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C T Patricoski

Publications and source records attributed to C T Patricoski.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Cost of medications for patients with ischemic heart disease in a rural family practice center.

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death, and multiple medications are often needed to control symptoms and risk factors. Little research has explored the cost of medications for a typical patient with chronic ischemic heart disease. We undertook a study to determine the cost of medications and how they are paid for by patients in one rural clinic. METHODS: One hundred four patients met criteria for chronic ischemic heart disease. We obtained patient information, risk factors, and current medications using retrospective chart reviews. We then calculated usual and customary costs per month for each of the 355 cardiac and 214 noncardiac prescriptions. After we determined which patients qualified for third party reimbursement or the community health center medication discount program, we calculated the actual out-of-pocket cost to the patient for each prescription. RESULTS: Average monthly medication costs were $104.77 for cardiac medications and $115.54 for noncardiac medications, for a total of $220.31. Patients were reimbursed for approximately 64 percent of the total medications costs, making average out-of-pocket medication costs $41.52 for cardiac medications and $36.86 for noncardiac medications, for a total of $78.38. Seventy-one percent of patients were reimbursed by their insurance company, 19 percent qualified for the medication discount program, and 10 percent had no assistance. Patient risk factors included positive family history of chronic ischemic heart disease (71 percent), hypertension (64 percent), history of smoking (61 percent), currently smoking (26 percent), diabetes (25 percent), and recently elevated cholesterol levels (67 percent of 76 patients). CONCLUSIONS: Medication costs for patients with chronic ischemic heart disease are expensive and burdensome. Third party payers and the medication discount program relieved a considerable (64 percent) but inadequate amount of prescription costs. Multiple risk factors coexist with these medication costs. Patient behavior modification and an aggressive approach to risk reduction might reduce these costs.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The accuracy of patient encounter logbooks used by family medicine clerkship students.

BACKGROUND: Family medicine predoctoral programs frequently have medical students record patient diagnoses in logbooks. Little is known about the accuracy of such logbooks. No studies have compared patient records dictated by students with cases recorded in logbooks. METHODS: Over 2 years, all patient encounters dictated by 79 medical students during their 8-week family medicine rotations were recorded and compared with information in the students' logbooks. RESULTS: Students dictated 2,520 patient encounters but only recorded 2,085 (82.7%) of them in their logbooks. Still, this rate of inclusion is higher than other studies where students did not dictate patient encounters. On the average, each student saw and dictated 32 patient encounters but omitted five to six from their logs. There were no significant differences between the 10 honors and 69 non-honors students in the proportion of patients omitted from logbooks. CONCLUSIONS: Medical students underreport patient encounters in clerkship logbooks. Keeping a record of the patients dictated by medical students was helpful in determining the accuracy of students' logbooks.

Clinical Clerkship↗