-VISIT OUR OTHER FORUMS- OB-GYN-L Ultrasound Ultrasound History Fibroid Forum Physicians-in-Training Tech Talk OBSTET-L (portuguese) OBGIN-L (spanish) Nursing

Re: The end of dipsticks? From: Anna Meenan, MD (annam@uic.edu) Tue Nov 15 19:54:59 2005 Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ] Next message: Garry E. Siegel, M.D.: "Re: OB: Home births" Previous message: jennifer : "hello" In reply to: Don Miller: "Re: The end of dipsticks?" Next in thread: Henry Gregor: "Re: The end of dipsticks?" Reply: Henry Gregor: "Re: The end of dipsticks?" Exactly my thoughts, Don. At the clinic I recently left, I tried every way I knew how to get the dip done and on the prenatal before I saw the patient. The lab thought it should be the nurse's responsibility, the nurses thought it should be the lab's responsibility, the nurses would occasionally have the patient give a specimen but then never leave an order at the lab for what to do with it. Or, they would have the student put the patient in the room and just forget to tell the student they even needed to have the patient pee. (as you can guess, part of the reason i finally left that clinic was my inability to have any input into the day-to-day running of the clinic) It was such a nightmare over something so small and trivial, and apparently unimportant, to boot. I don't recall ever making a medical decision based on a positive dipstick for protein if the B/P was normal, except for the one lady I saw with chronic nephrotic syndrome, and that was picked up on the initial complete U/A. -- Anna Meenan, MD At Tue, 15 Nov 2005, Don Miller wrote: > > >The entire process of obtaining a urine specimen is not THAT cheap and >not always THAT easy. The urine containers, the dipsticks, disposing of >the spent dipsticks and containers (properly), labeling containers, the >water used when flushing a toilet and washing hands for just this test, >etc. all cost something, but the biggest cost of urine testing is the >time spent by staff and physicians explaining and adding another >(unnecessary?) rate-limiting step to a visit. The more steps there are, >the fewer patients you can see, especially when patients are standing in >line for the only bathroom. I remember countless times waiting to see a >patient who was not in the exam room but in the bathroom and then comes >out with no urine because she couldn't go. When that patient was the >last of the day, I cursed the need to document urine screening. > >It may be cheap in many private offices (if you only count the cost of >dipsticks) but I have seen many public health clinics where they don't >use dipsticks but actually "order" a STAT UA with every visit and that's >how they get sugar and protein results. This practice might now be >considered a fraudulent means to generate additional revenue from a >prenatal visit for a totally unnecessary test. Anyway, eliminating >those UAs could probably save us taxpayers millions. > >-- >Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD, FACOG >eNATAL, LLC >http://www.eNATAL.com > Next message: Garry E. Siegel, M.D.: "Re: OB: Home births" Previous message: jennifer : "hello" In reply to: Don Miller: "Re: The end of dipsticks?" Next in thread: Henry Gregor: "Re: The end of dipsticks?" Reply: Henry Gregor: "Re: The end of dipsticks?"

Return to

Mail a New Message to the Forum: ob-gyn-l@obgyn.net Forum Administrator: geffrey.klein@obgyn.net Report Technical Problems: webmaster@obgyn.net Last Updated: Wed Jul 2 04:41:34 2008

The American Medical Association is no longer designating CME hours for AMA Category II CME credit. However, physicians themselves may self designate learning activities as Category II CME credit hours if they feel it is of sufficient educational merit and meets the formal definitions of continuing medical education. OBGYN.net believes these interaction in this forum meets these criteria. For further information see the AMA web site.