In a world of extremes where we are operating in black and white, living in the gray is where the real work happens of confronting truths of left and right, conservative and liberal, and opening up to varying perspectives that reflect diversity.
This is the space where I’ve witnessed the possibilities of navigating the divided worlds of pro-life activism and reproductive justice.
Vice President Kamala Harris recently acknowledged the …
“It feels different down here,” she said. I had just approached a young woman in our ED waiting room to apologize for the seven-hour wait to be seen. She looked at me with bloodshot, dark brown eyes and continued, “It feels like … the lower decks … Do you know what I mean?” I placed my hand on her shoulder, acknowledging her analogy with a shudder of complete understanding.
She was …
All medical professionals are familiar with the jargon: quality metrics, P4P, low-cost/high-value care, PQRS, and meaningful use. We see these terms in multiple emails, staff and clinical meetings, and organization-wide initiatives. These measures and guidelines will significantly impact the type and quality of care we provide to our patients and how we are paid for it. This movement is not necessarily detrimental and could lead to improved health among …
There are no two ways about it: The health care system in the United States and Canada is failing. Few want to talk about a dirty little secret, but the facts are clear. Health care costs are rising at an unsustainable rate, and millions of Americans are uninsured or underinsured. The system is not accountable to the people it is supposed to serve.
Having experienced both the Canadian and United States …
On December 27, 2017, as the result of a medication error, 75-year-old Charlene Murphey died tragically at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The nurse who administered the medication, RaDonda Vaught, was criminally convicted for the mishap and the case ultimately caught the attention of the entire global health care community.
Unfortunately, medical errors are not an uncommon occurrence in health care. In fact, they are believed to be the third leading …
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Lorna Breen, MD, a New York City emergency room doctor, committed suicide following weeks of incredible stress she endured at work. Nearly two years later, the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act was signed into federal law, providing federal grants to support programs and training on reducing health care worker burnout.
While this legislation is an important step forward, it is not enough.
Two years …
As the momentum to mitigate food insecurity continues to unfold, we need a stronger emphasis on ensuring better food sanitation and safety in economically disadvantaged and under-resourced communities. For example, the closing of 400 Dollar General Stores in several states and a grocery store closure on Chicago’s West side due to rodent infestation are of concern, especially for communities who are already dealing with …
This month marks the 12th anniversary of Obamacare’s passing. Was it perfect? No. It was meant to be a starting block to cover a widening gap in the nation’s health equity. It became less effective because of direct attacks by politicians who then used the failures to point a finger back at President Obama for nothing other than party-line politics. The Affordable …
My credit card hovered over the card reader at the pharmacy as I contemplated whether I should pay. Two hundred and eighty dollars and some change. For two EpiPens, each with 0.3 mg of epinephrine that could potentially save my life if I accidentally ate something with sesame seeds. At that moment, I realized that even I, as someone with good employer-based family health insurance, was being forced to make …
Imagine losing control of your child’s life-saving care. The mental anxiety is overwhelming enough – then suddenly, all the decisions that should be up to your child, you, and your child’s physician are snatched out of your hands by faceless institutions. This is the fate currently befalling the families of transgender youth in Texas.
The Gender Education and Care, Interdisciplinary Support Clinic (GENECIS) in Dallas, has been effectively …
Death is a topic that most people try to avoid. Death by suicide is also something that that remains rarely discussed. This is probably because suicide is scary, particularly if we have thoughts of being the loved one left behind. People considering suicide don’t take the time to let people know that they are considering suicide; they tend to keep all these things bottled up to themselves.
As one writer Read more…
Arguably one of the most overlooked yet incredibly important aspects of your malpractice insurance policy is the Consent to Settle Provision. You’re paying thousands of dollars a year for your malpractice insurance; you should have a say in how your claims are handled, don’t you think? Today we’re going to talk about the consent to settle provision – why it’s important, how carriers can limit you, and what you can …
Staffing shortages and turnover rates have recently become a pertinent topic for hospitals. However, these personnel challenges have haunted certified nursing facilities since the 1970s. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the turnover rate for total nursing staff in nursing homes was about 128 percent. While increasing transparency on these atrociously high turnover rates has been a commonly proposed solution, it has only recently been …
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More than one in three U.S. physicians will face a medical malpractice lawsuit in their careers. As the role of advanced practice clinicians such as nurse practitioners as primary caregivers continues to grow, so too will their exposure to medical malpractice litigation. Therefore, health care providers may benefit from staying versed in the following key shifts in medical malpractice litigation:
1. Demographic shifts change courtroom dynamics. Read more…
On February 22nd, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas turned essential medical treatments for transgender adolescents into a crime, ordering the state to investigate them as “child abuse.”
The following day, a patient came to one of us (Dr. Morse), and through sobs recounted the gender identity-related maltreatment that she had experienced throughout her youth. She had survived bullying at school, transphobic slurs in the streets, and multiple threats of physical assault. …
Telehealth is the best option for millions of Americans, but more Americans need to be included.
Three-hundred-and-thirty U.S. health organizations have called on Congress to act swiftly in renewing waivers that allow for the provision of telehealth services and to consider permanently allowing virtual health services.
The COVID-19 pandemic has established that telehealth and technology-delivered services — like apps — are here to stay and benefit …
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Hear me out.
I am a first-generation, working female in my family. My mom was your typical 70s woman that stayed home with her kids and didn’t have, or even want, a career. Or so she said. The laws surrounding job discrimination and sex-based wage disparity of the mid and late 60s were still very fresh and, in many ways, working moms at that time, were not always held in the …
Timothy Hoff is a professor of management and author of Searching for the Family Doctor: Primary Care on the Brink. Copyright 2022. Published with permission of Johns Hopkins University Press.
There is a fight going on for the soul of not only American health care but health care everywhere. Primary care and family medicine are at the center …
Since the spring of 2020, COVID-19 has disrupted our social and economic order. One of the unraveling consequences of the historic changes wrought by the pandemic is the grossly uneven gendered and racialized nature of those shouldering the burden. Across all labor and occupational sectors, frontline workers and essential service providers have become sacrificial beasts of burden. They range from retail store employees, waiters, transit providers, farmworkers, meat packers, delivery …
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Cities and urban environments tend to have large gaps in health care accessibility and correspondent health care disparities. Despite the existence of localized public health infrastructure, such infrastructure tends to be fragmented and cannot fully encompass the level of nuance within its patient population as a result. As such, health care inequities are cyclically perpetuated in part through discontinuous health systems. Smarter, patient-centric approaches are needed to move the needle …
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