Achalasia has the potential to cost the healthcare system a lot of money. There is no cure for Achalasia, therefore this is something that needs to be treated, sometimes as often as every 3 months (Dugdale, George & Zieve, 2010). When my mother has the surgery to stretch her esophageal sphincter, the average cost of her surgery ranges from $1,900 to $3,000, depending on anesthetics and whether or not they need to suck out food that is stuck in the esophagus. Insurance pays the majority of the cost (Brown, 2013). Achalasia effects 1 out of every 100,000 people (Vaezi & Richter, 1999). It may not have a huge impact on the healthcare system, but usually people get achalasia is in their thirties and the average life expectancy is almost 79 years (CDC/National Center for Health Statistics, 2013). For 1 person, this is an average of 49 years of treatment and or surgeries, not to mention the other problems that accompany this disease, such as acid reflux.
This projects has helped me to learn about the digestive system and some of the different diseases that affect it. This information will help me as a medical billing and coding professional by allowing me to distinguish between the different body parts. For example, if I know someone has Achalasia and I am doing the billing, but I see that they are being billed for a procedure that has nothing to do with the digestive system, obviously a mistake has been made. Because I was able to catch the mistake before they were billed, I will have saved months of working to straighten the bill out with the patient and insurance companies. Understanding body systems and diseases will enable me to be a more efficient coder. I will be able to catch mistakes and know where to look for information. It ...
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...St. Louis: Elsevier/Mosby.
Spechler, S. (2013, July 12). Patient information: Achalasia (beyond the basics). Retrieved from http://www.uptodate.com/contents/achalasia-beyond-the-basics
U.S. National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute. (2008, November 21). Esophageal cancer (cancer of the esophagus). Retrieved from http://www.medicinenet.com/esophageal_cancer/article.htm
U.S. National Library of Medicine. (2012, April 18).Appendix b: Some common abbreviations. Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/appendixb.html
Vaezi, M., & Richter, J. (1999). Diagnosis and management of achalasia. THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF GASTROENTEROLOGY, 94(12), Retrieved from http://www.cpgn.net/web/uploadfile/2010/1207/20101207030852383.pdf
Zieve, D., Eltz, D., & Vorvick, L. (2011, June 16).Malnutrition. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001441/
“Definition.” Mayo Clinic. ED. Mayo Clinic Staff. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 05 Jan.2012. Web. 03 Dec 2013.
Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22441230.
...owledge on abbreviations not only by medical professionals but also those who are keenly interested in learning some forms of the written language used in the medical field.
staff, Mayo. "Definition." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 9 Aug. 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. . (tags: none | edit tags)
Try to imagine yourself, sitting at lunch, enjoying your sandwich and a few strawberries along the way. Once you are done your delicious meal, you take one last drink of orange juice and head to your next class. In a few minutes you are thinking about your upcoming visit to the mall. You've completely forgotten about that sandwich you had just ate. But it is still sitting in your stomach!! Now how does this work, how did your body absorb all that food? It all goes back to the digestive system.
The things I have learned from this class are very informative. The Diet Analysis project has taught me a lot about my eating habits and has gotten me to change them in order to live a healthier lifestyle. Probably the biggest change I will make after completing this project is to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables will give me a lot of fiber in my diet. I will have to limit my fat intake, especially saturated fats from animals. I plan to pass the information I have learned in this course to friends and family to hopefully keep them aware that they should also watch what they eat.
U.S. National Library of Medicine, 26 Sept. 2011. Web. The Web. The Web. 19 Nov. 2013.
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Venes, Donald, and Clarence Wilbur Taber. Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary. 16th ed. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis, 2013. 1372-373. Print.
This project really helped me get a better understanding for my dream job, I know how it feels to have problems you can’t explain and I would be more than glad to help other. The salary is nice but the best part is helping a person, that’s the real reward.
Ed. David Zieve. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 26 Feb. 2014. Web. The Web.
WHO, W. H. (2008). Tradtional Medicine. available at http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs134/en/ retrieved on 9-11-11 at 10:30 pm.
The digestive system is a very important system in the human body. It is a group of organs that work together to turn food into energy and nutrients in the entire body. The food that was chewed in a humans’ mouth now passes through a long tube that is inside of the body that is known as the alimentary canal. The alimentary canal is made of the oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small intestines, and large intestines. Those few things are not the only important accessories of the digestive system there is also the teeth, tongue, salivary glands, liver, gallbladder, and pancreas.
"MedlinePlus - Health Information from the National Library of Medicine." National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health. Web. 06 Mar. 2011.