Patients and caregivers writing on KevinMD about the experience of illness and the health care system from the other side of the exam table: navigating care, the doctor-patient relationship, being heard, and what patients want physicians to understand. Physicians who have become patients write here too. For the record of what pain patients and physicians have said to each other about opioids and chronic pain since 2007, with patient authors cited at the same weight as physicians, see Opioids: what physicians and pain patients say, in their own words. For what patients, families, and physicians have said about dying, hospice, and the decisions families face at the end of life, see End of life: what physicians say, in their own words. For what women and the physicians who treat them have said about pregnancy, menopause, and the conditions dismissed for years, see Women's health: what physicians say, in their own words. For what physicians have said about consent, honesty, and who decides, see Medical ethics: what physicians say, in their own words.
Most healthcare professionals do not consider themselves to be in the field of sales. However, healthcare professionals do sell something so they are in sales! Even if you may not have the titles of “salesman” or “saleswoman,” you are still in sales. Everyone sells something. Kindergarten teachers sell something (i.e., the value of education). What do healthcare professionals sell? We sell the benefits of treating illness and promoting wellness. During …
I am a 47-year-old female. In December of 2010, I had surgery to remove a 2 inch atrial myxoma (a heart tumor) in my left atrium. The costs for that were astronomical. That is not what I am writing about. I am writing about what happened in the months after my surgery and a cure that cost $9.19 if you don’t count all of the unnecessary doctor visits and …
As the director of a health education program at a public university, my work is predicated upon the belief that greater knowledge is the key to improving health outcomes. If patients and healthcare professionals simply had better access to the latest information on a particular medical topic—if they simply knew more about a diagnosis, treatment, or prevention strategy—then we’d surely see improved health outcomes.
I have come to realize this assumption is wrong. …
What we look for when we participate actively in our health care differs from what our clinicians, employers and health plans believe will result when we shift from being passive to active participants.
We don’t have the same goals in mind. Does this matter?
Ask patients who use the phrases “patient engagement,” “patient participation” or “patient empowerment” about their goals and we talk about having some measure of control over our health …
The mother, clearly agitated, came to my office holding a bottle of liquid antibiotic prescribed for her daughter’s ear infection. She asked, “How the hell am I supposed to get this into her ear?”
She could not read the directions, which said to give the medication by mouth.
A survey conducted between 2008 and 2010 by the Adult Literacy Program at Einstein’s Fisher Landau Center for the Treatment of Learning Disabilities found …
We entered the hospital with great anticipation. Our baby was overdue and with no signs of delivery, I was admitted and was to be induced the following morning. Three days later our baby would be our greatest blessing on Thanksgiving Day.
It wasn’t until weeks later that we found ourselves scratching our heads over costs we incurred bringing our daughter into the world. We were fortunate to have had fantastic health …
In 2009, at age 51, journalist Katie Hafner invited her elderly mother to move from San Diego to San Francisco and live with her and her 16-year-old daughter. Brilliant and funny, Hafner’s mother had also been a divorced alcoholic who lost custody of Hafner and her older sister when they were young …
I am a good patient. I’m organized, I know my health history and I’m particularly polite. I’ll thank you just for giving me bad news.
I look up to you. I do see myself as a partner in my care, but I depend on your expertise. I appreciate the years of schooling and sleepless residency nights that have trained you to know what might be causing my pain and how …
Last week, a friend told me that her mother had been fired as a patient by her primary care physician in a letter she received in the mail. “Our philosophies of care are too different,” was the explanation.
Last week, I fired my oncologist by email. “I have transferred my care to ___ ___.” I gave no explanation, although the note was polite and appreciative.
Clear communication from doctors, nurses, hospitals and clinics is essential for patients to manage their health care effectively. But creating easily understood materials isn’t simple. Many health workers don’t realize when they’re using technical terms, and many non-medical people have problems reading and understanding scientific and mathematical concepts.
Fortunately, several web sites offer helpful advice about how to create patient-friendly educational print materials. Two of the most useful are the National …
My patient and I had spent most of the 45-minute appointment discussing the challenges of living with diabetes and some ways that he could begin changing his eating and exercise habits. I started to wrap up the visit and asked him, “Which of these changes can I follow up with you about next week?”
He looked at me incredulously and said, “You are supposed to tell me what to do: I’m …
Have you heard that soon most primary care in the U.S. will be delivered by teams?
Yep. Team-based care is one of the characteristics of the patient-centered medical home, a way of organizing the care of patients that allows primary care clinicians to see more patients in a day while at the same time delivering better care. This move toward team-based care started long before health care reform and was embedded …
According to a WHO report, more than a third of women experience sexual or physical violence around the world. At such pandemic proportions, violence against women is a serious global health and public policy problem.
In addition to increasing a women’s vulnerability to depression, alcohol use disorders, pregnancy-related complications, and STIs, including HIV, intimate partner violence is a significant cause of death and injury:
42% of women experience injuries from physical or …
All healthcare professionals are aware that patients flock to the Internet to get information about the disease entity they or a family member is currently experiencing. There is a great deal of excellent evidence-based health information on the internet. There is also a lot of misleading, useless and even dangerous information on the Internet.
Over the years, I have tried many approaches to educating patients as to how …
From your perch in the coffee shop you watch a woman exit the big grey church across the street from the hospital. She’s young, probably not even 40, but she’s dressed like an elderly woman. She’s wearing a shapeless blue raincoat, heavy stockings and wide, steady shoes. Her rosary is looped around her fingers. Across from the church door there is a statue of the Virgin Mary against the fence. …
The demand for patient voices is on the rise as hospitals and dialysis centers, research teams and health care advisory groups face requirements to document our participation in governance and program decisions. And many of us have stepped forward to take on these roles.
Some of us do so as victims of horrific medical errors or uncoordinated care resulting in injury or from disrespectful care that undermines all confidence in health …
Blanched by anemia, Mary rested quietly in the hospital bed. Her pallor made her barely visible amid the bleached bed linens–she seemed a mere shock of white hair against the pillowcase.
Age ninety-three, she’d visited the hospital a half-dozen times in as many months, shuttling between nursing home and hospital as many elders unwittingly do in their last year of life. She may have preferred to stay put, but no one …
As a 24-hour-a-day, seven days a week, on-call nurse practitioner serving elderly and frail patients, my work day is anything but typical. I start my day not at a hospital or clinic, but at my dining room table. There, I document patient visits from the day before, write up my notes and place an average of 10 or more calls—ranging from setting up appointments to calling my patient’s family members …
Have you ever been to a Genius Bar at an Apple store?
The last time I was there — checking out a pesky problem on my iPhone — I couldn’t help but wonder: why can’t we have something like that to deal with our common health issues?
Genius Bars are located in Apple Stores in easy-to-access shopping areas, like malls. The Genius Bars are …
You probably know patients who present with entitled attitudes and you may think there’s not much you can do about them. Entitled patients often demand excessive attention and may question your competence when they are not satisfied with how important you make them feel.
By using one or more of the following approaches, you can manage entitled patients respectfully while reducing your risk of stress and burnout.
