In June, a man became very ill during a flight into Lagos, Nigeria. On the plane, he developed vomiting and diarrhea, and he collapsed in the very busy airport. Contacts on the plane and on the ground had no idea that he had Ebola — initially, he was treated for malaria — and many health care workers and bystanders on the plane and in the airport were exposed to his …
Ebola: If Nigeria can do it, so can we
Years later, I now wonder if I overstepped my boundaries.
Nancy was a pleasure to have as a patient. A physician assistant in her early twenties, we often chatted amiably during visits. Our conversations randomly ambled between personal and professional topics. She recently married and was looking forward to having children. Her gynecologic history was complicated and after a period of months of unsuccessful attempts to get pregnant, she visited a …
The helplessness of being a parent
Ebola virus has grabbed headlines since the epidemic started in West Africa nearly a year ago. The death toll is estimated at 4,500 people, and the epidemic continues to spread. One person infected in Liberia returned to Texas with the disease and died, infecting maybe 2 health care workers.
Ebola is a nasty virus, surely, with a case fatality rate of 80 percent. Overall health and nutrition as well as living …
Ebola! But don’t forget about the flu.
The observation status problem has continued to grow both larger and worse.
My hospitalist colleagues and I are caring for patients in hospital beds in the exact same way as other patients in the hospital, but we are told that we must give them the designation called observation status. CMS recognizes observation status as outpatient care, like seeing a patient in a walk-in clinic.
We don’t decide to make a patient observation …
Hospital observation status: The truth must come out
The other day, I got into an argument with my parents about choosing wedding décor — and I blame it on my surgical training. My parents had borne the brunt of the work for the previous eleven months. allowing me to focus on my elective surgery rotation, flying to fellowship interviews, publishing my first article, and putting out the types of …
The problem with wedding planning when you’re a surgeon
Just yesterday I was searching for a local surgeon, and on one website he had 2 out of 5 stars. Hardly anyone was recommending him. Yet prominently featured on another site he had 4.7 out of 5 stars. Both sites had a good number of reviews. What’s going on? Is one site cherry picking the reviews? Is someone falsifying reviews on one of the sites? Which reviews can I trust? …
All online physician ratings are not created equal
The present time has one advantage over every other – it is our own.
– Charles Caleb Colton
The cherubic young man smiles from the black-and-white class photo. His open, relaxed appearance captures my attention. He sits on a wooden bench at the far right end of the front row, his sharp white shirt and patterned tie cinched tightly beneath his three-piece wool suit with the stylishly wide lapels. He looks directly at the camera …
The giants of medicine: An appreciation
“I’m here to say ‘Yes, they can,’ which is different from ‘Yes, they always do,’” says James Moore, MD, president-elect of the California Society of Anesthesiologists (CSA).
To the contrary, enthusiasm for electronic medical records (EHRs) is part of a “syndrome of inappropriate overconfidence in computing,” argues Christine Doyle, MD, the CSA’s Speaker of the House.
The two physician anesthesiologists (and self-identified “computer …
Do EMRs improve patient safety? A debate.
Recently, reports surfaced that two Silicon-valley giants, Apple and Facebook, are covering elective oocyte cryopreservation, a.k.a. egg freezing, for its female employees. Silicon Valley, like medicine, has a shortage of women at the top and it is presumed that this move will attract more women to enter — and stay — in the field of technology.
As both a recent graduate of medical …
Why company-paid egg-freezing threatens medicine and motherhood
Among reams of coverage on the Ebola outbreak, Politico just published a characteristic story with the headline, “In the world of Ebola, no room for error.” The only problem is that is as soon as you introduce a human element to any system, there will be error.
That’s the reality that health care leaders across the United States are grappling with now in a simultaneous effort both to tighten the health …
The lessons hospitals and physicians can learn from Ebola
A few weeks ago an emergency room doctor called our infectious disease physician group concerning a patient who had returned from Liberia and was having nausea and vomiting. Several of the patient’s family members had died of Ebola.
As panic struck us, our decisive question was: When did he return from Liberia?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for screening and isolating patients for possible Ebola infection are …
The Ebola quarantine: Is 21 days enough?
Some years ago I was in Australia’s Northern Territory. The intrepid explorer that I was, I was croc-spotting from the comfortable heights of a bridge over the East Alligator River. The river derives its name because it is east of something. And because it’s croc-infested.
I was reading a story about a German tourist (it’s usually a German) who was attacked by …
Instead of being hysterical about Ebola, respect it
Physician key opinion leaders (KOLs) have been viewed as a valuable resource in the pharmaceutical (heretofore referred to as pharma but included are medical device companies) industry.
In one study in which 100 KOLs were surveyed, the most important characteristics of a KOL were, “regularly sought out by their colleagues for opinions or advice, speak often at regional or national conferences have published articles in a major journal during the past two years, …
Pharma needs physician digital key opinion leaders. Here’s why.
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There will never be any compromise acceptable to the die hard defenders of psychiatry or to its most fanatic critics.
Some inflexible psychiatrists are blind biological reductionists who assume that genes are destiny and that there is a pill for every problem.
Some inflexible anti-psychiatrists are blind ideologues who see only the limits and harms of mental health treatment, not its necessity or any of its benefits.
I have spent a good deal …
A civil war in psychiatry: Is there common ground?
As the patient satisfaction movement races full steam ahead, the time is perfect to regroup and define what this whole thing is really all about.
Anyone involved in health care, and particularly hospital care, knows that the term “patient satisfaction” has become a buzz phrase recently. Sadly too it’s also evolved into a bit of a bumper sticker in hospital administration circles …
Patient satisfaction: Should that be the real mission of health care?
After reading a book about conducting good business, you’ll likely review the concept of adequately meeting demands for clients or consumers. Whether a company is thriving due to lower pricing or higher quality, in the world of business, the golden rule is provide value or go bankrupt.
One industry has seemingly remained immune from this concept, however. In the past few decades, especially, health care has unequivocally failed in …
Customer service in health care: It’s coming. Are you ready?
As an employed physician specialist working in an underserved community, I am thrilled with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). I was initially a skeptic of the program because of the cost to taxpayers, but I have since witnessed first hand the tremendous benefits. People with limited resources and real problems can now get help without suffering financial harm. Those with chronic …
Health reform: Great for patients, but this doctor lost his job
There are times when a common cliché may be the best way to describe academic medicine in today’s medical centers. In fact, I have heard patients and their families complain about this, way too often. Simply put, there are many occasions when it seems that there are too many cooks in the kitchen.
When someone gets admitted to the hospital, chronic problems …
Too many cooks in the kitchen can spoil medical care
One of the major reasons that health care providers resist implementing an electronic medical record (EMR) system is the belief that using it will decrease provider productivity, reducing the number of patients they can see and therefore reducing practice revenue.
However, an EMR that is designed around a streamlined workflow can enable providers to work faster and more efficiently. Having an EHR and vendor that can give you ongoing visibility and …
5 ways to increase your EMR efficiency
Before the Internet age, people with excessive and irrational worries about their health (we called them “hypochondriacs”) went to their doctors for reassurance. Today these patients still schedule appointment — often with exasperating frequency — with their primary care physicians when they’re concerned about an unusual lump or vague symptom. But most likely they’ll have first consulted WebMD or the Mayo Clinic website and come up with a differential diagnosis of their …
Primary care physicians: 7 tips to treat health anxiety
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