Long ago, before I started practicing medicine, I worked in the retail sector. I was 15 years old when I earned my first real paycheck. Surely, I worked other odd and end jobs before that first “real job.” I mowed neighborhood lawns, shoveled snow off neighbors’ driveways, delivered newspapers—anything I could do to make a dollar or two. But those odd jobs were not “real jobs” with tangible or steady …
If I were to bet that the majority of physicians are familiar with that pit in their stomach—that sinking feeling of dread that comes with recognizing things aren’t going well—I’d probably win that bet. Contrary to collective wisdom, Wu (2000) first formalized recognition that doctors involved in critical incidents need help too. Now, twenty-five years later, doctors are still held to a standard that eschews the idea of making mistakes. …
I had two bunnies over a year ago. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a proper environment for them, just a large cage in the courtyard. During the day, they would roam freely, and I would lock them in the cage at night for their safety.
They were very dear to me. I talked to them, cuddled them, and let them eat whatever I ate. They loved eating from my hands. …
On August 6, 2021, a medical malpractice lawsuit was filed against me. The case involved care I provided between June 29, 2018, and August 3, 2018, while I was an employee at a medical weight loss clinic in Bethesda, Maryland. I resigned from that clinic in November 2018 due to concerns I had about my employer.
The complaint alleged that the patient was defrauded, hospitalized, sustained liver damage, suffered …
Last year, 54 percent of physicians reported symptoms of burnout. Behind that statistic are thousands of dedicated professionals who entered health care to help people, only to find themselves drained.
I know because I was one of them.
I’m going to share how transforming my approach to leadership through coaching not only saved my career but can revolutionize outcomes across our entire health care system.
“Joh taar se nikli hai, woh dhuun saab nein suni hai.
Joh saaz pey guzri hai, woh kis dil ko pataa hai.
Everyone hears the cries of the chords,
No one knows what the instrument endures.”
—Asian verse
Whistleblowers are moral warriors. These are people with superior work ethics who come forward to report ethical and legal violations at their places of …
It is more than our job,
Our profession,
Our specialty.
It is our life,
Our calling,
Our vocation—
A privilege.
Taking care of the sickest of the sickest children,
The most hurt,
The most wounded,
The most injured,
The most vulnerable among us,
The most precious of human …
Recently at the clinic where I’ve practiced for more than 30 years, the entire team became temporarily paralyzed by an IT glitch as a result of an upgrade, affecting the six-state organization. We weren’t able to use our EHR system. With the waiting room full of patients, we knew we had to move forward in rooming patients and switching to paper documentation. Our core mission is to take care of …
For nearly two decades, I sat in meetings, listened to leadership discussions, and navigated the institutional maze of advocating for funding for physician wellness programs.
I saw the hesitation. The skepticism. The “we don’t have the budget for that” conversations.
And yet, I also saw what worked.
For the past five years, I’ve worked independently, designing high-impact, transformational wellness experiences for physicians. And I’ve helped hospital systems, …
Mid-step on the sky bridge, boarding my flight—the message lands. Raw. Desperate. A life breaking apart in real time:
“I’ve been in health care my entire life. Surgical services. Because I spoke up against wrongdoing, stood up for myself, I’m out of a job and can’t get a job anywhere now. I’m 60 now. I don’t know what to do. I’ve had a hard life, and I buried all …
During the session, my partner leading the discussion asked, “What is your purpose?” One of the physician owners confidently replied, “To replace hips and knees.” The facilitator then asked everyone in the room, “How many of you see this as your main purpose?” Two more people raised their hands, both of whom were also physician owners of the practice.
We had been invited to work with a local orthopedic …
Is caring the missing ingredient in health care leadership?
As physicians and health care professionals, we are called to care for patients, their families, and trainees. Yet, the health care team is often not cared for by leaders. This has resulted in staggering rates of burnout. It has led to many physicians and nurses leaving the field, creating more stress on an already overworked workforce. The question is: How …
As physicians, we dedicate our lives to helping others. We spend years training to diagnose, treat, and care for patients with a dream of feeling valued and helpful. Then, one day we find ourselves feeling increasingly overwhelmed by administrative work, struggling to keep up with patient communication, and feeling disconnected from the people we set out to serve. The reality is that many of us are caught in a system …
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I’m only sharing this story today to illustrate something about myself and my perspective on love: being expressive with it.
I am not discussing only romantic love here. I’m talking about the affection we have for so many individuals around us, including our parents, siblings, friends, teachers, coworkers, neighbors, pets, and even strangers.
Sometimes we fall in love with a random person’s actions, something they say, the way …
Despite the heralded To Err Is Human, there is still no effective risk management strategy to prevent medical liability. Past discussions on KevinMD have explored a risk-management strategy that differentiates medical errors from random errors of nature with 95 percent confidence. Like any decision-making method, this strategy has weaknesses that deserve mention.
Weaknesses of the strategy
Becoming a doctor is often seen as a noble quest—a path filled with sacrifice, resilience, and the ultimate reward of helping others. We all start the same way: pre-med studies, endless exams, and the grueling four years of medical school. It’s a journey filled with sleepless nights, skipped meals, and cramming obscure diseases into our already overloaded brains. But we keep going, fueled by the dream of finally being called …
Perpetually late to the game, I was watching The Crown on my laptop Friday night, the wonderful episode set in the summer of 1969, when astronauts landed on the moon. While the world gazed into the heavens, series creator Peter Morgan looked around here on Earth and asked, What does it all mean?
Contrasted against this crowning scientific achievement was the Duke of Edinburgh’s personal crisis of faith. When NASA launched, …
A recent Time magazine article, “Women Live Longer Than Men—But Not in Medicine,” confirmed what many of us have long felt in our bones: Being a woman in medicine comes at a cost.
A staggering one.
Women physicians are dying younger than male physicians. Younger than women in the general population.
And that’s just what the mortality data shows.
The morbidity—the chronic health issues, the …
Throughout my residency, I’ve had the opportunity to perform autopsies on many different people from different walks of life. One case in particular stood out to me. The decedent was not in the greatest state of health at the time of death and subsequent postmortem examination. After I removed his heart from the pericardial sac and began dissecting each coronary artery in sequential tangential sections back to their origins on …
The song from the Broadway musical Hamilton, “(Yorktown) The World Turned Upside Down,” is stuck in my head. Indeed, these are no ordinary times. We have a measles outbreak in the U.S. that has resulted in numerous …
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