I’m not actually on TV, but there are days I feel like I’ve accidentally stumbled onto the set of a sitcom. When neighbors have never seen your husband in the light of day and friends joke that he is make-believe, then you might be married to a … well, you know the joke.
Being married to a busy physician can leave you playing …
I’m a physician entrepreneur. In 1998, I opened my first clinic. My malpractice: $500 per year. Then I tried life as an employed physician. Hated it. So in 2005, I opened my ideal clinic. Best. Job. Ever. My malpractice: $1,230 per year. Want low premiums? Here’s how I did it.
A quick tutorial. New malpractice policies mature over five years. So the first …
The acronym “MI” has traditionally meant myocardial infarct, or heart attack. Recently it’s taken on a new, more salubrious meaning: motivational interviewing.
A growing number of docs are practicing this technique, which amounts to listening to patients to help them recognize their internal sources of behavior. Boston’s NPR affiliate, WBUR, describes typical MI interventions in which doctors, instead of demanding that patients stop smoking or drinking or overeating, gently …
People can wear what they want in America. Whether you want to debut the latest vogue or your midriff rife with adiposity, you are free to do so. But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. In the span of one week, I found two people — on two separate occasions — wearing white coats, each …
The drug test came back abnormal. There was THC present. I walked back to Mrs. Johnson and raised my eyebrows.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, not used to whatever kind of look I was giving her.
“Uh, you forgot to mention to me that you smoke weed.”
She blushed and then smirked. “Well, yes, I guess I forgot to put that down on the sheet. I don’t …
1. Wait times in most emergency departments are ridiculous. But, if you have a real emergency, you won’t have to wait. If you have abnormal vital signs, a worrisome ECG, or concerning chief complaint, you will be seen long before the person who checked in with a sore throat to get a work excuse.
Patients with chief complaints like “GSW abdomen” and “found down/unresponsive” don’t wait to …
With much hype and fanfare, the independent investigative journalism outfit, ProPublica recently released their Surgeon Scorecard, assessing individual specialist surgeons who perform elective knee and hip replacements, spinal surgery, prostate surgery, and gallbladder removal surgery.
I had blogged about the impending release. My trepidation about the idea of a non-medical, non-scientific organization analyzing complex surgical data concerned issues such as …
Recently I read an article in the New York Times by Elisabeth Rosenthal. She’s the same author of the enlightening article, “My doctor charged me $117,000 and all I got was this lousy hospital gown.” That may not have been the exact title of the article.
Following that article she wrote a follow-up about the long and difficult ordeal …
Natalie Fuelner created a well-written article in the Bangor Daily News describing some of the tribulations many new parents go through with young children. One weekend, her toddler fell face first onto a metal patio table. Immediately, the toddler’s face is full of blood. The dad panicked. Natalie was a “trembling mess” on the inside.
Their physician neighbor wasn’t available to look at the child. …
“Your wife has gestational diabetes.” My heart stopped when my wife’s physician called to tell me this. “I want you to tell her because it’ll be easier to give it some time and let it sink in. Tell her to call me if she has any questions.” But I had questions — about a million.
Let me give some background information. I’m …
A hospital can be full of discomfort. My patients tell me that the food is unappetizing. The beds hurt their backs. The noise echoing through the hallways at night makes it impossible to sleep. And for those patients near the end of life, the treatments being offered may no longer be of benefit, causing more pain than good.
The answer to discomfort for those who are very ill is comfort care, …
“Only one rule in medical ethics need concern you — that action on your part which best conserves the interests of your patient.”
– Dr. Martin H. Fischer, German-American Physician and Author
“A physician shall, while caring for a patient, regard responsibility to the patient as paramount.”
– Principles of Medical Ethics, American Medical Association
“I pledge to pursue the practice of surgery with honesty and to place the welfare and the rights of …
It’s been a very slow week in my office. Today we almost pitched a no-hitter, having only one patient come in toward the end of the day. Overall, we’ve been quiet in nearly every way: few phone calls, few patients stopping by, few appointments, few secure messages.
What’s wrong?
That was a trick question. This is exactly what should be happening when things are going …
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I never really watched medical shows, even before and during medical school. I watched maybe one season of ER, a couple of seasons of Grey’s Anatomy and House MD and maybe one episode each of Private Practice, Chicago Hope, Emily Owens MD and other random medical shows. The only medical show I made an exception for was Scrubs, because it was …
Patient-doctor communication often has many facets, wrinkles, and twists. Medical school prepares a doctor minimally for the ups and downs of these patient interactions. There is no mannequin who can train each medical student how to deal with every personality, response, or even outburst by each patient. On the job training is sine qua non.
During and after medical school, it took …
When my sister, Jessica, was a nurse anesthetist student at the University of New England, she had the opportunity to rotate at Johns Hopkins, and she seized it. She was young and fairly new to the medical world and so she did not recognize at first the name of the neurosurgeon with whom she would be working — Dr. Ben Carson. After receiving multiple comments from numerous people about how great it …
My patient had suffered a terrible, crushing injury to his chest leaving many ribs and his sternum fractured, his lungs and heart badly bruised and his body on the edge between life and death. He was on a ventilator, the tube through his mouth into his windpipe pushed air into lungs that couldn’t draw for themselves. He was on constant medications for pain and to sedate him while we used …
Do you remember Mad Libs from when you were a child? A story is filled with blanks, and as you fill them in with inappropriate and ridiculous words, you laugh until you can’t see straight. You laugh until you can’t breathe, and your parents beg you to stop! Let’s be children again. Share these with the nurses, and give the shift a little levity.
Pain medication. You see, doctor, my pain specialist …
I’m a physician, and I’m adrift. I am pretty much lost at sea. I’ve often thought of writing this column, but afraid I’d be recognized, I’ve hesitated for years. Even now, I’ll most likely remain anonymous, because I’m in a vulnerable position. Let me preface my remarks with the reassurance that I’m not a bad person.
I developed dependence on opioids several …
I recently read an article written by a human physician about her personal feelings and other people’s reactions to her decision to quit practicing medicine.
The author frames the article around how her choice was made after she recognized how detrimental her career was to her own health. The irony of a doctor abandoning her profession because it was causing …
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