Most psychiatrists and primary care physicians who work in corrections long enough will end up being named in a lawsuit or having a complaint filed against them with their licensing board. So, from a risk-management standpoint, is it worth the potential hassle?
Yes, in most cases I think it is.
It is a fact that physicians who treat inmates are at greater risk of litigation. I don’t have specific figures to give …
One of the skills I really wanted to learn in med school was how to suture. It’s just one of those things that I felt like you’re supposed to know if you’re a doctor. How can you be a doctor if you don’t know how to suture?Anyway, by fourth year of med school, I had totally failed at my goal. I had already done a surgery rotation, but while …
Perhaps you’ve heard the news: psychiatrists no longer have time to listen to their patients. It’s all about writing prescriptions for medications and the days of “tell me about your mother” are long gone, or so we’re told. The current perception is that large volume practices where patients are seen in a matter of minutes are now standard and acceptable in psychiatry; that it’s how many — if not …
Erik’s wife had warned him many times, “Stay off ladders dear, leave it to someone younger.” Erik though was a pretty spry 72 years old and had been cleaning the gutters for many years. He had a sturdy 25 foot extension ladder, had years of experience as an athlete, and wasn’t about to slow down for no good reason.
It was an unusually bright crisp November day in Seattle, when Erik …
With sixteen million more Americans expected to gain health care coverage in the coming years as a result of the Affordable Care Act, access to actual health care providers may become more difficult. This may be especially true for patients with marginal coverage such as Medicaid.
The Kaiser Family Foundation recently explored the role of non-physician clinicians – specifically nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) …
The emerging literature on chronic disease management suggests that successful programs rely on patient self management skills. Having been in the primary care role for 20 years, that initially seemed self evident and a bit “so what?” to me, thinking it meant that we just need to teach our patients a bit more in the primary care office.
However self-management skills refer to specific curricula of skills that can …
Is Dr. X a good doctor?
Being a doctor, I often hear this question being asked. More often than not, the response that I hear is a rather clear cut one, “oh yes, Dr. X is a great doctor,” or “oh no, Dr. X is not a good doctor,” making me wonder what such a definite response is based upon. Is it based on actual facts? Is it based on …
The non-compliant patient who sues his physician for an adverse clinical outcome is a storied malpractice bogeyman. After failing to follow a screening regimen, show for appointments, undergo recommended tests, make health-related lifestyle changes, or take their medications, these patients (now plaintiffs) have the audacity to blame the doctors and nurses for not being adequately clear or assertive.
Are they real?
Yes and no. Not every “difficult” patient is a potential …
We are living a new era where the progress for the civil rights of women is undeniable, yet Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg points out in her compelling TED presentation:
“We still live in a world where some women don’t have [civil rights]. But all that aside, we still have … a real problem … women are not making it to the top of any profession …
According to Wikipedia, up to the beginning of the 19th century there had been only 3 occupations that were considered to be professions, Divinity, Medicine and Law.
A profession is considered a trade or occupation that transforms itself through “the development of formal qualifications based upon education, apprenticeship, and examinations, the emergence of regulatory bodies with powers to admit, discipline members, and enforce adherence to an ethical code of practice.”
Professionals are …
Everyone liked him. Though his later years (the only ones in which I knew him) took away his ability to do most things, and though he was in great pain every day, it was easy to see the mischief in his eyes. The subtle humor was still there, coming out of a man who was weak, in pain, dying.
She lived for him. She was always telling me of his pain, …
There’s been plenty of buzz about a recent New York Times story, “Talk Doesn’t Pay, So Psychiatry Turns Instead to Drug Therapy” by Gardiner Harris. The story is essentially a profile of Dr. Donald Levin, a 68 year old psychiatrist who has a private practice in Doylestown, Pa.
It is a poignant example of a common situation in psychiatry. Older psychiatrists were trained during a time when there …
Part of the reason I became a physician was because I got tired of watching those close to me as they suffered through illness and eventually died, while I stood helplessly by, unable to do a thing.
Throughout my training I watched as my mentors interacted with their patients, displaying a political correctness matched with just enough outward emotion so that there was no telling the difference between the good news and the bad.
“Don’t …
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As medicine adapts to the 21st century, new specialties arise.
General surgery is seeing two new fields emerge. One is “Acute Care Surgery,” which encompasses three facets of general surgery — emergency surgery, critical care and trauma care. The other is the concept of a surgical hospitalist. That is, a surgeon works only in a hospital and has no office or private practice. The idea is similar to the medical …
It may not be rabbit season or duck season but it definitely seems to be doctor season.
Physicians are lined up squarely in the gun sights of the media, government agencies and legislators, our health care industry employers and coworkers, not to mention our own dissatisfied patients, all happily acquiring hunting licenses in order to trade off taking aim. It’s not enough any more to wear a bullet proof white coat. …
Many people think that tests (blood work, x-rays, scans, etc.) mean their doctor is doing something constructive and working hard to figure out what is wrong. But tests are a double-edged sword.
When I trained most diagnoses were derived from careful history and a physical exam. Perhaps because our province did not have funds to have enough CT scanners and we didn’t have an MRI, those tests were on a …
I was talking to a fellow physician and he inquired, “how many patients do you see in a day?” I said, “maybe around 20.”
He smirked and replied, “20 only! I can see around 40 in a day and still have time to hit some balls.” There is something fishy here at Smallville.
A few years ago I used to work for this company. I had no option but to see a …
Though there are few subjects as immediate to my experience as that described in Gardiner Harris’s article in The New York Times, “More Doctors Say No to Endless Workdays,” perhaps the truest indication of my opinion on the matter may be the fact that, upon first glance at the headline, I didn’t feel much need to read the rest of the article. More doctors say no …
MRI overuse and misuse really make me angry.
Did you know that a growing number of doctors don’t even read the tests themselves? Another shocking aspect of this industry is that some doctors will order an MRI because it’s quicker than doing a full examination. Rushing to an MRI can oftentimes erase clinical correlation, that is, connecting the dots between pain and what the MRI shows.
MRI is unnecessarily overused. In …
Editor’s note: This post was originally written this past winter.
Boston had another blizzard today. I was really worried about this one. It was supposed to snow hard, about three inches an hour from 3 a.m. to 12 p.m. with poor visibility, impassable roads, etc. I’ve driven home in snow like that, and I find it terrifying. Your car won’t do what you want it to, and worse, other people can’t …
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