LikeADoctorInTheFamily.com

Florida is the wild, wild West of medicine and either someone shot the Sheriff, or we never appointed one.

I am constantly astonished by the ads for health care that make false and deceptive claims, but more importantly diminish, and make light of, the seriousness of illness and it's consequences upon the individual and their families.

Being ill is no joke. Often illness becomes our worst nightmare, disrupting lives and losing them as well.

Newspaper ads that make frivolous statements, outrageous claims or tempt the ill with deception have no place in our lives. Often these ads attract patients to services that, though advertised, are not actually available, attract people who are well but led by the ad to believe they are ill, or divert patients from legitimate providers.

If there ever was an area in urgent need for regulation and oversight, besides government and sausage making,  it is in the area of medical advertising and medical practice.

Don't hold your breath, however, it ain't gonna happen in any of those areas.

The Health and Fitness section of a local rag seems to be a popular playground for ad wars around these parts.

"TELL IT LIKE IT AIN'T"

One regional cardiology group advertises "Complete Cardiovascular Care". They may be the best at what they do, I wouldn't know, but do they offer 'complete' cardiovascular care?

The word 'complete', in the context of cardiology services, would usually be taken to mean 'if I have a heart problem you can find it and fix it'.  No?

 A dictionary look-up reveals that 'complete' means:

That's what I thought.  OK, assume you go to this group with a complaint of chest pain and they diagnose you having a heart attack, right then, right there. Can they put in a stent and open up your arteries?  Not according to their office manager when I called to ask. They would need to refer you out of their practice to an interventional cardiologist, which none of them are.

A problem?  Might be if your were expecting the advertised 'complete care', and if time was of the essence, as it often is in that pesky heart attack thingy.

What I object to is the bold statement of 'complete care' when, in fact, the care is partial care. Truth in advertising would demand they say 'here is what we do: check your blood pressure, etc...' and 'here is what we don't do: put in stents and save your life...'. Such  truth in advertising is risky as it might divert patients elsewhere.

What boils my blood is the insincerity, the deception, and the lack of ethics that combine to diminish the seriousness of what doctors do and what patients expect and deserve.

"THE 'SCARE-EM AND THEY WILL COME', or GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER"

'RENOWNED CARDIAC SURGEON FEATURED DURING FREE DINNER....", so the next ad goes.

Ok, here's the idea. Surgeon to hospital marketing department: 'I have the scalpels, but I need more patients, can you help?'

The surgeon's claim to fame (and fortune) is fixing mitral (heart) valves.

Here's marketing's plan.  Let's take a common condition that almost every patient has been told they have like a heart murmur (usually of no medical significance), and tell'em it could be from a floppy mitral valve (also usually of no surgical significance) ,and let's make it sound scary over a free dinner. And tell 'em we can fix it surgically. Don't include in the ad what's for dinner because some folks might not like chkn.

Oh, don't forget to say in the ad that the surgeon's "success rate last year was 100% compared to the National average of just over 50%"!

What's this?  Nationally the success rate is only 50%?  What do we have in this nation, child surgeons, incompetent surgeons, can't the Mayo and Cleveland Clinic find surgeons as good as the one in the ad?

Or, is this just a darn risky procedure and half the time the procedure goes wrong? Or what really?

The 'what really' is that to take a common condition that generally requires no surgery, advertise it to death, skim off a few souls for surgery, and claim 100% success rate is, well, really everything bad.

The surgeon and hospital running the ad should recognize, and state, the seriousness of any surgery,  particularly valvular heart surgery.

The ad should say BOLDLY: not every one with a heart murmur has a medical problem or needs surgery, not every murmur is caused by the mitral valve,  not everyone with mitral valve issues need surgery, first check with your doctor and ask if you have a surgical mitral valve problem,  no doctor has a 100% 'success rate' and explain what that '100% success rate" figure really means. (For example did the surgeon operate on just one person last year? Does 'success' mean the procedure went well, but the patient died?) And state what is for dinner, some people are allergic.

I'd be wary of any 100% success claim, but suture self.

SIGN LANGUAGE

 Today I passed a large electronic sign in front of an annex of a large hospital. The sign flashed and scrolled in blue neon the following message: "Only dual source 128 slice CT in Florida".  This type of CT may be the state-of-the art and that may be a good thing, or not, but it is a bold statement and one designed to attract patients and bolster  image.  Kudos for the marketing department.  WOW, right here in lil ol Sarasota, the only CT of its  kind in the whole state of  Florida.

I stopped in the facility and picked up some literature. There was no one to speak to, but, their Newsletter said: "the  first in the state of Florida'. Hmmm, not the only one, just the first?

I called the facility to ask if their scanner WAS the only one in Florida and the person 'in the know' there said: 'well, not really, the message is a little out of date, we need to get that fixed'.

 Why is this important? It is important because what healthare providers say to you on billboards, and in ads,  should be honest, and if it is not honest there, there is a good chance what they say to you in the privacy of an exam room may not be as well.

DOCTORS ARE NOT SUPERHEROES AND TO SUGGEST THEY ARE IS SUPERWRONG.

Being sick, I mean just sick or really sick, is serious stuff.  I don't like the headline in one full-page, color hospital ad that their doctors "actually are superheroes, defy odds, and increase survival rates." Just like Superman does? Are they also faster than a speeding bullet?

Consider your horror when things go bad in the emergency room, cath lab, or operating room when you realize the ad saying their doctors are 'superheroes and defy odds', was just baloney from the PR department.

How about this ad instead. Say our doctors are overworked, believe they are underpaid, have no control over their professional lives, are generally an unhappy lot, and, most often, are too busy to talk to you or call your family. Oh, mention that most medical errors occur in hospitals and represent the fourth cause of death from all causes in the U.S.  Superheroes or just plain folk?

There is much more to say and no time.

PRACTICE HEALTH DEFENSE:

Be wary of ads bearing claims.

Find a doctor who will call you back.

Be wary of doctors paired with free dinners.