There was a brief scare in our neighborhood this past weekend. Our phone rang. Our friend, who lives nearby, asked if her 12-year-old son was at our house. He wasn’t.
The child had been gone for about 15 minutes. Their family had just returned from a shopping trip with a family friend, and that family friend had forgotten one of his items at our neighbors’ house. The child said, “I’ll run …
A physician approach to a missing child
I wrote a column recently about the role computers play in the doctor patient relationship, and my concern that screens shift physicians’ focus away from their patients. This column is part of a large conversation going on nationally and beyond about what I’d call “distracted doctoring.”
A Wall Street Journal opinion piece by my colleague Dr. Victoria McEvoy addresses the issue of whether all the digital box checking now required of doctors as part …
Patients should silence their phones in the exam room
“AAP Criticizes Retail-Based Clinics — Again.”
I noticed the headlines rolling in about the AAP updated policy statement regarding retail based clinics. The one above particularly caught my eye. Something about the tacking on of “again” caught my attention. It came across to me like we (pediatricians) were perceived to be saying something that was unnecessary, maybe even that we were just complaining.
Throughout the day, I monitored my Twitter …
Whine or win: How retail clinics will affect pediatricians
It has been freezing cold in much of the country for the last two months, but things have been heating up in the controversy over the implementation of ICD-10. First, a quick primer for those of you who have not been following this.
The “ICD” in ICD-10 stands for International Classification of Diseases. The “10” refers to the version of the taxonomy, which is maintained and revised periodically by the World Health …
The real reason doctors hate ICD-10
Having now lost more than 30 pounds, I am very close to declaring victory (maybe a few more pounds over the next few months). A colleague has asked me to write my tips as a handout for patients. This is a daunting task, but that has never stopped me!
The weight loss formula is simple and well known. Achieving lasting weight loss remains challenging. The mathematical formula is simple. Weight loss …
One physician’s story of weight loss
Adults are the ones who are supposed to be stressed, not kids. Childhood is supposed to be the stress-free part of life, right?
Well, maybe not. At least not for teens.
According to a recently released survey from the American Psychological Association, teens are actually more stressed than their parents.
Researchers surveyed 1950 adults and 1,018 teens last summer and asked them a whole bunch of questions about the stress in their lives, and how …
Let’s do something about teen stress
The evening news is filled with fatal car crashes and shootings. But drug overdoses kill nearly 40,000 people a year, accounting for more deaths than vehicular accidents or homicides.
Drug overdoses are on the rise in America, fueled largely by prescription meds. Reversing the course of this epidemic will require some dramatic changes.
The facts
Drug overdose rates climbed more than 100 percent between 1990 and 2012. But what most people don’t recognize …
Reversing the epidemic of drug overdoses
Next in a series.
You the patient are really not the customer of the physician. Since the insurer will determine whether and how much the physician will be paid for attending to your needs, you are largely a bystander in the relationship. The doctor’s customer has become the insurer.
Our system of care is definitely not customer-focused. Doctors truly believe that they have the patient’s best interests in mind and they …
The doctor’s customer has become the insurer
I’ve been working with the latest electronic medical record (EMR) for almost a year now. You know the one. There are many positive changes, to be sure. It has helped me more than a few times with calculating doses for kids’ medications. I can now easily check in on my patients’ progress when they are admitted to the hospital. And, of course, the notes are far more legible.
But what do …
We are in the age of copy and paste medicine
As a medical scribe working with a large, well-known scribe company, unnamed to protect my job, it makes me proud reading all the articles published about how much having a scribe benefits a physician, especially in the emergency department. I enjoy my job immensely and I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and engage in patient care. However, as a …
The disturbing confessions of a medical scribe
There’s that line about art, “good artists copy, great artists steal.” There’s some debate about if Picasso said it first, but most of us geeks know it from Steve Jobs.
Often, I see things from companies and industries outside of health care — processes, products, best practices — which inspire me. I like these little inspirations because they often aren’t rocket science, but nonetheless fuel some creative thoughts about their applicability …
What can health care learn from Amazon?
How does a working mom and physician keep practicing medicine when her husband’s career brings her halfway around the globe? For me, it was an adventure. While it can be challenging, I encourage other physicians to experience the world with their families while still practicing medicine.
As a 14 year family practitioner from Ohio, I suddenly found myself in Qatar with two young children because of my husband’s job. Qatar is …
Tips for expats working in health care
A few years ago when I went skydiving for the first time, I learned about the backup parachute. This is a second chute, just in case the first one failed. While no one wants to think about the primary parachute failing, it was comforting to know we were prepared … just in case. That’s kind of how I see end of life care planning, while we don’t want to think …
4 things everyone should know about end of life planning
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I truly enjoy the practice of medicine. The challenge, the complexity, and the constant evolution, combined with the opportunity to continually, positively, and substantially affect people’s lives should lead to an exciting career.
However, the economics of medicine as a business have sapped much of this enjoyment for everyone involved.
As the government strives to save health care dollars, the hospitals and insurance companies gear up their high priced lobbyists to guide …
Why doctors would make good plumbers
The tests came fast and furious. The diagnosis didn’t.
One doctor was certain it was psychosomatic. My twin younger brothers had been born a few months earlier, and I, seeking attention, was refusing to walk. My mother kept looking.
Another doctor couldn’t figure it out but gave a piece of advice. “You have other children, right? Be grateful. Take this one home, keep him comfortable, and when he is gone take comfort …
A doctor’s powerful personal story about vaccines
I still remember when my phone rang with an eerie sound, early in December 2013. The oncologist I had seen a couple of days earlier was on the other end asking me to return to the hospital ASAP because my bone marrow biopsy results was consistent with acute leukemia and I was at risk of bleeding.
That was the first time I knew about my diagnosis while he merely broke the …
Sympathy is the missing art in medicine
Daylight saving time is approaching again. At first glance, it might seem enough to just remember to spring forward. But do you realize daylight saving time is one of the grandest social engineering experiments in America?
Almost the entire country moves their schedule up one hour. Every meeting, romantic dinner, and heart transplant occurs one hour later. Every business, court appointment and movie showing is one hour later. In virtual lockstep, …
Daylight saving time means different things to different folks
A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
Comparisons between the airline industry and anesthesia care are common. One of the most commonly heard analogies is that the takeoff and landing of a jetliner are similar to induction and emergence during a general anesthetic. But there are other equally important analogies between the two …
Aviation and anesthesiology: The importance of training
As a nation, we are constantly monitoring and appraising the economy and our financial health. We gather a tremendous amount of information to assess this. The Census Bureau randomly selects 60,000 households each month, unleashing a swarm of 2,000 field representatives to track down the selected participants and assess their employment status. The Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys 500,000 businesses to estimate job creation. Approximately 5,000 “consumers” are surveyed each …
Well-being of a population is both measurable and consequential
In a study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, “Quality of life: impact of chronic illness on the partner,” the authors stated: “… the most striking research finding is a tendency for the partner’s quality of life to be worse than that of the patient.”
The people who are least likely to be surprised by this finding are not just caregivers but those who are in their …
6 things not to do as a caregiver
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