social history-an integral part of case taking???

SOCIAL HISTORY AN INTEGRAL PART OF CASE TAKING:

Our  routine day in the out patient department starts with a brief case taking for the concerned patient.,diagnosing the condition employing  all the bookish knowledge gathered all along the medical education life.apart from considering natural case history of patient it is also better to include social history as a definite part of our case sheet.the practice of involving social factors as some inevitable causes for certain diseases like THYROID cases like GOITRE- having a link with the genetic make up of the individual and even the environmental influences like iodine levels in the soil, water etc  and a few of the communicable  diseases and respiratory conditions, plays an important role in finding the root cause of the disease.

• Inclusion of a small column signifying the social history into our regular case sheet pattern is  significant:

• It provides a general idea to the physician regarding the cause for larger  prevelance  of  the same disease and promote measures for prevention or cure.

• A complete record of the over all incidence rate and the severity of the condition would help  in better epidemiological surveillance and implementation of the treatment strategies at a faster rate.

Let the role of social history not just be a part of community medicine but also an important part of our out patient department . even implementing the same heading into the private heath system a part from the public system would be a great help to the rural health management.

ECO FRIENDLY HOSPITALS

TREAT THE PERSON WITH A SPELL OF LOVE RATHER  WITH A SIGH OF HOW....!

The present day treatment is mainly based on the symptomatology while considering the given literature,very few medical people are involving the social and environmental history related to the cause,which in fact plays a major role in assessing the treatment strategy.

"ENABLE THE PERSON TO LEAD A FRUITFUL AND DISEASE FREE LIFE RATHER THAN JUST A CURE"

GREEN HOSPITALS- An eco friendly place, with both providing  better health  care to the patient and contributing for the protection of  environment through  resource management,pollution control and better methods for waste management.the public and private sectors  have to think regarding these issues in order to provide and implement our goal of:  "PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE".

A SIMPLE TUBE ,A SMALL CAPSULE- ARE THEY DANGEROUS?

Hey Doc's,do you know?

there is one thing with us: easy to buy,easy to use,easy to throw! but hard to dispose...."thermometer",the most hazardous thing yet very least bothered.

The clinical equipment we possess, like blood pressure measuring apparatus,thermometers contains a bio hazardous material "MERCURY" which is cheap to prepare  but difficult to dispose off safely, very few of us follow the right way of disposing these used ones:
"A method to hand over it to the concerned manufacturers or to the bio hazards management group".
handing it over to the manufacturer would help it give the best and the most safe way of either disposing it or re-usable, thus helping the environment in a very good way.

 These efffects are not only restricted to humans or aqua life or the wild life but ultimately our environment.any kind of negligence while its preparation,usage or even discarding the damaged ones involves great attention.accidental exposure to mercury may damage the skin,or its intake may cause food poisoning which may be lethal.mainly the health care professionals are at a high risk for these consequences,the personnel involved in safe disposal  of bio hazardous  waste are also to be warned regarding these issues.as per the recent reports suggested the main form of safe disposal is the best method called as "recycle and reuse"

Not a very different topic but the most common kind of bio medical wastage involves the illicit usage of drugs,either it may be the antibiotics that are playing a very  crucial role in spreading drug resistance.very recently WHO has announced its theme as to "COMBAT DRUG RESISTANCE"  which  it self denotes the necessity to interfere with the up coming threat to the human life.Its a huge responsibility that lies on the doctors to prevent this disastrous condition,but it is still an unfortunate thing to see that many of us are very least bothered that we are prescribing a number of unwanted drugs for an un diagnosed disease.It is a pathetic condition that in  india- unfortunately named for the uncontrolled infectious diseases and a place with very least health care provided to the people, the health care personnel are not even following the guide lines described by the government,it is seen in the most common problem we are facing with "MULTI DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS".

The drug trails which are being conducted on human beings not even considering them as living beings has to be stopped.The best way to prevent this undesirable condition can be promoted mainly by the medical professionals:

1. to prescribe drugs as per the need for limited period of treatment.
2. In case if the medications are left over then,hand over them to the manufacturer and enable their re usage.
3. If the drugs have crossed their expiry date,then dispose them safely by giving them to the concerned authorities of medical waste disposal,so that they do not form a medium of contaminating the bio resources.

DO WE HAVE A NEED TO MANAGE THIS?

IS IT THE RIGHT PLACE FOR A USED SYRINGE!

Many of the present public and private health care systems are not considering the hospital waste management process which has to be dealt very carefully,in order to avoid many environmental hazards
 this is the need that has provoked the necessity for the usage of: what we call a seggregatory method,which involves using various plastic and metal bins:
 

 


It  has been found that the most common route of spread of the most dangerous  diseases the world is facing today, HIV- AIDS and HEPATITIS-B is the parenteral route contributing about 75%  of the total cases,.In such a condition it becomes mandatory to take every precaution for the safe disposal of  the clinical equipment like: IV CANNULAS,USED SYRINGES,BLOOD TRANSFUSION MATERIAL etc.

our health system has come up with a better way to combat this problem i.e.
usage of different colored plastic bags and white coloured metal bins for the waste consisting of sharps,needles syringes.
at small clinics used disposable syringes are to be first disabled by using the needle breakers and later discard them into the metal bins.
the main use of  plastic bags lies in their help to segregate the wastage according to the method of disposal.

"SAFE ENVIRON"- A newly evolved organisation is contributing its best part in the process of hospital waste management. the method of waste collection and disposal  are promoting the prevention of environmental contamination a part from avoiding pollution around the hospital care.