Re: WAS 4D ultrasound imaging, NOW something interesting
From: art fougner, md (evsono@pipeline.com)
Sat Nov 23 17:46:43 2002
Yes - 35 y/o who had refused amnio had a scan last week - large facial
cleft, semilobar holoprosencephaly, hypoplastic left heart, post axial
polydactyly - FISH just back ( not surprisingly) Trisomy 13.
art
At Sat, 23 Nov 2002, kpnb wrote:
>
>For the past 6 weeks or so I have had the *pleasure* of answering phones
>and making appointments while my shoulder and elbow heal. Every day at
>least 10 patients call hoping to set up an appointment for a 3D/4D
>ultrasound. I tell them our 3D/4D is used only if their fetus has a
>birth defect. That information hasn't been heard by a single caller.
>The response is usually along the lines of "oh, well my friend had one
>and she got some pictures and a video" or "do you know where I can get
>one?" If I repeat that it's only for fetuses with problems, and add
>that it's not covered by insurance, they hear the "not covered by
>insurance" part, but still don't hear the "fetus with a problem" part.
>At that point they ask if they can pay cash. None of them would dream
>of paying cash for a diagnostic scan.
>
>Most of the patients I encounter wouldn't know the difference between a
>diagnostic scan and an entertainment scan. Should the patients who call
>frantic to find a 3D/4D scan get what they ask for (demand is more like
>it)? In the patient population where I work (maybe everywhere) the vast
>majority of patients come in for an ultrasound to find out what sex the
>baby is and to get a picture. Days pass without a single patient asking
>if their baby is ok, but nearly all ask if it's a boy or girl and how
>many pictures can they have. Are physicians encouraging this mindset by
>promising pictures to get patients to show up for their scans (that was
>the case a few places I've worked)? Is it too paternalistic to evaluate
>the entire pregnancy when all the patient wants is a picture? Of course
>it isn't.
>
>We encourage the party atmosphere that OB ultrasound has become every
>time we show the patient the screen and hand out pictures. We need to
>remind our patients about slick marketing techniques (cute face images
>on a thin patient with plenty of fluid around a fetus in a perfect
>position) and ask them if that 3D/4D machine can actually identify birth
>defects....you can't tell from the commercial or any of the "news"
>segments.
>
>And lets change the subject....has anyone seen anything interesting
>lately?.
>
>Peg Beutler, RDMS
--
art fougner, md
ich bin ein New Yorker
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