Kathryn Marie Charnock, M.D., Major, MC, USAF: Graduate: Hart High School, Newhall ’99 Deployed: Afghanistan, 2013-2014 Present: Lackland AFB Parents: Paula Charnock Millar, George Charnock, M.D.
Doctor’s Diary August 22, 2017: Infrastructure
(Snippets from the frontline) Infrastructure Society needs roads, bridges, and power to function. Likewise, the human body has an infrastructure requiring vision, hearing, and good teeth. Physiologic infrastructure deteriorates … Continue Reading →
Doctor’s Diary August 19, 2017: Good hands
(Snippets from the frontline) Good hands We know a tight end can catch a football. How do you know a surgeon has similar hand-eye coordination? Shouldn’t this quality be possessed … Continue Reading →
Doctor’s Diary August 16, 2017: Doctor Bonus
(Snippets from the frontline) Doctor Bonus Primary Care Physicians are internists, family practitioners, and pediatricians who are frontline doctors encountered by patients seeking medical care. Some physicians are in private … Continue Reading →
Doctor’s Diary August 13, 2017: Improving Nursing Home Care
(Snippets from the frontline) Improving Nursing Home Care None of my seniors want to go to a nursing home. Being surrounded by screaming patients, the odor of incontinence, and the … Continue Reading →
Doctor’s Diary August 10, 2017: Cost of Drugs
(Snippets from the frontline) Cost of Drugs Pharmaceutical companies have a stranglehold on us. Medicare Part D was written by their lobbyists. Drugs developed decades ago have gone up 10 … Continue Reading →
Doctor’s Diary August 7, 2017: Hospital administrators on a pedestal
(Snippets from the frontline) Hospital administrators on a pedestal Last month, a hospital administrator retired and all local media outlets had press-release headlines lauding his accomplishments. Two years ago, our … Continue Reading →
Doctor’s Diary August 4, 2017: Look at the medication
(Snippets from the frontline) Look at the medication As our mother entered her late 80’s, living at home alone became more challenging. Within a four month span, she was admitted … Continue Reading →
Doctor’s Diary August 1, 2017: Courage, Character, Responsibility
(Snippets from the frontline) Courage, Character, Responsibility Sometimes my surgical colleagues impress me with not just their skills, but the quality and spirit of their character. A neurosurgeon gets up … Continue Reading →
Doctor’s Diary July 29, 2017: Denied
Denied You’ve been told surgery required to repair a herniated disc has been denied; a mammogram to evaluate a new lump won’t be allowed; or you must be discharged from … Continue Reading →
Doctor’s Diary July 26, 2017: Congress doesn’t go on Medicare
(Snippets from the frontline) Congress doesn’t go on Medicare With all the recent headline hubbub concerning creation of a new healthcare law, the public must realize Congresspeople don’t go on … Continue Reading →
Doctor’s Diary July 23, 2017: Paperwork
Paperwork Doctors and their staff are inundated with paperwork…and it is getting worse. Despite computerization, the volume is overwhelming, and the data collected is mostly used to substantiate insurance payment … Continue Reading →
Doctor’s Diary July 20, 2017: Comfort Care – Know the Difference
(Snippets from the frontline) Comfort Care – Know the difference Your loved one is seizing and brought to the Emergency Room. The staff offers “comfort care” and of course who … Continue Reading →
Doctor’s Diary July 17, 2017: Bring accountability to your hospital stay
(Snippets from the frontline) Bring accountability to your hospital stay You or your loved one has been hospitalized. For most, this is an unfamiliar road. Beware, as nowadays hospitals are … Continue Reading →
Making Medical Decisions Without Accountability
A pediatrician decides a struggling teen with mental illness needs hospitalization to neutralize psychologic demons impacting their personal and social life. A Workers’ Compensation doctor requests a neck MRI in … Continue Reading →
A Decline In Life Expectancy
(To Readers: A previous posting here in early 2016 discussed Life Expectancy. This is a re-write of that article as statistics have borne out for the first time in 23 … Continue Reading →
Drive-Thru Medicine
I had never heard the term “throughput” before a meeting at our hospital two years ago. It was used to discuss how the emergency department (ED) could yield greater profits … Continue Reading →
Physicians Organizing Committee Battle Encroachment into Medical Decision-Making
War is being waged on behalf of American citizens against the business takeover of hospitals, yet most people don’t realize this battle exists. Surprisingly, the warriors scattered throughout our country … Continue Reading →
The Ambiguity of Diagnosing Brain Death
Hospitals have always served as a lifeline to survival. Whether from pneumonia, heart attack, stroke, or trauma, they have been a community safeguard between life and death. Today, cost of … Continue Reading →
Saluting Our Santa Clarita Valley Olympians
With the 2016 Rio Olympics coming to a close, we honor four participants claimed by the Santa Clarita Valley as their own: Allyson Felix, Anthony Ervin, Abbey Weitzeil, and David … Continue Reading →
The Two-Tiered System of Hospital Care
Born in Canada, our mother came to the United States after World War II and blended into the Greatest Generation. Raising a family in the second half of the 20th … Continue Reading →
Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Doctors
Growing up in a family that emphasized education, I had trouble staying on mark as I wanted to be a baseball player. At the age of 11 though, I underwent … Continue Reading →
Compromised Hospital Care
Most primary care physicians (PCPs) who admit patients to a hospital are family practitioners or internists. Since medicine becomes more complex each day, PCPs must remain up-to-date on the latest … Continue Reading →
Doctors: Pawns on the Hospital Chessboard
Hospitals are sacrosanct pillars of a community with alabaster halls and sterile rooms where saving lives and curing disease emanates. But fifteen years ago some floundered in bankruptcy, and that’s … Continue Reading →
Surviving Your Hospital Stay
A Purple Heart was displayed next to his bed so I knew he was a veteran. Our only contact though was tossing bean-bags during activities at his Board & Care … Continue Reading →
Medical Consequence of a Business Bonus
You have a persistent cough and poor appetite, but for six months your doctor has prescribed an assortment of antibiotics after an initial chest x-ray showed a small pneumonia. Finally, … Continue Reading →