How world-class health care works – or not

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

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Welcome to Canada!  – also known to our American neighbours to the south as “Commie Pinko Land of Socialized Medicine”.

My 0wn province of British Columbia here on Canada’s gorgeous west coast has what I – and many others far above my pay grade – consider to be a world-class universal health care system.  Over 80% of us, in fact, consistently rate this health care as “excellent” or “very good“. 

Still, as a career PR person, I usually approach awareness communications like this video with a certain skeptical disdain.  To my surprise, I found it made a lot of sense to me.  Continue reading “How world-class health care works – or not” →

A doctor’s perspective: 10 worst hospital design features

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 6 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

South Carolina physician Dr. Val Jones recently spent eight long days in the hospital, sitting at the bedside of a loved one. She learned that  the only upside of such a vigil was being “reminded of what it feels like to be a hospital patient – or at least the family member of one”. 

Personally, I have to admit that I get a bit light-headed whenever a doctor writes about becoming a hospital patient – or, as in Dr. Val’s case, the bedside companion of somebody they care about who becomes one.

Welcome to our world, doctors!  Continue reading “A doctor’s perspective: 10 worst hospital design features” →

How can we get female heart patients past ER gatekeepers?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 22 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Sometimes, people in my Heart Smart Women presentation audiences ask me if I’ve ever gone back to confront the Emergency physician who had misdiagnosed me in mid-heart attack with acid reflux and sent me home from the E.R. – despite my textbook symptoms of central chest pain, nausea, sweating and pain radiating down my left arm.  No, my heart sisters, I never did. But what did happen was, I think, even more satisfyingly juicy.   

Months after surviving that heart attack, and freshly fortified with Mayo Clinic cred after graduating from their annual WomenHeart Science & Leadership training for women with heart disease, I received an invitation to share what I’d just learned at Mayo to local Emergency Medicine staff.  I was offered one hour on the agenda of their annual Staff Education Day to talk about my own fateful misdiagnosis – and how, according to the Mayo Women’s Heart Clinic, that scenario might be avoided for future female heart patients like me: women who present with textbook cardiac symptoms but “normal” diagnostic tests.  Continue reading “How can we get female heart patients past ER gatekeepers?” →

Study: “91% discharged from hospital without care plan”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 23 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

When I was discharged from hospital following my heart attack, I was wheelchaired down to the front door, patted on the head, and waved off with just a follow-up appointment with a cardiologist in six weeks’ time. I carried home with me my appointment card, a prescription for a fistful of new daily cardiac medications, a one-page photocopy on post-op wound  care, a couple of pamphlets on cardiac rehab and heart-healthy eating, and a Heart and Stroke Foundation booklet called Recovery Road. But nowhere in this small stack of old growth forests was there anything about me.

Me personally.  Me, Carolyn Thomas, the shocked and frightened and overwhelmed heart attack survivor.  Continue reading “Study: “91% discharged from hospital without care plan”” →