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Going to a doctor in America, for whatever reason, the first thing that happens is that a nurse comes and takes your blood pressure. I wonder why? Never happene
by sampo 9y ago
Going to a doctor in America, for whatever reason, the first thing that happens is that a nurse comes and takes your blood pressure. I wonder why? Never happened to me in Europe.
- bryan11 9y agoWhen I asked, they said the insurance company forces them to collect two metrics or the insurance will reject the claim. That's why a nurse always gets your weight, temperature, and/or blood pressure regardless of the reason you're seeing a doctor.
- mikecsh 9y agoIn the UK (not an insurance-based system), many GPs ("family doctors") will aim to take a BP reading if there is time. This is partly because there is a system called the Quality Outcome Framework that incentivises practices to do so, but the route of it is that those incentives are in place because high blood pressure is extremely common, under-diagnosed, and has huge health consequences if left untreated, which in turn is extremely expensive for a national health service. A BP check is quick, simple, and cheap, and can help to identify problems early on when simpler interventions can stave off bad outcomes.
- slededit 9y agoHigh blood pressure has been a major problem in North America for decades. Its part of early screening.
- hellofunk 9y agoThey did that for me in Germany too. EU insurance.
- Spooky23 9y agoIf it’s medical and consistent, must be Billing and liability.
- Thriptic 9y agoTwo reasons. First, it's a clinical quality measure that needs to be collected by law. The government mandates that you collect certain data about X% of patients you are in contact with and transmit that data to relevant parties or else you will be penalized financially by Medicare. Also, BP, weight, and temperature are important diagnostic indicators
- casefields 9y agoSomeone didn't read the article. "Checking things like temperature, blood pressure and respiratory rate every four hours on hospitalized patients has been the standard of care since the 1890s, yet scant data indicates that it helps."
- Thriptic 9y agoSomeone didn't read the parent comment. The article talks about re-taking of history and vitals during care transitions, after the patient has been admitted. The parent comment asked about taking those measures during admission / triage and checkups when the healthcare team doesn't have any data yet. Those are two different things.
- YeGoblynQueenne 9y agoIn the UK, they do. In my GP's surgery there's even an automated machine in the lobby that will print out your BP and a sign advising to take your BP if you haven't "recently" and bring the printed slip with you to show the doctor or nurse.