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Is EMTALA really protecting patients during COVID?

Trent Dietsche

Policy

January 28, 2022

I am a physician at a critical access hospital. I manage both the ER and inpatient service and am the only physician in the hospital. This is the reality for many rural hospitals across the country. With no urgent care in town, and with primary care offices few and far between, these hospitals see everything.

We see patients with ailments from a minor finger laceration to those with septic shock from …

It’s time for physicians to stop taking patient calls at night

Betsy Rodriguez, MD

Physician

January 28, 2022

The calls started during dinner.

“I forgot to get my med refilled, and now I’m out. Can you call it in?”

“I’m reading these colonoscopy prep instructions, and I see I was supposed to stop eating seeds a week ago. Should I still take the prep?”

“I haven’t had a bowel movement in three days. What should I do?”

The calls continued during the night. As usual, there were a lot of bowel prep …

Mental health and the balance between technology and the human touch [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

January 27, 2022

“The reality of the last two years is that almost all of us have experienced some mental health disorder symptoms, and that mental and physical health are equally important components of overall health. We call these subclinical symptoms, or symptoms that are there but that don’t meet full criteria for …

We need each other, as COVID pulls us apart

Anthony Fleg, MD

Physician

January 27, 2022

As a family medicine physician, I am not sure about a whole lot as we turn into the third year of pandemic living. I can’t give you a decent prognosis of where Omicron is going to take us or how many it will take from us. I am not even sure of the public health approach at this moment where COVID seems to outsmart us repeatedly. (A reminder that this …

Autism spectrum disorder and the masks we wear

Lisa Yeh, MD

Conditions

January 27, 2022

In the ongoing saga of the pandemic, there is the debate whether to wear a mask or not. These are physical masks that temporarily hide our face, but we all wear another type of mask, a metaphorical mask. These are the masks we put on to present who we want the world to see. People who are referred to as having “high functioning autism” often put on the greatest masks …

Men’s health is a catastrophe. Here’s how we can help. [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

January 26, 2022

“A hundred years ago, women lived one year longer than men, but now they live five years longer than men. And things are getting worse. Currently, the lifespan of men in the U.S. is declining due to alcohol, opioids, and suicide. These trends need to change.

I take care of men. …

A neurologist grapples with aducanumab

Anonymous

Conditions

January 26, 2022

I have been following the controversy surrounding the approval of the new Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab with great interest. Until a year and a half ago, I worked as a neurologist in an adult general neurology clinic. Many of my patients had dementia. While I thoroughly enjoyed seeing these patients and their family members, I often felt helpless when treating them. When I left clinical practice to explore a non-clinical career …

Read more…

A neurologist grapples with aducanumab

Setting boundaries and the power of saying no

Christina Long, MD

Physician

January 26, 2022

As a working mom of three kids and an emergency medicine physician, I have had to embrace home workouts since before the pandemic. I am a huge Peloton fan! In December of 2020, Robin Arzón, VP of fitness and an instructor for Peloton, partnered with Shonda Rhimes (creator of Grey’s Anatomy) to do a series about Rhimes’ book Year of Yes.

The power of saying yes. In 2020, just pre-pandemic, I …

The pandemic drives a decline in teen substance abuse

Richard Capriola, MBA

Conditions

January 26, 2022

The percentage of teens using illicit substances dropped significantly in 2021 as the pandemic forced them into isolation from friends, classrooms, and extracurricular activities. Alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine vaping – the most commonly used substances by teens all showed declines from 2020.

These findings were reported by a Monitoring the Future survey conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research.

The survey is given annually to students …

Don’t look in. What you will see is uncomfortable.

Owais Durrani, MD

Physician

January 26, 2022

Don’t look in: No, this isn’t a typo, it’s the sentiment many of my colleagues and I feel right about now. After a long stretch of shifts over New Year’s, I needed a mental break, so I logged into my trusty Netflix account and front and center was Don’t Look Up, the Leonardo DiCaprio dark satire about a comet hurtling towards earth (spoiler alert) and humanities failed efforts to take …

Patient surveys: the quest for positive reviews [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

January 25, 2022

“Studies show that those physicians with negative online reviews were more often scored poorly due to non-physician specific causes. In my career, I’ve read comments from patients that said they were not satisfied with their provider because they didn’t like the color of the walls in the exam room. …

5 science-backed strategies an allergist-mom is using to protect her family’s health

Kara Wada, MD

Conditions

January 25, 2022

Like most parents, my children are my world. I would do anything to protect them and keep them healthy. It is Darwinian. Instinctual.

Most of us get by with a combination of sage advice from generations past interspersed with a “know better do better” approach. Personally and professionally, I encountered this duality pretty quickly. In March 2016, my husband and I hopped on a plane to Los Angeles with our 4-month-old …

The social imperative of health

Steven Merahn, MD

Policy

January 25, 2022

As a nation, we have committed to a social imperative for education — an aspirational vision, based on its broad social benefit, for universal literacy and numeracy of our citizens — as manifested in our systems of mandatory K-12 education.

While this vision remains a work-in-progress — there are significant inequities and differences of opinion as to the process and content of education — the shared value of, and responsibility for, …

Read more…

The social imperative of health

Are hospitals evil? A physician contract lawyer explains.

Dennis Hursh, Esq

Finance

January 25, 2022

As an attorney who negotiates physician employment agreements with hospitals on a daily basis, I have developed a healthy skepticism about mindset of hospital executives. It is painfully obvious that most executives in our hospital systems have a business school mindset, that views physicians as necessary (albeit expendable) cogs in the magnificent machine that is the hospital.

Executives can hardly be blamed for this attitude. Physicians will always …

“Doctor, you have been duped”

Anonymous

Physician

January 25, 2022

“Doctor, you’ve been duped,” she said as she took slow, careful breaths of oxygen from the heated high-flow nasal cannula.

These were definitely not the words I was expecting to hear. Responding to the perplexed look on my face, she added, “I mean I can tell that you are well-intentioned and a good person. But Bill Gates and the Minnesota Department of Health have altered the databases. Bill Gates wants half …

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“Doctor, you have been duped”

Debunking the myths around asynchronous care

Christina Chen, MD

Tech

January 25, 2022

It is no secret that telehealth adoption has skyrocketed as a result of the pandemic, and because of that, many health systems are in the process of shifting to a virtual-first hybrid care model. Unfortunately, video visits, which most will equate with telehealth, have done little to help with the age-old issues of patient access and convenience, provider efficiency, and rising health care costs.

Patients often encounter the same frustrations during …

Lessons in caring too much from a fictional physician [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

January 24, 2022

“All the faceless young men who are brought to his operating table, prepped and draped, broken and bleeding, are finding their experience of war bears little resemblance to their reveries of war. They should have known better. At corner taverns in Chicago, Albuquerque, and Murphysboro, there were tired veterans with …

Publicity and sharing our experiences are our best tools against legal injustice

Mark Lopatin, MD

Physician

January 24, 2022

An excerpt from Rheum for Improvement: The Evolution of a Health-Care Advocate.

Their expert witness, “Dr. Z,” was simply a hired gun willing to do their bidding for a price. He had completed only one year of a rotating internship in family practice in the 1960s. He had not done a residency and had no rheumatology training. He had not seen …

What it’s like to work with International SOS

Bamidele Olatunbosun, MD, MBA

Physician

January 24, 2022

At the beginning of August 2021, during the early stages of opening my practice, I decided to take an opportunity that I would be forever grateful for. The organization International SOS was looking for physicians and other health care providers to join a massive once-in-a-lifetime operation at Fort Lee military base.

At the time, the country was attempting to end the war in Afghanistan quietly. We were told that there would …

Playing the hand you are dealt

Paul Pender, MD

Physician

January 24, 2022

Anyone can win at poker when dealt a royal flush. But what can you do when the cards you are dealt don’t appear winning at all? My answer: Make the best of what you have.

Recently I learned of a colleague who sustained a broken back in an accident. He continues to work, wearing a brace and not taking pain medication. I know from watching his videos that he routinely handles …

Read more…

Playing the hand you are dealt

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