It was with much anticipation that a
group of us went south to present a program to another group on
November 8. Of the nine that wanted to go along, only eight were
able to make the trip. When we arrived, they had room for everyone
and had four visitors of their own. They were all doctors and wanted
to hear our group and the type of presentation we presented.
Dr. Tom did learn that Max would be
presenting his on sleep apnea and this was well received by Max. Tim
set up his projector and set up the slides for Max and he started off
our presentations after introductions. Max first asked how many felt
sleepy and caught themselves getting sleepy while driving. When no
hands were raised, he asked how many knew they had sleep apnea. One
hand went up and Max asked how long age he had been diagnosed. The
answer was three years ago.
Max then said he had been diagnosed in
mid 2003 and then recognized me. I said I had been diagnosed with
sleep apnea in August 2001. Max continued with his presentation and
then opened it up for questions. Questions there were, and Max
handled them very well. A few questions were directed to me, which I
answered. Max concluded by saying that we used nasal mask liners to
reduce air leaks and that we used our CPAP equipment every night.
That brought a few more questions and Max had Tim put up the last
slide with the URL for the mask liners.
Next Sue talked about getting off
medications and this generated a lot of questions. Dr. Tom addressed
the group and said that he had been reluctant to allow this, but with
the way Sue and A.J had presented to our groups, he found that it did
work for two of the three that attempted this. The third patient had
restarted medications when it did not work and before the blood
glucose levels became too elevated. This brought several questions
from the other doctors which Sue and Dr. Tom answered.
Allen presented his topic and talked
about obtaining VA benefits. Only two were receiving benefits and 12
more were asking questions. Allen outlined the steps to take and
this brought out more questions. Allen stated that there were myths
that needed to be stopped and this included being members of service
organizations such as AMVets or the VFW. Allen stated that only the
copies of the service record(s) (Form DD214) were required. This
brought a few more questions and then a round of applause when Allen
concluded.
At that point Tim introduced my cousin
and said she would answer the questions left over from her previous
presentation. She started answering the questions and when she
finished there were more questions which she was able to answer and
the doctor leading the group thanked her for answering the questions
and coming back. This produced another round of applause and the
doctor asked if she would speak to the group in April or May and she
would be given some topic guidelines in time to prepare.
Tim introduced me and I talked about
prescription errors. When I asked the doctors how many e-prescribed.
Only two doctors did and the other three said they would be in the
future. I asked if they were aware of how many errors were make with
e-prescribing and how to prevent them. When I got bland stares, I
said most mistakes were made by being in the wrong patient file when
they sent the email to the pharmacy. I said that the error was not
intentional, but happened. One doctor said he is right as he had
done this and wondered how the mistake happened. As he was closing
out of the file, he noticed the open files and realized that the
email had been generated from the prior file opened to e-prescribing.
As I covered several other known causes
of prescription errors, there were several questions about
prescriptions. Dr. Tom spoke then and explained that I had shown
that everyone could make mistakes from doctors to pharmacists. Now I
was showing patients how to prevent them from making mistakes. Two
people said that they had never had mistakes made and wondered how
the mistake could go unnoticed. I commented because we are all human
and mistakes happen. Being aware of the different types of mistakes
was one way to stop them.
Tim then introduced Barry. Barry
started talking about self-monitoring of blood glucose and was
bombarded with two questions about obtaining test strips. Barry
asked the doctors if they worked with the patients to obtain
reimbursement for extra test strips. All doctors said they did for
the first six months and occasionally other times when a patient
needs extra to manage diabetes when management was slipping. The
doctor leading the group said several of his patients were also
receiving help from the manufacturers as well.
Barry said this is not unusual and even
the group he is part of encourages this. Barry completed his
presentation and then asked for questions. Only two questions and he
answered them. Tim then opened the floor for other questions. There
were questions for Max and Sue and then the questions stopped. The
doctor thanked us for coming and said the meeting was over.
Some gathering happened and the doctor
leader wanted to talk to Tim, Dr. Tom, and me. He thanked us for
coming and was apologetic for the actions of some of his group. He
said that some were young know-it-all's and felt they were
invincible. Then the other four doctors came in and wanted to talk
to us. They had some patients in the support group, but were
interested in our group. They said they were aware of my blog and
felt that I should follow the ADA closer. I said I would never even
though I read what they publish that is not behind the pay wall. I
said I was not happy with levels that promoted progression to
complication, even if it was slow progression. They did appreciate
our making the presentations and felt it was something the group
needed. They asked how many members we had and were surprised at the
31 count.
One doctor asked Dr. Tom if he was our
leader. Dr. Tom said he was only the consultant and that we had no
doctor as a leader. He continued that they do more research and
present more programs than any group he has met. Dr. Tom said they
have group meetings with four other groups in attendance and are now
doing interventions successfully to help people with type 2 diabetes.
Dr. Tom stated that we left out the intervention presentation
because we did not feel it would be received well.
He motioned A.J to come over and
introduced him to the doctors. They thanked him for being ready to
present, but felt that we were correct not to have it. A.J said he
felt the same, but was disappointed that it was not presented. The
doctor leader of the group said that it could have been his fault for
having too many topics and everyone seemed restless after the first
three.
We agreed and said that is why we only
have one topic per meeting. Some have been a little more intense
than we wanted, but the outcome has been worth it. Tim asked if they
wanted notice of our meetings and topics. If notified early enough
we could change our meeting to a room that would hold up to 150
people. At present we are using a room that will hold about 105
people. Tim did receive email addresses for all the doctors and
thanked them. Tim assured them that we do change dates when the
roads and streets get bad in the winter. At that point we took our
leave.
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