The physician community lost a member on November 18th, 2013. His name was Ben Bullington. And I’m sure that the vast majority of physicians don’t have a clue who he was. I had no idea who he was until about a month ago.
Dr. Bullington was a rural family doc. He practiced for years in Montana, in a town of less than a …
Being a musician made him a more compassionate physician
A while ago, I asked an 8-year-old patient of mine what she wanted to be when she grew up. She replied, “I’m not sure because right now I want to be a doctor, a firefighter, and a teacher … so maybe I’ll do all three … I’m not quite sure.”
Uncertain about how to respond, I mumbled something like, “I don’t think you’ll have much free time.” Adulthood tends to make …
What’s happening in Syria is a conversation we need to have
On the business side of health care, doctors are at a disadvantage. Because of their training, or lack therein, and native personality, they often fail to understand the realities of the market place, take confrontation personally and are suckers for an aggressive sales pitch. They feel that their motives are pure and because they sacrifice themselves and their families, over many years, they should receive respect and success. “I build …
For doctors to survive today, they need emotional intelligence
It’s been over a year since my older sister Anna died, so I choke up less readily while speaking about it. The raw anger is less, but the frustration of losing someone to a preventable medical mistake will always remain with me. Anna was five years older than me, my only sister, and the one I often turned to for advice. We were close despite living 600+ miles apart. She …
It’s time for health care to stand up to medical errors. Will we?
I always wondered what the saying “the apple falls so closely to the tree” meant. I never bought into the concept of similar cliché sayings of “like father like son” or “mother like daughter.” I viewed these ideas as being founded upon by poorly defined concepts of traits and inheritance. Such notions completely undermine the ideology of “I think, therefore I am” as coined by Rene Descartes. I maintain that …
Preventive medicine requires us to lead by example
An excerpt from Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine.
On a humid Tuesday morning, Chester arrived at a busy Durham emergency room. While the other patients around him made the usual requests for pain medications, diagnostic tests, and reassurance that they were …
Bracing myself for racially tinged criticism, I was surprised by what happened next
An excerpt from 11 out of 10: A Collection of Humorous Medical Short Stories.
When I was 16, I got a job as a “standardized patient.” My neighbor worked for a medical school, and they needed standardized patients for their medical students to practice talking to. Because apparently you can make it through four years of undergraduate, a rigorous medical school application process, and, you know, normal life experiences, but still …
The time I was a 16-year-old standardized patient
A colleague recently told me of a patient encounter he had in an emergency room. When he picked up the chart, it described the patient as a 62-year-old woman complaining of epistaxis, or a nosebleed.
He walked into the room and saw a perfectly well appearing 62-year-old woman. There was no blood on her clothes and none on her face. Her nose was not bleeding. When he asked her what could he do for her, she said …
Should there be limits to patient-centeredness?
In the arms of every parent who waited on the long line outside the clinic in Mexico was a child born with a facial deformity, usually a cleft lip or palate. Many of these mothers and fathers had walked long distances, carrying their child. Some families included grandparents, aunts and uncles, and others, just a mother, and her baby. Most of these …
Here’s what doctors can learn from global volunteering
When the daytime soaps As The World Turns and All My Children went off the air, I stopped watching any daytime TV. So before their infamy this week, I’d never heard the name, Joy Behar. And maybe I’d heard the name Michelle Collins, but I’m thinking that name was my niece’s friend’s cousin or someone-or-other. And certainly, I’m not familiar with the …
Nurses have been my best teachers
Theresa arrived in a cloud of noise and commotion.
She had called after four o’clock the day before, but I hadn’t noticed the new message in my electronic inbox before I left the clinic.
Her almost brand new alprazolam bottle and her pain pills were missing, and Theresa was reeling. As she walked down the hall to the exam room, I heard her explain to Autumn how she had been to Walmart …
The surprising reason behind an early refill of alprazolam
He had been educated at the finest universities. He had graduated cum laude, or whatever the term is they use nowadays to signify distinction. His pedigree was squeaky-clean.
But as he haltingly entered the dark building at the end of an otherwise unexceptional suburban street, he felt more like a criminal than a scholar. His office was drab. Each room was glowing with the artificial light provided by an incandescent bulb. …
The dystopia of modern medicine
“I’ll never forget the look in your eyes.”
Uh oh, I thought to myself.
“You had this look that you wanted to help but just didn’t know how,” said my patient.
Apparently I have very expressive eyes, and she was right. The event she was referring to was what we call a rapid response. This is when a patient’s status suddenly changes and the team wants her to be evaluated immediately. When I …
Physicians must never lose their humanism
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October 1, 2015 is a huge day to the medical community. It is a day that will live in infamy. It is the object of dread, of diaphoresis, of doom. October 1 is ICD-10 day. This view was further bolstered when I went to the CMS (Government Medicare) website; there was actually a doomsday countdown timer at the top of the page.
For those still unaware, ICD-10 is the 10th iteration of …
October 1, 2015: A day that will live in health care infamy
When was it that we stopped respecting ourselves and our profession? When did we decide that quietly smoldering or complaining to one another is better than standing up as a single entity for what we know is right? How did we allow misconceptions and distrust of physicians to grow? For outside forces to dictate what is best for our patients and take …
It’s time for physicians to regain their voice
As my husband’s pick-up truck rolls up the driveway, a long ER shift behind him, my four kids come running from wherever they are currently playing on our farm. My seven-year-old son was reading in a rocker on the front porch. His six-year-old brother was watching the new baby chicks scramble around our brooder. My four-year-old daughter was helping feed our ducks. And my two year old was getting into …
Doctors, parents, and spouses all rolled up into one person
Here is a question I get asked all the time by patients: “Is that bad?”
This is different than the similar, more appropriate question, “Is it bad?” which is usually asked after being given a specific diagnosis. For example, after a colonoscopy where a large polyp was discovered and removed I will tell the patient about the findings. He may ask, “Is it bad?” The answer is usually “No, the polyp …
Is that bad? A difficult question doctors can answer in many ways.
“Thou must be like a promontory of the sea, against which, though the waves beat continually, yet it both itself stands, and about it are those swelling waves stilled and quieted.”
– Marcus Aurelius
My reaction to this quote, which begins Osler’s Aequanimitas, has changed over the years. When I first heard it, I was filled with a sense of pride and anticipation. I would be that rock, for my patients, for …
How to fix physician burnout? Start with a culture of acceptance and support.
Attention graduates! If you’re looking for a career with a ton of job prospects, look no further than an international classification of diseases coder. This fun and fulfilling career will take you into new worlds of diagnosis, laterality, specificity, and nitpicky-ness as you dive into thousands of columns of numbers and qualifiers. You’ll even get to call doctors and harass them anytime you want. Sign up for your free brochure …
ICD-10: No wonder why doctors are burnt out
This story is a great one.
It’s about a female dog with only three legs. Her fourth leg was amputated following a traumatic accident as a puppy.
Now, when she walks, she has a hitch in her step. And, when she hitches, she kicks the stump of her injured leg outward.
Step, step, hitch. Step, step, hitch.
One day, the female dog has puppies. And, her puppies do what all puppies do. They nurse. They watch. …
Health inspectors should be trained to do what doctors do
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