Did you know medical certificates expire? They have an end date! So when an employer or other entity asks for a clearance certificate, this is what we are going to write:
Dear Employer,
The whole point of a medical certificate is to certify someone unwell or unfit. This is why there is a beginning date AND an end date. At the end date, the patient is no longer certified unwell/unfit. I have enclosed the negative COVID results and you will note your employees certificate has reached its end date. I further enclose professional advice from our professional organisation in regard to this. It follows that the certificate of ‘clearance’ you are suggesting is unprofessional and those who would provide one are acting similarly.
I hope this information finds you well.
Regards
Doctor Nick Specialist GP
Hope this helps! If you are still unwell or need any further information, say hi to your PartridgeGP and book in here for a phone or face to face consult!
Romance of the Three Kingdoms is one of China’s four Great Classical Novels. The title of this blog post is more fully:
The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been.
PartridgeGP is based on a triple promise that we will be great for our patients and our community, GPs and our staff, and for the owners and the practice. Further, we will provide a comprehensive, professional, empowering, and sustainable service at all times.
Our friendly neighbourhood pharmacist sent this to me (see below). He was a little worried about the threat to his full service pharmacy and also to great General Practice.
Hmmmm
Now different companies will have different service offerings at different levels of the market. Think Porsche and Hyundai. Both very acceptable to different groups. Maybe even acceptable to the same group at different times. I’m not sure they are competitors.
I put my thoughts down here:
Upon reflection…
So keep playing to your strengths, keep doing your best, and unite not divide.
We all want to provide great general practice care. Most of this comes from time, curiosity, and interest in our patients. When we turn our attention and medical skills to their problems and issues we do better work.
Physical examination has been around since antiquity and is a useful adjunct to taking a great history. Much like over investigating, physical examination is not always needed.
General practice is so much more than compliance and paperwork.
So much can be pared away to reveal the essence of what we do.
In the time of #COVID19, perhaps we can chip away to reveal our statues of David rather than be inflexible blocks of government marble.
Since 1986, federal law has mandated that any patient requesting emergency medical care must be evaluated by a physician to assess for any threatening conditions. The law, often referred to as the “anti-dumping law,” requires that physicians perform a medical screening evaluation, including a physical examination.
Over time, the interpretation of this mandate has slowly expanded, not by law so much as by custom. This is why emergency rooms have become our nation’s safety net for care. Despite increasing popularity of urgent-care clinics and telehealth, many patients who could have safely been cared for elsewhere still end up in emergency rooms.
While many of us embrace that mission with pride, it is dangerous and wasteful in the coronavirus pandemic. We need to course-correct to keep everyone safe. Exposing patients to emergency rooms is now far riskier than it was before. In turn, health-care workers must assume that all patients are infected. This forces us to blow through personal protective equipment that we desperately need so that we do not become infected ourselves.
Over the past few decades, we have learned that many, if not most, of our physical examination maneuvers provide little reliable information. In most cases, the information we need can be obtained simply by interviewing patients. But old habits die hard, and patients seem to love our stethoscopes. In our current situation, that simply won’t do.
We need the federal government to allow us to perform medical screening exams via video or through glass doors, even for patients entering emergency rooms. The removal of the requirement that we evaluate every patient by hand will save resources and keep everyone safer.
In recent meetings and phone calls with stakeholders, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has signaled that it is seriously considering making this change. But it has not materialized, and time is of the essence. The moment to act is now.
Jeremy Samuel Faust is an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the Division of Health Policy and Public Health, and an instructor at Harvard Medical School.
The RACGP SA&NT in conjunction with SA Health and a local panel of presenters, will be presenting a webinar update on Telemedicine, discussing tips and tricks related to undertaking telehealth in your practice.
Social distancing. Try and stay 1-1.5m away from people. Don’t hug, kiss, shake hands…and DON’T do group meetings / big gatherings. These will soon be cancelled (Monday, if over 500 people) but really, it starts with you!
Cough into your elbow and clean your phone! Both of these will limit spread of those little virus particles!
Now that you’ve cleaned your phone, and are practicing your social distancing, USE the phone. Telehealth is here via your phone, no special equipment needed.
STAY AT HOME, USE THE PHONE
Great advice if you’re unwell, good advice just for day to day. Call PartridgeGP on 08 82953200 for a phone appointment!
PartridgeGP and Dr Nick Tellis are proud to serve our older Australians in Residential Aged Care Facilities. It’s something we will do more of in 2020 – and we will do better 👍🏼
