An excerpt from Confessions of a Surgeon: A Deeper Cut.
He screwed us over. I slowly sank deeper into my chair, attempting to digest the letter my group had received from the local hospital CEO. “Thank you for your group’s interest in our hospital. I appreciate your long-standing dedication to the …
Health care for profit: How corporate pressures threaten independent medical practices
The most efficient method to increase patient flow and income in private medical practice is through handling physician referrals. Has anyone told you how to do that? I thought it would be a kind gesture for me to offer my version of how to make the strategy perform miracles for your practice.
So, what’s so hot about referrals? You get them occasionally without doing anything to attract them. What you may …
The Kentucky Derby is an annual horse race held in Louisville, Kentucky, on the first Saturday in May. It is considered one of the most prestigious horse races in the world and is the first leg of the Triple Crown of thoroughbred racing, followed by Preakness Stakes and the Belmont stakes. At the time of this writing, Mage won the famous race in the 149th Kentucky Derby.
The Kentucky Derby has …
When I was a medical student several years ago, I saw someone die in front of me for the first time. My classmate and I weren’t responsible for the patients; we only observed and made additional reports for our studies. The following day, we discussed the disease’s course, the medicines, prevention, and related topics. Most of the things we talked about were theoretical to help avoid future deaths like the …
Yes, America’s health insurance mess requires repair. Meanwhile, there’s an even more crushing burden on America’s patients and health professionals—the replacement of professionalism by greed, the replacement of genuine professional leaders with pliable greedy ones.
For a long time before the 1980s, nearly all hospital nurses worked 8-hour shifts, getting sign-off before and giving it after, the same for hospital respiratory therapists, custodians, and pharmacists. Then, in the …
It was a calm and quiet night in the ICU during my rotation when suddenly, the piercing sound of a code blue alarm filled the air. An elderly female patient, 66 years old, had come in earlier with lung clots due to ovarian cancer. She was on the other side of the hospital, and as part of the ICU team, I was tasked along with my attending to immediately go …
A glimpse into the fragile balance of life and death in the ICU
Nowadays, it’s clear that physician burnout is real. We know the statistics.
The American Medical Association reports that physician burnout – defined as a long-term stress reaction involving emotional exhaustion, lack of empathy toward patients, and a feeling of lower personal achievement – nearly doubled from 2020 to 2021.
Becker’s also reports that the primary care specialties – internal medicine, pediatrics, and family medicine – are among the top 5 …
Revolutionize your practice: the value-based care model that reduces physician burnout
It’s often said that medicine is an art: that practicing it requires more than just a knowledge of theory, but a certain flair, intuition, and attention to style.
We might agree that medicine has the form of art. But what about medicine as the content of art: as the material and even the inspiration for artistic expression?
That isn’t as strange as it seems. In fact, in the Islamic …
Reviving the art of medical poetry
The other day, I spent an excessive amount of time trying to dry some lettuce leaves for a salad. After failing to act on my thought many times, I decided I needed a salad spinner. Due to my menopause brain (attention span: zero), I grabbed my phone, opened the Amazon app, and ordered the highest-rated salad spinner.
None of this information is groundbreaking, but what was impressive was that the package …
Finding balance: How my practice became more Amazon than Etsy
How many times have you wished that you had more time? Do you feel like you’re too busy? Feel frazzled, rushed, and stressed?
No matter how much fame and fortune we may have, time is one thing that money can’t buy. One constant for every single one of us. Whether you are Jeff Bezos or a frenzied physician, we all only have 24 hours a day, seven days a week, …
Effective delegation: the key to unlocking more time and less stress in your busy life
As ethnic diversity increases in the United States, it is important for physicians (and all in the health care delivery workforce) to keep in mind what factors play significant roles in the matter of ethnic health disparities.
With a U.S. population of over 330 million, Hispanics—inclusive of Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and South Americans—now number 62 million, according to the 2020 Census. This equates to almost 19 percent of the …
Breaking down the link between social rejection and Black women’s health outcomes
No one feels sorry for American doctors. They are some of the highest-paid in the world and spend their lives in the country with the highest nominal GDP in the world. But why is it so hard to find any doctors who actually like their job? Why do so many dream of walking away? Here are five reasons why.
The electronic medical record (EMR)
Technology is amazing, and the EMR is no …
Breaking point: the 5 reasons American doctors are dreaming of walking away from medicine
My brother and I like to swap stories about our medical encounters. I suppose our ages – 69 for me and 74 for him – lead to varied encounters and tales.
“It’s a sh*t-show,” he tells me from his home on Martha’s Vineyard. “No one’s left here on the island. The doctors who remain have stopped seeing new patients or have incredibly long waiting lists.” My brother is forced to go …
Medicine is a joke, except no one is laughing
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As physicians, we are bound by four ethical principles. Beneficence (acting for the benefit of the patient), nonmaleficence (avoiding the harm of the patient), autonomy (respecting patients’ right to make their own decisions), and justice (fair and equitable treatment of patients). When people think of the ethical principles that guide physicians, “First, do no harm” comes to mind.
Unfortunately, our medical system in the United States is violating all four …
Not treating addiction in criminal justice settings violates the 4 ethical principles in medicine
There has been much hand-wringing about the 555 (18.4 percent) unfilled match spots in this year’s emergency medicine (EM) residency match. Several long-standing, excellent programs with outstanding patient pathology and well-known faculty in major metropolitan areas did not fill.
Most hand-wringing has focused not on inherent attributes of the specialty, but temporal issues likely to fluctuate over time, including:
1. An overproduction of 8,000 emergency physicians (EPs)
The inherent problems with emergency medicine that make it contradict new values and behaviors
As a doctor who has cared for countless critically ill patients, I cannot stress enough how important therapists are for patient recovery. Whether it’s occupational, physical, or speech therapists, these health care professionals play an integral role in helping patients regain their abilities and quality of life after an illness or injury.
In my experience, occupational therapists are especially crucial for patients who have experienced loss of motor function from a …
The underappreciated heroes of health care: a doctor’s appreciation for therapists
Every physician, regardless of their specialty, vividly remembers their experiences during grand rounds as a medical student or resident. A preceptor, senior resident, or attending physician would lead a pack of eager students and residents from room to room on the clinical ward. Suddenly, the pack would stop, and the questioning would begin.
“What are the top differential diagnoses?”
“What test do we need to order?”
These memories linger because they are how …
Disparities in health care: How physician heuristics can negatively impact patient outcomes
When my now ex-husband and I first met, he asked me about my favorite things to do. At that time, I did not have a ready answer. It was my third year of general surgery residency, a time for proving that I could handle it all: being the in-house senior surgery resident on call, starting to manage surgical teams, and being responsible for lists sometimes reaching dozens of patients. I …
The joy of surgery: How one doctor discovered her passion
What guides and directs your decisions in your private practice? As the physician owner, it should be your choices and decisions, made without influence from third parties. That is physician autonomy.
In 2012, an article by E. J. Emmanuel and S.D. Pearson defined physician autonomy as “the freedom to determine both the conditions of practice and the care delivered with the principal goal that care decisions are aimed at promoting the …
Breaking free: the power of physician autonomy in patient care
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a best-selling self-help book written by Stephen R. Covey. The book outlines universal principles that can be applied to personal and professional success. This article explores how health care professionals can use these principles to improve patient care, collaboration, and effectiveness.
1. Be proactive. Health care professionals must be proactive in staying up-to-date with the …
Use ChatGPT to apply the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” in health care
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