Monday, February 08, 2010

If there's one thing we can learn from the woosters

---it's that we need to spend more time with patients:

The demand for complementary medicine (CM) is growing worldwide and so is the supply. So far, there is not much insight in the activities in Dutch CM practices nor in how these activities differ from mainstream general practice. Comparisons on diagnoses and visit length can offer an impression of how Dutch CM practices operate...

The CM physicians registered activities in a total of 5919 visits in 1839 patients. In all types of CM practices general problems (as coded in the ICPC) were diagnosed more often than in mainstream general practice, especially fatigue, allergic reactions and infections. Psychological problems and problems with the nervous system were also diagnosed more frequently. In addition, each type of CM physician encountered specific health problems: in acupuncture problems with the musculoskeletal system prevailed, in homeopathy skin problems and in naturopathy gastrointestinal problems. Comparisons in visit length revealed that CM physicians spent at least twice as much time with patients compared to mainstream GPs.

1 comment:

#1 Dinosaur said...

Pardon my language, but: DUH! People are willing to PAY (out of pocket; yanno, CASH money) for woosters to spend tons of time with them, basically to lie to them. Why the hell don't they think they should have to pay someone (ie, me) who can actually do something for them?

We know what the problem is; it's money.