West Penn Allegheny Health System

My experience with wet penn hospital emergency room was a nightmare. Nursimg staff was nice but my experience wirh an ER dr was a bad one.

He basically told me because my husband has a terminal illness which we are hoping goes into remission with treatment,that i should take him home so he could die. I expressed concern about hom dying at home and he told me,"UNFORTUNATELY THAT IS PROBABLY WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN" and would not admit him even after he became unresponsive twice while he was there.

West Penn hospitals emergency room IS VERY UNPROFESSIONAL...STARTING WITH THE NURSES DOWN THE DOCTOR..WE WAITED AN HOUR AN A HALF TO BE SEEN...THE DOCTOR HAD A NASTY ATTITUDE AND GOT MAD BECAUSE I TOLD HER THAT SHE JUST WANTED TO ORDER ANOTHER TEST THAT WAS DONE THREE DAYS FOR THE MONEY AND TOLD US WE COULD GO SOMEWHERE ELSE...WHICH SHE ISNT ALOUD TO DO....WHEN THE ONE NURSE STUCK THE IV IN MY COUSINS HAND SHE DIDNT KNOW WHAT SHE WAS DOING TO THE POINT THAT BLOOD GOT ALL OVER THE FLOOR...THEN THE OTHER NURSE USED THE IV TO INJECT MEDICATION..AS MY COUSIN TOLD HER IT WAS BURNING SHE CONTINUED TO INJECT HE MEDICATION WHEN SHE SHOULDVE STOPPED AND REMOVED THE IV AND RESTARTED ANOTHER ONE....THERE WERE SO MANY OSHA LAWS BROKEN..I WILL BE REPORTING THEM TO THE STATE..ITS SO SAD BECAUSE I USED TO LOVE THIS ER

HEY , HOW IS EVERYONE , I JUST WANTED TO POST SOME INFO I PULLED UP ON MY DOCTORS LAPTOP PORTAL.

hey everyone read this really even your records can be in a strangers hand but im being stalked because i reported my abusers THAT IS WHY I WALKED OUT OF A PRIVATE DOCTORS OFFICE WITH THIER PORTAL UNDER MY COAT.

Understanding the Lucrative Business of Selling Medical RecordsPrinter-friendly format By: BY GLORIA BUTLER BALDWINBuying and selling certain health information isn't new. Since the 1940s, health insuring organizations (HIOs) have bought prescription records from a variety of sources, including through the claims process by managed care organizations, pharmacy benefit mangers, and others, and then linked with physicians listed in the Physician Master File of the American Medical Association (AMA).

Pharmacy information, which includes physician and pharmacy identification, prescription fill and refill data, product name and quantity dispensed, authorized refills, cost, and payment and insurance information, is compiled by the HIOs and sold to pharmaceutical manufacturers for significant revenue. Approximately 2.9 billion prescriptions are filled annually by pharmacists.

In the June 29, 2006 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Robert Steinbrook addressed the lucrative business of buying physicians prescribing data and the growing rebellion of physicians against the companies using the information as marketing tools.

According to a 2005 Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) Health annual report, operating revenue of $1.75 billion was derived from sales to the pharmaceutical industry. Forty-eight percent was from "sales force effectiveness offerings," which include "sales territory reports and prescription tracking reports." In 2005, the AMA received $44.5 million in revenue — about 16 percent of its total revenue — from the sale of database products.

Physicians are chomping at the bit because their personal prescribing data is open book, when patient records are, for the most part, protected under HIPAA.

To prevent losing license agreements with certain health information offices, the AMA issued its Best Practice Guidelines for pharmaceutical companies to follow when obtaining and using prescribing information to ensure its confidentiality and prevent its disclosure to other parties. The guidelines also say that using the data to pressure or coerce physicians to prescribe certain drugs is "absolutely an inappropriate use."

One pharmaceutical rep who talked candidly about how the data gathering really operates, was reluctant to provide his name, saying "it would be career suicide."

"It's all about marketing," said the source. "They say it's for research and to some degree it is. But mainly it's used for research in how to make more money. We get information about which doctors are prescribing what drugs, and for how much so we can see which ones we need to go push a harder. There's a ranking list of our best prescribing doctors. Pharmaceutical manufacturers even use those reports to decide how much to pay their sales representatives."

IMS Health uses the collected data from about 70 percent of all prescriptions filled in community pharmacies and projects nationally representative data.

State laws supersede the AMA guidelines. New Hampshire recently passed House Bill 1346, which criminalizes the collection and disclosure of information about the prescribing practices of physicians and other healthcare providers.

Verispan LLC joined IMS Health Inc., in a lawsuit in U.S. District Court to protest the constitutionality of the New Hampshire law. IMS said the new law goes beyond patient privacy and has created a special privacy right for physicians at the expense of healthcare quality and patient safety.

The AMA agrees that information "critical to improving the quality, safety and efficacy of providing patient care through the application of evidence-based medical research," should be shared, but not for self-gain.

Other states are devising their own plans. The California Medical Association, in conjunction with IMS Health, is conducting pilot testing that will allow physicians who do not restrict access to their information to see their own comparative data and educational material. Pilot testing will be completed this year and may be available throughout the state in 2007. Similar programs could take hold in other states.

According to a recent article by Robert Musacchio of the AMA and Robert Hunkler of IMS Health, the rules of the new program "allow the industry to retain access to prescribing data for most purposes, but they require companies to police their own sales forces."

They warned that unless companies "comply in letter and spirit with the requirements," they "will sabotage the success of the program and pave the way for legislation that imposes stricter measures on the industry."

HELLO FIRST OF ALL I WANT TO SAY THAT GOD IS GOOD. I CHECK MY PORTAL 3 DAYS AWEEK AND I HAVE A LINK THAT LETS ME LOG IN ANYTIME I WANT THANKS TO THE HELP OF MANY PEOPLE WHO KNOW WHAT IM GOING THROUGH.

WOW IT IS SO FUNNY HOW STALKERS CAN STALK PEOPLE FOR SO MANY REASONS BUT ARE SO FAKE WHEN THEY ARE FACE TO FACE. I NOLONGER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT MY STALKERS BECAUSE I NOW HAVE THE TASK DEVICE AND LOGS THAT THEY USE AND STALK ME WITH AND I JUST CANT BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE STILL COMITTING SUCH ACTS ON ME. AND THE PROFILE THEY PUT IN THERE WOW WHAT A LIE, BUT ITS ALL GOOD BECAUSE I NEED IT TO STAY IN THERE TO MAKE THIER JAIL TIME HOPEFULLY FOREVER.

BUT I AM GOING TO POST SOME SCREENS THAT I PULLED UP ON MY DOCTORS PORTAL THEY ARE JUST SOME ACCOUNTS THAT ARE ABOUT DOCTORS WHO PURCHASED PATENTS HEALTH RECORDS BY PAYING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS AND WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION FROM PATENTS, OFCOURSE THEY DONT WANT THE PATENTS TO KNOW THAT THIER HEALTH RECORDS ARE BEING GAMBLED WITH. LOOK AT MY PORTAL AINT IT CUTE.

HELLO MY SISTER JUST TURNED 18 SHE WAS AT THE STRESS TEST CARDIOLIGY CENTER AT ALLEGHENY GENERAL HOSPITAL WHICH IS APART OF WEST PENN ALLEGHENY HEALTH SYSTEM AT 320 EAST NORTH AVE PITTSBURGH PA SHE WENT FOR A STRESS TEST AND THE DOCTOR ASKED HER FOR A DATE WHEN SHE SAID NO HE GOT UP ON THE TABLE AND HAD SEX WITH HER WITHOUT CONCENT AND ALL THEY DID WAS REPAMAND HIM WHILE HE IS WAITING FOR COURT I WANT ALL TO KNOW ABOUT THIS BECAUSE IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOUR SISTER AS WELL SO IF ANYONE WAS HAVING THE SAME ISSUE PLEASE REPORT IT BECAUSE SEX ABUSE IS NOT PERMITTED AT ALL THE DOCTOR WAS INDIAN AND 45 YEARS OLD AND AMERICAN CITIZIN