61.   He recalled an incident he witnessed while on duty in which a patient needed a dose of lidocaine to treat an irregular heartbeat.

62.   Hiroshi Yoshio, a doctor at that hospital, said most patients needed no treatment other than an intravenous drip.

63.   HMOs emphasize regular preventive care, supervised by a doctor who coordinates all the medical services that a patient may need.

64.   Home dialysis patients still will need to visit clinics once a month for check-ups and stay in phone contact in-between times.

65.   However, patients need to understand the appropriate and growing role technicians play.

66.   If a doctor abandons a longtime patient at the hospital door, just when the patient needs the doctor most, they say, trust begins to crumble.

67.   If a nodule grew, patients needed more tests, sometimes involving surgery, to see if it was cancerous.

68.   If a patient needs help, a hospital can use a scanner to obtain information.

69.   If kidney function slips, patients need less medication temporarily because they excrete drugs more slowly.

70.   In addition, the group proposed adjusting the criteria for determining how urgently patients need livers, and it encouraged regions to share organs among themselves.