbar spine are being done at UMC, Rankin Merit, St Dom, MBMC, River Oaks Merit, CMMC Merit, etc....and why does Workers' Compensation assign a greater impairment rating for a WC claimant/patient once they've had a fusion...if it's supposed to treat/improve their functional status, but makes it worse?
I don't know if it's still active, but there was an excellent website "Doctor Skeptic", from an astute spine surgeon, making interesting observations on the amount of spinal fusions and the financial incentives driving such operations...keeping hospitals afloat.
Perhaps one of the MD's that has friends at the WSJ needs to get them back down here for another round of articles exposing the underbelly and financial incentives to the "fusion industry".
Hmm...