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Solving the low-acuity emergency department problem

Dillon Mercado

Policy

February 9, 2022

Before I worked as a medical scribe, I didn’t realize how many mildly ill people visited the emergency department (ED). In my first few weeks, though, I learned that patients with minor complaints, such as sprains, cavities, rashes, and common cold symptoms, actually present to the ED quite often – often enough that the hospital where I worked had to dedicate an entire 12-bed wing to them. In most EDs, …

The business of medicine creates a culture where doctors aren’t allowed to rest

Laurel Kilpatrick, MD

Physician

February 9, 2022

When I was in the fourth grade, I left school early one day unbeknownst to anyone. I misread my watch when the teacher was switching subjects, and she stepped out of the room for a minute. I thought it was 12:05 — time for lunch. I gathered my bag, walked out of the school, and stood by my mom’s car waiting for her to take me home for lunch. No …

How strong policies can improve guardianship

Alyson O’Daniel, PhD

Policy

February 9, 2022

Millions of Americans each week watch as fictional television matriarch Rebecca Pearson, in the NBC-TV series, “This Is Us,” struggles with frustrations of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and fear of an unknown health future. In the coming decades, millions more will experience this in real life.

Guardianship — or the care and legal control over another person’s life —may become one of the biggest issues of the next three …

Art as a tool to manage pain

Martha Sommers, MD

Conditions

February 9, 2022

My niece and I look across the expanse of the second floor of Marshall’s Dranko Library as we take in the library’s Spring art exhibit: Creation in Confinement. We spot my moon drawings on black paper hanging on the opposite wall. As a new artist, accompanied by my niece artist, I excitedly read: Heavenly Moon and Worldy Skies, and how they are both done with pastels, colored pencils, and gel …

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Art as a tool to manage pain

Can medicine transcend beyond the clinic walls? [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

February 8, 2022

“Absolutely, there are times when you need to be face-to-face with your patient. Yet looking at the broader picture, COVID-19 has shown us that in many instances, we can perform at an optimal level while remote. In my experience, I’m often able to see more patients, and the quality of …

COVID is not always mild in kids

Alpa Patel Shah, DO

Conditions

February 8, 2022

Can we agree to abandon the notion that COVID in children is “mild?” At least, as a medical community? We are taught to look at the data and guide our patients based on evidence. And the fact is, in a single week in January 2022, nearly 1 million pediatric cases were reported according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Since the detection of the omicron variant, COVID-19 …

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COVID is not always mild in kids

Thoughts from a doctor who runs late

Carrye Daum, MD

Physician

February 8, 2022

Next time you are stuck in the waiting room of your doctor’s office, read this.

A few years ago, a video published by Cleveland Clinic made its way around the internet. It’s a tear-jerker. It’s called Empathy and can be found on YouTube. If you’ve never watched it, you should. It takes you on a walk-through of various parts of a hospital – the front entrance, hallways, elevator, …

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Thoughts from a doctor who runs late

A gang member shot by cops and paralyzed just wanted a radio

Drea Burbank, MD

Physician

February 8, 2022

My patient was trying to kill himself by refusing to treat a bladder infection. I looked down at him. His aura was black, indicating the premeditated murder of a human. Guess they hadn’t caught him for that one. His gang tats were Latin American, and his eyes were black. He didn’t like me much.

I wasn’t phased. He couldn’t do much about it, paralyzed from the neck down.

“It’s not going to …

Support desperate health care workers now, before your life counts on them

Julie Collins, CCP

Conditions

February 8, 2022

I come calling from the frontlines of COVID.

My colleagues and I are exhausted. Defeated. And on the brink of collapse.

I have been a health care worker for 15 years. I have never seen things so bad in so many ways.

At the height of COVID, I was working 12-hour overnight shifts and weekend day shifts, in addition to my full-time job of helping manage a life support system called extracorporeal membrane …

Innovation in a rural gastroenterology practice using a farm [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

February 7, 2022

“Gastroenterology clinics in rural areas have the unique opportunity to innovate the field by working with local community organizations and farms. Patients and physicians develop a deeper understanding of the root cause for chronic disease, particularly digestive diseases using a food as medicine approach. Cultivating gut microbes in the soil …

A neurosurgeon’s proposal to reduce burnout in medicine and beyond

Marc Arginteanu, MD

Physician

February 7, 2022

In a previous article, I described the brain-damaging effects of allowing work-life balance to fall into disequilibrium. For example, scientists from the Karolinska Institute, in Sweden, reported that burnout may weaken the connectivity between far-flung regions of the brain and may even result in brain atrophy.

A burnout crisis in medicine has been simmering for more than a decade. In 2015, researchers from the Mayo Clinic reported on …

“This is terrible.” When harsh criticism is sometimes needed.

Joseph Gascho, MD

Physician

February 7, 2022

As I look back at my career, two professors stand out. They affirmed me when I did something well (in words I wrote in my journal, would go back to and read when I was discouraged). They recognized my weaknesses but did not concentrate on them, although they did not ignore them either. Both made me think I had the stuff to be a cardiologist. I flourished; I …

The CDC’s continuing failures: Is there a way out?

P. Dileep Kumar, MD, MBA

Physician

February 7, 2022

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Dr. Rochelle Walensky is in the eye of a storm after a controversial new guideline from CDC regarding the isolation of COVID-19 patients. The recent CDC directive suggested that everyone stay home for five days after a positive test regardless of vaccination status. If there are no symptoms or the symptoms are resolving after five days, you can leave …

The work of an emergency department nurse through the eyes of a medical student

Jennifer Geller

Education

February 7, 2022

Each time I am in the emergency department (ED) as a medical student, I meet new members of the health care team that make superior patient care possible. I have quickly developed a greater appreciation for the fact that no medical professional works in an isolated bubble. The strengths that each other bring to the table are paramount to the flow of patient progress. Before my time as a medical …

Why and how to get a second opinion [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Policy

February 6, 2022

“In the end, the patient-physician relationship is crucial to overall decision-making for any plan of care, treatment, or surgery. There are many variations in the reviewed studies in health care literature as to the cost-effectiveness of second opinions in medicine. These studies could be easily misconstrued that there are …

Stop prescribing one eating disorder to treat another: Why under and overeating are not “opposite problems”

Jillian Rigert, MD, DMD

Physician

February 6, 2022

Throughout my recovery journey from anorexia with a propensity for compulsive exercise, I have often heard, in a tone full of self-judgment, “I have the opposite problem.”

What the person is typically referring to is that they feel they eat too much, exercise too little, or both. The self-judgment usually reflects the way society places a positive value on undereating and over-exercising and negative connotation on the opposite. The interactions demonstrate …

The power of a patient’s thank you

Anthony Fleg, MD

Physician

February 6, 2022

I turned to leave.

She spoke softly, “Thank you. Thank you for coming.”

The way these words were spoken caused me to gulp a deep breath while my heart fluttered.

In my mind, I was doing my job. A physician visiting one of our COVID-positive patients in the hospital.

In my mind, I wasn’t even able to offer her human connection as I would have wished to do.

Sound: Gowned up in PPE, including two …

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The power of a patient’s thank you

What really happens when the unvaccinated get sick with COVID

Debbie Moore-Black, RN

Conditions

February 6, 2022

“My body, my rights.”

“My body is a temple.”

“I don’t want poison going into my body.”

” I’ve done my research.”

And they refuse to wear masks; they refuse to social distance. They refuse COVID vaccinations and the booster. Essentially, they spit in the face of the population that trusts in science and medical research.

The disrespect and disregard for scientists, medical doctors, RNs and respiratory therapists are astonishing.

Their support groups tout ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine …

A physician’s photo essay from his travels around the globe

Glenn Mark Losack, MD

Physician

February 6, 2022

An excerpt from The Bonds We Share: Images of Humanity, 40 Years Around the Globe.

The Bonds We Share is a photo essay that features Dr. Losack’s photography in his travels 43 years around the globe. Dr. Losack goes on to state that racism, xenophobia, divisiveness, and discrimination continue to divide us as human beings. Tack on a global pandemic, it …

What shared journeys to the afterlife teach about dying well and living better [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

February 5, 2022

“The more I spoke with individuals who had experienced a shared crossing event, the more I also noticed repeating patterns. A woman in West Virginia and a woman in Australia with deeply similar experiences around the loss of a baby. A grown daughter in California and a grown daughter in …

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