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Why a physician recruiter needs to consider the spouse of a doctor

Bo Claypool

Physician

September 25, 2011

Whether you are a physician saddled with the task of spearheading the recruitment efforts of your practice, a group practice administrator, an in-house physician recruiter, or an agency recruiter like myself, you have probably heard the following at least once (if not several times, as in my case) in your career from a prospective physician candidate you are seeking to recruit:

“You know, I just wanted to say that I really …

Attending in flight emergencies is part of our Hippocratic Oath

Rajka Milanovic Galbraith, MD

Physician

September 24, 2011

On a recent international flight to London, a passenger required medical assistance. I don’t know if it is the karma of London but this is the second medical emergency on a plane headed to London that I have encountered.

I was only a couple rows behind the passenger and could see even before the crew announced the need for a doctor that he needed assistance. I jumped over the woman …

The day my mother became a saint

Neil Baum, MD

Physician

September 24, 2011

It was 1976 and I had just started my solo practice. I employed only a receptionist and a nurse. My nurse was absent because of an illness and I asked my middle-aged mother to come and serve as my chaperone for the afternoon.

The first patient was a young lady and I asked her to give a urine specimen and place it in the turnstile in the restroom. My mother, wearing …

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The day my mother became a saint

The impact of hiding medication costs from patients

Anonymous

Medications

September 24, 2011

Always covered by an employer health plan, I had never given a thought to prescription costs – my medications had been covered by moderate copays. This changed when I retired and enrolled in Medicare (and a Medicare Part D plan).

Just prior to retirement, my eyes suddenly began tear and swell so much that it impacted my vision. The eye doctor diagnosed an allergic reaction and prescribed prednisone drops to …

Health effects of the BP Gulf Coast oil spill

Erin Marcus, MD

Conditions and Diseases

September 24, 2011

People living along the Gulf of Mexico are still feeling the effect of the BP oil spill disaster, the largest oil catastrophe in history. To learn more about the spill’s health effects, I spoke with Dr. Gina Solomon, an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Dr. Solomon was on the Louisiana coast during …

In health care, rationing is not a new concept

Doc B, MD

Health Policy

September 23, 2011

Rationing is defined as the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, or services. In health care, rationing is not a new concept and has been occurring for years, most often in times of emergency but also when resources are merely limited or demand is greater. For example, an increased need for ventilators in the winter months during flu epidemics; organ transplants are dictated by the availability, or the shortage, …

Mobile technology will be omnipresent in health care

Douglas Elwood, MD, MBA

Health Technology

September 23, 2011

A white paper from The Beryl Institute reveals a 10% increase in general patient satisfaction and over 40% improvement in satisfaction with educational materials at hospitals when interactive technology is provided.

The publication examines six different hospital systems using the industry-standard Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey for evaluation. According to a press release on the study, the technology gave patients faster access to hospital staff and services by submitting …

Do doctors have a moral obligation to serve?

James Logan, MD

Physician

September 23, 2011

Since it strikes at the very core of what this blog is all about, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to comment on Dr. Karen Sibert’s recent op-ed piece in the New York Times.

She argues that, especially given the current shortage of primary care doctors in this country, being part of the medical profession confers one with the moral obligation to serve and, as such, conflicting …

Achieving a 90 minute door-to-balloon time in STEMI patients

John E. Brush, MD

Conditions and Diseases

September 23, 2011

At a recent committee meeting, my hospital’s administration announced new quality measures and targets. Striving for top performance, the board of the hospital system set the bar extraordinarily high. The bonuses of senior management are tied to achieving the targets, so the announcement had everyone’s attention.

One target that caught my interest was for achieving a door-to-balloon time of less than 90 minutes in STEMI patients. As an interventional cardiologist who …

The spending of emotional reserves is tough for doctors and nurses

Rob Lamberts, MD

Physician

September 23, 2011

“I need you to do me a favor,” my nurse asked me at the end of our day on Friday.

“Sure,” I answered, “what do you want?”

“Please have a better week next week,” she said with a pained expression. “I don’t think I can handle another one like this week.”

It was a bad week. There was cancer, there was anxiety, there were family fights, there were very sick children. It’s not that …

Legal weaknesses of an electronic medical record

Mike Koriwchak, MD

Health Technology

September 23, 2011

Over the past several months I have read several online discussions and comment threads on the medical-legal issues raised by EMR, including an HIMSS brochure on the subject. Most of these discussions miss what I consider to be the most important legal weaknesses of an electronic medical record. I finally came across an online discussion that comes closer to covering what I consider to be the most important …

Elimination of industry support for CME is an urban myth

Thomas Sullivan

Medical Education

September 23, 2011

Urban myths come in all shapes and sizes. Recent medical scares include a rogue politician claiming that a vaccine is no good, based on someone they met in the audience who was not trained in medicine or science. How many physicians know patients who are scared of taking a medication or getting a needed procedure based on an Internet story or a friend of a friend?

Recently, there has been controversy …

Ivan Ilyich gives voice to the agony of the afflicted

Richard Barager, MD

Patient

September 22, 2011

Pity me as I wish to be pitied. That is the plea of the tortured protagonist in Leo Tolstoy’s brilliant 1886 novella, The Death of Ivan Ilyich.

Tolstoy was born in 1828 into Czarist Russia’s landed gentry. Though orphaned at a young age, he enjoyed the typical privileges wealth and title afforded—passive income, summers in the country, and enrollment at Kazan University. But it was later, after dropping out of school and …

Interactions about our health care are increasingly conducted online

Jessie Gruman, PhD

Patient

September 22, 2011

The outsourcing of work by businesses to the cheapest available workers has received a lot of attention in recent years. It has largely escaped notice, however, that the new labor force isn’t necessarily located in Southeast Asia, but is often found here at home and is virtually free. It is us, using our laptops and smart phones to perform more and more functions once carried out by knowledgeable salespeople and …

The online health information divide

Susannah Fox

Patient

September 22, 2011

This post is first and foremost a thank-you note.

Thank you to everyone who posted a comment, emailed me, or tweeted a suggestion in response to my request for input last July: Crowdsourcing a Survey. Six new topics came directly from those conversations. Thank you to Veenu Aulakh and the California HealthCare Foundation who provided funding for the survey. Thank you to Lee …

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The online health information divide

Holistic medicine needs to be rescued by physicians

Stewart Segal, MD

Physician

September 22, 2011

The word “holistic” has been kidnapped by practitioners of alternative medicine and marketers. Holistic has become synonymous with “all natural” treatments and cures. Those who kidnapped the word holistic imply that medical doctors are not holistic. The implication is that docs treat the disease and not the person.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, holistic means, “relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment …

Why doctors and patients have turned against each other

Hans Duvefelt, MD

Patient

September 22, 2011

“Where there is love of humanity there will be love of the profession.”
-Hippocrates

Reading some of the blog posts and comments on the Internet, you might get the impression that a majority of American doctors hate their jobs. Actually, according Family Practice News, only 35% of my colleagues are unsatisfied with their careers, but that is still a remarkable number.

Are Hippocrates’ words implying an answer to why some doctors today don’t …

Patients need help to navigate the health care system

Benjamin Geisler, MD, MPH

Health Policy

September 22, 2011

The New York Times recently ran an op-ed by Paul Krugman with the intriguing title, “Patients Are Not Consumers.”

Here’s an open letter to him:

Dear Dr. Krugman,

As a comparative effectiveness researcher, I agree with many of the arguments that you are making in your most recent article. However, I disagree with your main point that patients are not consumers.

I understand your sentiment and agree that patients are more …

Unintended consequences of standardizing physician practice

Steve Wilkins, MPH

Physician

September 22, 2011

Turns out there is an unintended consequence of many of the current efforts to standardize the way doctor’s practice medicine. It is called de-skilling. De-skilling can occur when physicians and other providers try to adapt to standardized, new ways of doing things. Examples of such standardization include clinical based care guidelines, electronic medical records (EMRs), pay for performance (P4P), patient centered medical home (PCMH) requirements and so on.

Examples of …

Doctors are the true consumers of health care dollars

Ian Metzler

Physician

September 21, 2011

With computerized health systems, physicians can place orders as easily as they can shop online at Amazon.com. Just a few clicks and your physician can purchase a panel of blood tests, futuristic imaging and diagnostic procedures that will hopefully guide their path to solving your ailments.

Search. Click. Submit. Repeat.

Except, unlike online shopping, physicians don’t see the price tags and they never get the bill. Doctors are the true consumers …