WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION ACT—Some Aspects of Interest to California Physicians

This article was prepared by Mr. William M. Whelan, Director of Special Services, California Medical Association, under the supervision of Dr. Francis J. Cox, Chairman of the Medical Services Commission of the Association, and Mr. Howard Hassard, the Association''s Legal Counsel. It is intended as a brief synopsis of the California Workmen''s Compensation Law as it applies to the physician in private practice. It is not an exhaustive treatment of the subject. A physician who desires to acquaint himself in detail with California industrial practice should consult the article entitled “The Physician''s Role in Workmen''s Compensation,” California Medicine, 82:352-362, April, 1955. Inquiries regarding industrial medicine should be addressed to Mr. William M. Whelan, California Medical Association, 450 Sutter St., San Francisco 8.     

MEDICINE AT MID-CENTURY

The Public Relations Committee of the California Medical Association recognizes that medical public relations is a reflection of every event in each doctor''s office, every action or inaction of each medical society and every public utterance of each doctor speaking officially or unofficially. The importance of good medical public relations has been emphasized repeatedly through the years in various actions of the Council and the House of Delegates of the California Medical Association.The goal of the medical profession is, through all its activities, including public relations, to achieve and preserve the best medical care for every individual.     

Administration of Blood By Registered Nurses—Joint Statement by California Medical Association,California Hospital Association and California Nurses' Association

After several years of favorable experience with registered nurses giving intravenous injections of fluids under the criteria set out in a joint statement by the California Medical Association, the California Hospital Association and the California Nurses'' Association,^* it was proposed that it would be appropriate for registered nurses to administer blood. Careful study of current experience in various places with registered nurses giving blood transfusions convinced a joint committee that it recommend the adoption of the following statement which was approved by the associations indicated.     

A.M.A. Meeting

The following summary of actions of the House of Delegates at the American Medical Association''s Thirteenth Clinical Meeting, held December 1-4, 1959, in Dallas, is not intended as a detailed report on all actions taken. It has been composited from reports by Mr. Ed Clancy, director of public relations of the California Medical Association, and by Dr. F. J. L. Blasingame, executive vice-president of the American Medical Association.     

WOMAN'S AUXILIARY

The following remarks are excerpts from an address by T. Eric Reynolds, M.D., President of the California Medical Association, at a meeting of the Woman's Auxiliary to the California Medical Association, Santa Barbara, September, 1959.     

The A.M.A. Meeting,June 25-30, 1961, New York City

This “news and comment” report on the recent annual meeting of the American Medical Association was written by Mr. Ed Clancy, director of public relations of the California Medical Association.     

Inhalation Therapy

Joint Accord on the Role of Respiratory (Inhalation) Therapy Personnel in Airway Management and Endotracheal Intubation endorsed by the California Medical Association, the California Hospital Association, the California Society for Respiratory Therapy, the California Society of Anesthesiologists and the California Thoracic Society.     

Workmen's Compensation Act; some aspects of interest to California physicians

This article was prepared by Mr. William M. Whelan, Director of Special Services, California Medical Association, under the supervision of Dr. Francis J. Cox, Chairman of the Medical Services Commission of the Association, and Mr. Howard Hassard, the Association's Legal Counsel. It is intended as a brief synopsis of the California Workmen's Compensation Law as it applies to the physician in private practice. It is not an exhaustive treatment of the subject. A physician who desires to acquaint himself in detail with California industrial practice should consult the article entitled "The Physician's Role in Workmen's Compensation," California Medicine, 82:352-362, April, 1955. Inquiries regarding industrial medicine should be addressed to Mr. William M. Whelan, California Medical Association, 450 Sutter St., San Francisco 8.     

Women and the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome: An Interview

SPECIAL EDITOR''S NOTE: Constance B. Wofsy, MD, is Co-Director of AIDS Activities at San Francisco General Hospital and Medical Center, as well as Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco; Assistant Chief, Infectious Diseases, San Francisco General Hospital; and Principal Investigator, Project AWARE (Association for Women''s AIDS Research and Education). Although she was not able to contribute an article for WOMEN AND MEDICINE on this very important subject, she kindly agreed to an interview. Both physicians and nonphysicians were asked what questions they had about the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in women.     

Physician Fee Indices in California and the U.S. Through June 1971 Socio-Economic Report of the Bureau of Research and Planning

California physicians'' fees increased 2.2 percent in the first half of 1971, according to figures compiled by the Bureau of Research and Planning. Nationally, physicians'' fees increased at a faster rate of 3.4 percent during the same period.This was the slowest semi-annual increase in the California Index since the final six months of 1968 when fees increased only 2.0 percent. A decline was also recorded in the rate of price increase for other goods and services in the first half of 1971. Nationally, the “all items” increase amounted to 2.0 percent, and the service component rose 2.1 percent.Also included in this Report is special information on the charging patterns of physicians for office and hospital visits and data on physicians'' fees in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Metropolitan Areas.The California Physician Fee Index is a continuing survey conducted by the CMA Bureau of Research and Planning since 1962. The survey questionnaire which lists 26 medical, surgical, radiological, and laboratory procedures, elicits fee information from approximately 1,000 randomly selected physicians. Since June 1970, the procedures on the questionnaire have been listed according to the coding nomenclature used in the 1969 edition of the Relative Value Studies, published by the California Medical Association. Prior to that, the 1964 edition was used to delineate the procedure being surveyed.     

PEDIATRICIAN'S POINT OF VIEW

Medical care for rural populations is an important problem facing the medical profession nationally and locally. The mechanism for solution lies in the existing American Medical Association and California Medical Association committees on rural medical service and further development of "local health councils."Additional emphasis on training of physicians for general practice is essential through medical school graduate and postgraduate periods. The problem of providing additional adequately equipped and staffed hospitals must receive much consideration.Recognizing that passiveness invites aggressive non-medical agencies to foster bureaucratic dictation inimical to the practice of medicine, the rural physician must act through medical and community organizations to correct weaknesses in the structure of medical practice.     

PEDIATRICIAN'S POINT OF VIEW

Medical care for rural populations is an important problem facing the medical profession nationally and locally. The mechanism for solution lies in the existing American Medical Association and California Medical Association committees on rural medical service and further development of “local health councils.”Additional emphasis on training of physicians for general practice is essential through medical school graduate and postgraduate periods.The problem of providing additional adequately equipped and staffed hospitals must receive much consideration.Recognizing that passiveness invites aggressive non-medical agencies to foster bureaucratic dictation inimical to the practice of medicine, the rural physician must act through medical and community organizations to correct weaknesses in the structure of medical practice.     

CMA's Proposal for a Voluntary,Universally Available Health Benefits Program

The May 4, 1970 issue of the American Medical News contains an article on a report released in April by the British Medical Association following a two-year study of the British National Health Service. Although the BMA study is oriented to the specific program as it has evolved in Great Britain since 1946, its main thrust is in the development of a system of voluntary health insurance which would provide for greater consumer choice, based upon nationally determined guidelines and regulations. BMA''s recommendations would have the NHS utilize a combination of tax-supported and voluntary-supported mechanisms in providing medical services to various segments of the population, based upon categories of illness and income levels.Since the BMA proposal as reported in the AMA News parallels in some respects the one approved by the CMA House of Delegates and submitted to the AMA House of Delegates for its consideration, the reader will be interested in seeing the concept for a Voluntary Universally Available Health Benefits Program, independently developed by the California Medical Association. It is interesting to note that the CMA proposal attempts to avoid many of the problems with which the NHS has been identified, and at the same time would establish a single, coherent, integrated approach for development over the next decade, incorporating public programs into a unified system of medical care which utilizes the multiplicity of voluntary health insurance approaches and mechanisms.     

Lapses of Consciousness Reportable as Epilepsy

The following statement from the California Medical Association Traffic Safety Committee is endorsed by the C.M.A. Council and the State Department of Public Health.     

Continuing Medical Education: Planning and Goals Conference in Continuing Medical Education—Workshop Recommendations

Following are recommendations drawn up by workshops held as a part of the Planning and Goals Conference in Continuing Medical Education, sponsored by the California Medical Association and directed by its Committee on Continuing Medical Education, San Diego, 11 to 12 March 1967. The general subject was divided among four workshops and the reports of two of them—No. 1, (a) and (b), and No. 2—were printed in the August issue of California Medicine. The Reports herewith are those of the other two workshops.The conference was supported in part by Contract No. PH 108-67-158, Bureau of Health Manpower, Public Health Service, Department of Health, Education and Welfare.     

CALIFORNIA MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: TRANSFER OF PATIENTS FOR THERAPY

The following statement regarding requests for transfer of patients from one county to another for certain types of therapy not available locally, was prepared by the Cancer Commission of the California Medical Association.     

Guidelines for the Interview and Examination of Alleged Rape Victims

A conjoint effort of the Committee on Evolving Trends in Society Affecting Life, and the Advisory Panels of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pathology, and Psychiatry of the Scientific Board of the California Medical Association.     

The Doctor in the Middle

The following letter, written by legal counsel for the California Medical Association in reply to a specific inquiry made by the medical insurance committee of a county medical society, bears upon a point of general interest to physicians.     

The Doctor in the Middle

The following letter, written by legal counsel for the California Medical Association in reply to a specific inquiry made by the medical insurance committee of a county medical society, bears upon a point of general interest to physicians.