Officials Hope New Residency Program Keeps Doctors in South Florida

Local medical schools and institutions celebrated the beginning of a new residency program on Monday, bringing 50 doctors to the area. Medical officials hope many of them stay and help boost South Florida’s shortening supply of doctors. South Florida and the nation are suffering a shortage of doctors in general and specialized care. As doctors retire, Palm Beach County will need about 375 family doctors in four years, according to the county Medical Society. With retirements, less than 200 are expected to be practicing. Officials predict a shortfall of 85,000 doctors nationwide by 2020. “I think this is going to be an answer [for South Florida],” said residency program director Dr. Charles Posternack. The new doctors were introduced at a ceremony at Atlantis Golf Club on Monday. They are the first residency candidates from a partnership between the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University, JFK Medical Center and the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center. The residency is focused on providing internal medicine or medical care to adults. A 2005 survey by the American Medical Group Association and Cejka Search declared that 60 percent of physicians stay in the area where they complete their residency. Still, about half of the doctors entering the program are from abroad, including physicians in training from as close as the Caribbean and Mexico to as far away as Iran and Nigeria. Posternack isn’t worried. He expects a majority to stay in the area and sees students from abroad as a plus, calling them “equally well trained, if not better.” A variety of students bring a variety of maturity, experiences and life lessons, he said.  Dr. Stewart Himmelstein has a private practice in Delray Beach and welcomes new doctors to the area, which has a growing number of aging Baby Boomers. “There is a crisis in primary care and general internal medicine as it is right now, and there are not enough primary care physicians being produced to take care of our aging population,” said Himmelstein, one of two top officials for the American College of Physicians in Florida.

Excerpt taken from a Sun Sentinel article.

For more information on defending medical malpractice and nursing home matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at The Citron Law Firm, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Study Finds: Cholesterol Screening Is Urged for Young

The nation’s pediatricians are recommending wider cholesterol screening for children and more aggressive use of cholesterol-lowering drugs starting as early as the age of 8 in hopes of preventing adult heart problems. The new guidelines were to be issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The push to aggressively screen and medicate for high cholesterol in children is certain to create controversy amid a continuing debate about the use of prescription drugs in children as well as the best approaches to ward off heart disease in adults. But proponents say there is growing evidence that the first signs of heart disease show up in childhood, and with 30 percent of the nation’s children overweight or obese, many doctors fear that a rash of early heart attacks and diabetes is on the horizon as these children grow up. Previously, the academy had said cholesterol drugs should be considered in children older than 10 if they fail to lose weight after a 6- to 12-month effort. The academy estimated that under the current guidelines, 30 percent to 60 percent of children with high cholesterol were being missed. And for some children, cholesterol-lowering drugs, called statins, may be their best hope of lowering their risk of early heart attack, proponents said.

Please click on the link below to read the New York Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/health/07cholesterol.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=health&adxnnlx=1215605570-N12p0S96PaHZemtAO5A/wA

For more information on defending medical malpractice and nursing home matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at The Citron Law Firm, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Florida: Sunstar Paramedic Accused of Assaulting Patient

A 38-year-old Sunstar paramedic was arrested on a sexual battery charge after being accused of assaulting a woman in an ambulance that was taking her to a hospital, Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office officials say. Patrick Livingston, a Clearwater resident, inappropriately touched the woman, who is in her mid 20s, the Sheriff’s Office said. According to the arrest report, Livingston placed his hand in the victim’s pants as the ambulance was pulling into the parking lot of Bayfront Medical Center on June 26. The victim reported the incident the next day. In a police interview, Livingston said it was not medically necessary to touch the woman in that manner. Sunstar Paramedics, based in Largo, plans to issue a statement. The Sheriff’s Office is not identifying the woman because of the nature of the alleged crime.

Please click on the link below to read the St. Petersburg Times article:

http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2008/07/paramedic-accus.html

For more information on defending medical malpractice and nursing home matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at The Citron Law Firm, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.