Use of healthcare resources in the last six months of life: Paper contains absolutely gorgeous and diverting sentence

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7449.1201-c

BMJ 2004;328:1201-1202 (15 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7449.1201-c

Letter

Use of healthcare resources in the last six months of life

Paper contains absolutely gorgeous and diverting sentence

The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below.

EDITOR—"However, all patients in the last six months oflife are quite similar with regard to at least one criticalcase mix adjuster—they are all dead within six months."¹

This sounds like something from a Woody Allen film: they justdon't write stuff like this any more. We need more such (inadvertent)humour in medical writing.

Robert I Rudolph, clinical professor of dermatology

University of Pennsylvania 1134 Penn Avenue, Wyomissing, PA 19610, USA r-rudolph@comcast.net

Competing interests: I cherish "howlers" like this one.

Wennberg JE, Fisher ES, Stukel TA, Skinner JS, Sharp SM, Bronner KK. Use of hospitals, physician visits, and hospice care during the last six months of life among cohorts loyal to highly respected hospitals in the United States. BMJ 2004;328: 607. (13 March.)[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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Use of hospitals, physician visits, and hospice care during last six months of life among cohorts loyal to highly respected hospitals in the United States: John E Wennberg, Elliott S Fisher, Thérèse A Stukel, Jonathan S Skinner, Sandra M Sharp, and Kristen K Bronner
BMJ 2004 328: 607. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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