We will close for the Christmas holiday at 1 pm Friday, December 22, and will reopen on Wednesday, December 27. If you have questions, please call 903-753-5400.

Thank you to all our patients, new and established. We wish you the Happiest Holidays ever!

~Dr. John Raymond Baker, DC and staff of BAKER CHIROPRACTIC,PA

Here’s my place to rant, praise, speculate , introspect, gripe, and be humorous from time to time. Welcome!

By MELISSA McEVER
The Brownsville Herald

November 5, 2006 - Say goodbye to written prescriptions, X-rays on film and paper records stuffed in a manila folder. Many of the Rio Grande Valley’s clinics and hospitals have entered the digital age.

Several area hospitals have launched multimillion-dollar projects to make all of their medical records paperless, eventually creating an electronic “one-stop shop” for a patient’s test results, MRIs, medical history, prescriptions, billing and more.

“The final goal is to make sure we have continuity of care for patients,” said Linda Resendez, chief ex-ecutive officer of Edinburg Regional Medical Center and Edinburg Children’s Hospital. “You’ll be able to see what the physician documented, what the nurse documented. The specialist can see it. The family doctor can pick up where the specialist left off. … It’s more efficient and effective health-care delivery.”

Local doctor’s offices and hospitals already have gone electronic in several aspects, including digital X-rays, billing and appointments. The next step is to tie those capabilities together in a centralized, truly paperless system, said Jim Barbaglia, chief information officer for Valley Baptist Health System.

“It’s a transformation to a higher level,” Barbaglia said. “We’ve gone in stages, and now we’re wrap-ping it into an integrated package.”

At Valley Baptist and many other hospitals, patients’ health information soon will be available for phy-sicians to access remotely using secure Internet access. Officials say they’re cognizant of privacy con-cerns and have the sites under tight security.

“The programs have accessibility limits. For example, our staff can’t read anything but registration information,” said Dr. Darryl White, Harlingen family-practice physician and chief medical information officer for Valley Baptist. “It’s really more private than a paper chart.”

Gov. Rick Perry and the Bush administration are pushing for hospitals and doctors’ offices to adopt electronic medical-records systems, citing reports that electronic records cut health-care costs and re-duce clinical errors.

Last month, Perry announced the creation of a new partnership, the Texas Health Care System Integ-rity Authority, which eventually will develop a centralized medical-records system for the entire state. The Bush administration committed $100 million in fiscal year 2005 and $125 million in fiscal year 2006 to help hospitals and clinics institute paperless systems.

The movement toward electronic records is long overdue, said Dr. Joseph Schneider, Dallas physician and a spokesman for Texas Medical Association.

“The evidence is out there from a quality standpoint that electronic medical records are the way to im-prove what we’re doing,” Schneider said.

Making the transition to a paperless system is a process that will take years to complete, some officials said.

“We want to make sure we do it right,” said Enrique Bernal, chief financial officer for Valley Regional Medical Center in Brownsville. “We have the foundation in place with an electronic (records) patient system … but some things are still handwritten.”

Like many other hospitals, Valley Regional already has electronic imaging and some patient data avail-able for physicians through a secure Web site. Currently, officials are working on granting “electronic signature” rights to doctors, allowing them to sign off on charts and order tests online. Just that step will greatly improve efficiency, Bernal said.

Bernal said he wasn’t sure when the hospital will have a fully electronic system because the decisions are coming from the hospital’s parent company, HCA Inc.

“They’re looking closely at every hospital and its needs,” he said.

The most time-consuming part of going electronic is “interoperability,” or making sure the various programs used in different parts of the clinic or hospital can communicate, officials said.

Valley Baptist is working to tie together several programs while also integrating a new system that al-lows some patients to register with the swipe of a card.

Barbaglia of Valley Baptist said the system’s two hospitals are in the “design phase” of the project. Elements of the electronic-records system will come online gradually, with the first major element scheduled for completion in 2008.

While hospitals take on these multimillion-dollar initiatives, small clinics and doctors’ offices are scrap-ing money together to make their records electronic also.

For some doctors’ offices, the only way to afford buying the necessary hardware and software was to take out a loan, but office managers said it’s an investment that will pay off.

“We’re able to track things more easily, and there are no more lost charts,” said Kristen Larson, office manager for Brownsville pediatrician Dr. Jorge Patiño. “It speeds things up, and it’s easy to access in-formation.”

The practice had to spend about $50,000 on a server, new hardware and a program to manage medical records, billing and appointments, Larson said. The office, which didn’t qualify for any federal grants, started using the program in June.

Medical-records software can range from about $10,000 to $50,000, depending on the bells and whistles, said Schneider of TMA.

“The $50,000 range is a Ferrari, and the Ferrari isn’t right for everybody,” he said.

More grants are becoming available for offices and clinics, and some hospitals and health plans have agreed to shoulder the cost for some of their physicians, Schneider said.

In the end, the gains to efficiency and accuracy make the cost worth it, said Yolanda Ochoa, who man-ages her husband Dr. Alfonso Ochoa’s practice in Weslaco.

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/print.php?id=73660_0_10_0

This is a VERY interesting article appearing in http://www.theheart.org .

It deals in a case in which a cardiologist sued Presbyterian hospital in Dallas and 3 cardiologists …

http://www.theheart.org/article/748435.do

“Texas cardiologist wins $22.5 million in suit against Dallas Presbyterian Hospital and three staff cardiologists

October 19, 2006

Shelley Wood

Dallas, TX - A Texas judge has upheld an earlier ruling against the Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas and three of its cardiologists but reduced to $22.5 million the overall damage award originally granted to a fourth cardiologist, Dr Lawrence Poliner. A jury had earlier decided on the princely sum of $366 million for Poliner after finding in favor of his claims against Presbyterian Hospital and the three physicians on charges of breach of contract, defamation, business disparagement, tortious interference with a contract, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The defendants are appealing the decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the hospital announced today.

Peer review: Protecting patients or physicians?

The case dates back to 1998, when Poliner’s cath lab privileges were suspended after a hospital peer-review process concluded that he should voluntarily stop performing cardiac catheterizations due to concerns about his safety record and technique. But Poliner, who sued in 2000, challenged that the so-called peer-review process had been biased, since the panel conducting his review comprised cardiologists competing for patients and referrals at the same hospital. His original lawsuit named 10 physicians as defendants but was ultimately reduced to Dr James Knochel, internal medicine chair, Dr Charles Levin, head of the cardiac catheterization lab, and Dr John Harper, chief of cardiology.

Poliner, 60, a long-time cardiologist in the state of Texas, had first opened an office in the professional building at Presbyterian one year before his suspension. In his lawsuit he charged that, in doing so, he had fostered resentment among other cardiologists in the hospital.

The original August 2004 jury decision had found in favor of Poliner’s claims and required $141 million to be paid by Knochel, $32 million each from Harper and Levin, and $161 million from the hospital itself. In appealing the court’s decision, the hospital and defendants had sought to reduce the overall damage award to less than $1 million, but United States District Judge for the Northern District of Texas Jorge A Solis rejected their demands for a new trial and instead reduced the overall damage award to $22.54 million. This amount reflects noneconomic actual damages, lost earnings, punitive damages, and pre- and postjudgment interest, a hospital spokesperson confirmed.

In a press release, Poliner’s lawyer for the appeal, Mike Lynn, said he and Poliner are “thrilled” by the judge’s decision. “We believe that $22.54 million is a substantial damage award to compensate a victim of defamation from a conservative and thoughtful court. We expected the reduced award but feel that it was critical that the jury verdict vindicate Dr Poliner and through him the other doctors who have been abused by baseless peer reviews.”

 To me, the important part of the article appears at the bottom, and I would urge folks to read the WHOLE article.

“

In response, the Texas Board stated that no investigation was filed because the actions the AAPS was complaining about “did not fall below the acceptable standard of care and did not rise to the level of a violation” of the Medical Practice Act.

“Therefore, at least in Texas, sham peer review appears to be officially within the accepted standard of care,” Huntoon writes. “

I agree wholeheartedly with that last sentence !

October 19, 2006

BIZARRE LAWSUIT FILED BY THE MEDDLESOME TEXAS MEDICAL ASSN. AGAINST BOARD OF CHIROPRACTIC

Filed under: Uncategorized — bakerchiropractic @ 10:01 pm Edit This

In the “why don’t they clean up their own backyard” department, nothing is more clearly deserving of the ‘YOU NEED TO GET A LIFE” AWARD, than the specious and meritless lawsuit filed by the Texas Med. ASSn. against the Texas Board of Chiropractic. A copy of this foolishness is found HERE . You will notice that they, (the TMA or Texas MEDDLESOME Association) assert that doctors of Chiropractic, do not have the right to diagnose! What idiocy. Here is a quote from their lawsuit : “

24. Under Texas law, only physicians can diagnose medical conditions. As noted

5 151.002(a)(13). By contrast, the

to analyze, examine or evaluate the biomechanical condition of the spine and musculoskeletalsystem[.]” Tex. Occ. Code 5 201.022@)(1). Because the diagnosis of medical conditions is the

diagnose medical conditions and by doing so unlawfully expands the practice of chiropractic into the practice of medicine. “

So, here’s to you TMA…the YOU NEED TO GET A LIFE award!

(insert Bronx cheer)

October 19, 2006

BIZARRE LAWSUIT FILED BY THE MEDDLESOME TEXAS MEDICAL ASSN. AGAINST BOARD OF CHIROPRACTIC

Filed under: Uncategorized — bakerchiropractic @ 10:01 pm Edit This

In the “why don’t they clean up their own backyard” department, nothing is more clearly deserving of the ‘YOU NEED TO GET A LIFE” AWARD, than the specious and meritless lawsuit filed by the Texas Med. ASSn. against the Texas Board of Chiropractic.

A copy of this foolishness is found HERE . You will notice that they, (the TMA or Texas MEDDLESOME Association) assert that doctors of Chiropractic, do not have the right to diagnose! What idiocy.

Here is a quote from their lawsuit :
“

24. Under Texas law, only physicians can diagnose medical conditions. As noted

5 151.002(a)(13). By contrast, the

to analyze, examine or evaluate the biomechanical condition of the spine and musculoskeletalsystem[.]” Tex. Occ. Code 5 201.022@)(1). Because the diagnosis of medical conditions is the

diagnose medical conditions and by doing so unlawfully expands the practice of chiropractic into the practice of medicine. “

So, here’s to you TMA…the YOU NEED TO GET A LIFE award!

(insert Bronx cheer)

NEWEST BAKER CHIROPRACTIC GOES LIVE OCTOBER 15
Filed under: Uncategorized — bakerchiropractic @ 6:25 pm Edit This

Another Baker Chiropractic information portal goes LIVE October 15, 2006
http://johbak0.100webspace.net

It joins http://bakerchiropractic.orgfree.com/ as one of our newest information portals.

It is powered by MAMBO, an open source CMS system. Many of my earlier sites are based on PhP NUKE, and I still use it. Mambo is the sister to Joomla, another open source Mambo based system.

The growing list of BAKER CHIROPRACTIC, PA informational portals has increased again.

We launched http://bakerchiropractic.orgfree.com
yesterday and it seems to be working fine.

Have a great day!

I believe it is somewhat ironic if not downright laughable that we call, what the allopathic establishment calls “HealthCare” , because, it is such a misnomer. First of all, what does an MD do for a person who presents to his or her office, and is obviously in a good state of health ? Are they going to do anything to or for them? If they ask the person if they are having any health related problems and that person says NO, and relates they feel fairly healthy, then what “CARE” is provided to the person ?

Now, if a person who was suffering from a disease shows up, NOW suddenly you find doctors able to volunteer to do lots of diagnostic testing and perhaps start writing prescriptions. So, first of all, really, the MD based system called “allopathic”, meaning “different from the disease” is a disease oriented treatment system (i.e. disease and/or injury). Actually, perhaps it should more properly be referred to as a Malfunction Addressing System. You notice I left out the word “CARE” in the “Malfunction Addressing System” term. The reason is that, there seems to be very little “CARE” in this system. And, by CARE, I mean the feeling one human has for the other, a feeling of empathy and wanting to help them.

The ALLOPATHIC system, perpetuated and glorified by the AMA (American Medical Assocation) is oriented toward two things…diseases, and making money from providing treatments for those diseases.

There is absolutely no question that much more money is made from keeping people infirmed, than is made by any treatment that will ameliorate the condition . 

I often say that only two things are cured…hams and leather. No doctor really HEALS or CURES anyone. The body, the immune system, the innate internal systems of the body are responsible for healing. The most any doctor or practitioner can do is to help to remove obstacles to healing, while, at the same time, trying to observe the first principle of Hippocrates, i.e., my personal catch phrase, “PRIMUM NON NOCERE” or “FIRST, DO NO HARM”. In other words, for God’s sake, if you can’t do anything to help the person, at least don’t make things worse!

Now, thinking about that last idea, how many nightmares occur as a result of plastic surgery gone badly, such that not only is the person made more attractive after surgery, but often, they are permanently disfigured.

But, even more to the point, how about the issue of medical malpractice, or of the deaths caused by allopathic medical techniques every year.

Look at this link : DEATH BY MEDICINE

http://www.webdc.com/pdfs/deathbymedicine.pdf#search=%22death%20by%20medicine%2Cpdf%22 (Link to the PDF file)

And, how about the conclusions of the HARVARD MEDICAL PRACTICE STUDY

http://qhc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/reprint/13/2/151 WHICH CAME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT NOT ONLY WAS THERE NOT TOO MANY MEDICAL MALPRACTICE SUITS BEING FILED, BUT THERE WERE PROBABLY NOT ENOUGH GIVEN THE STATUS OF HEALTH MISTAKES MADE IN HOSPITALS.

Here’s my place to rant, praise, speculate , introspect, gripe, and be humorous from time to time. Welcome!