It’s time to stop comparing health care to manufacturing

Physician
November 10, 2015

From ancient times, doctors have appreciated that, for all their similarities, no two patients are exactly alike. This understanding is what made physicians act like, and earn society’s respect as, professionals.

The commercialization of health care has brought in managers from other industries and other branches of academia, and their rise to power has been predicated on their ability to treat patients and doctors not as individuals, but as small cogs …

Read more…

4 questions about Theranos that are actually worth discussing

Conditions
November 10, 2015

Combine a hot start-up valued at 9 billion dollars, an articulate Stanford drop-out CEO with celebrity-like press coverage, and a recent Wall Street Journal report that calls into question the reliability of the company’s “revolutionary” testing, and you have the perfect storm to set the internet abuzz about Theranos.

Amidst the melee of accusations, “change-the-world” start-up jargon, and anecdotes of incongruent lab results, something has been missing: an organized, …

Read more…

You have no idea what it’s like working in the ER as a pregnant physician

Physician
November 9, 2015

When I was pregnant with my first child, I worked full time as a physician in the emergency department.  I worked mostly 9-hour shifts, but some 12-hour shifts as well. Days, evenings, nights, holidays and weekends were divided up amongst the entire group of physicians. I worked my share of those shifts as well.

I have worked in the ER while pregnant twice now, and while I am proud to be …

Read more…

A physician’s life with epilepsy

Conditions
November 8, 2015

In May 2003, during my second year of pediatric residency, I had a right temporal lobectomy to remove a seizure focus in my right hippocampus.  Although the surgery proceeded without complications, I was unable to walk unsupported for several weeks after the operation.  My experiences taught me what makes an exceptional physician.

An …

Read more…

Physician, heal thyself. A reflection on physician self-care.

Physician
November 6, 2015

Another workday comes to an end. 11 a.m. rolls around and freedom from the hospital beckons after another 24-hour call is finished. In the span of the preceding day, it is likely that numerous important decisions had to be made with the expectation that all of your mental faculties would be used, irrespective of what time of day it was or how much sleep was obtained. It is a day …

Read more…

Here are 10 patient suggestions for hospitals. Let’s make them happen.

Physician
November 5, 2015

Since undergoing a double-lung transplant at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in December 2011, Podge Reed Jr. has had four medical admissions, two surgical admissions, eight outpatient procedures requiring anesthesia, more than 100 outpatient appointments, and 700 labs and other tests. He’s amassed enough experiences with the health care system to write a book. So far, though, he’s mostly kept it to two letters, totaling 12 pages, to our patient relations …

Read more…

An emergency physician goes to the ER, and is shocked at the care she receives

Physician
November 2, 2015

I  have lately been discussing the state of health care with a lot of doctors. I’m a doctor, and I’m also a consumer of health care services.

Imagine my surprise when I visited a local ER on a three day weekend, hoping to get some advice from someone who might be able to use the panoply of diagnostic tools available in the ED to help me mitigate the pain of a …

Read more…

A physician’s open letter to Medicare patients

Physician
November 1, 2015

Dear patients,

This is a hard letter to write, but it is important that you know about a major change that is coming for both of us in 2017, just a short year away.

As you recall, last year I left a large hospital group practice and opened my own office, and I want to thank you for your faithfulness in following me to my new location.  With the newfound freedom of …

Read more…

What creates a toxic hospital culture?

Physician
October 28, 2015

Hospital culture is largely influenced by the relationship between administrative and clinical staff leaders. In the “old days” the clinical staff (and physicians in particular) held most of the sway over patient care. Nowadays, the approach to patient care is significantly constricted by administrative rules, largely created by non-clinicians. An excellent description of what can result (i.e., disenfranchisement of medical staff, burn out, and joyless medical care) is presented Read more…

Will your anesthesiologist leave the OR? Patients deserve to know.

Physician
October 27, 2015

“For some must watch, while some must sleep.”
– William Shakespeare, Hamlet

I admit, I was taken aback at the headline that ran in the Houston Press today: “Going under:  What can happen if your anesthesiologist leaves the room during an operation.”

It’s bound to make the curious reader wonder why the anesthesiologist would leave the operating room in the first place.

Of course, reporter Dianna Wray explains that in many hospitals, one …

Read more…

Why do never events occur? It’s because of the human factor.

Physician
October 26, 2015

Wrong procedure, wrong side/site, wrong implant, retained foreign object: big problem.  No patient should ever have to undergo these types of events, and they are therefore called never events. However, these events do occur and when they do they not only jeopardize patient safety but they also breach the trust between patient and practitioner, have financial implications, and reflect negatively on the entire health care system.

The good news is never events …

Read more…

Open your eyes. Look at each other. And make the connection.

Physician
October 25, 2015

shutterstock_255266638

We’re not imagining it: We really are losing our connections to each other. It’s a huge problem. In fact, it’s life-threatening.

A recent Wall Street Journal article discussed the Brigham Young University study that found that social isolation increases our risk of death by 32 percent.

Duke University and the University of Arizona have been watching our connections go down the …

Read more…

Life and death are in God’s hands, and we are merely his instruments

Physician
October 25, 2015

I lost a very dear friend about a week ago.  She was my nurse, office manager, and friend. She was Ginny. Ginny came into my life about eight years ago as I assumed the responsibility of medical director for a multi-location clinic. I spent about as much time with her as I did my family, she was my “work wife.”

About nine months ago I became concerned with her rapid loss in …

Read more…

ADVERTISEMENT

Should doctors be allowed to concealed carry at work?

Physician
October 24, 2015

One word: gun. That is all it takes to spark a debate between two very different camps. One end of the spectrum feels guns are an evil haunting the nation by their mere existence, and they need to be dealt with by restricting (or even eliminating) everyone’s ability to possess them. The other end believes it is a core right to keep and use firearms for sport, personal defense, collecting, etc., and that no …

Read more…

Is it time to take out your skeleton in the closet? 

Education
October 24, 2015

I have a skeleton in the closet.  I really do.  It is a human skeleton that I acquired when as a first-year medical student at the University of Sydney in 1981.

Back then, just about every medical student would own a half or full skeleton. They had to be real human bones as the quality of plastic models at that time were as good as useless as they often lacked many …

Read more…

Test your medicine knowledge: 67-year-old woman with increasing forgetfulness

Conditions
October 24, 2015

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.

A 67-year-old woman is evaluated for a 1-year history of increasing forgetfulness. She reports greater difficulty keeping track of upcoming appointments, recalling details of recent telephone conversations, and remembering names of new acquaintances. She has completed 16 years of formal education, currently works as a teacher’s assistant, and has noticed no change in her ability …

Read more…

ADVERTISEMENT

Maternity leave for physicians is a disgrace. It’s time to fix that.

Physician
October 22, 2015

Netflix listens to doctors.  Google, Facebook, and Apple listen to doctors.  The United States Navy and Marine Corps listen.

The above companies have updated their maternity leave policies — lengthening them all past 12 weeks.  And all paid.

But yet, health care doesn’t listen to doctors.  And let me tell you how.

I am pregnant.  Which is a blessing in of itself.  In fact, this is my 4th pregnancy, but I only have one child living. …

Read more…

This epic EHR video may save our relationship with patients #LetDoctorsBeDoctors

Tech
October 19, 2015
YouTube video

I have a love-hate relationship with the electronic health record (EHR).

To be precise, it’s 90 percent hate, 6 percent love. The missing 4 percent? That would be the percentage of time spent on the phone with tech support trying to figure out which order set I have to use to input percentages.

I’ve been in practice long enough to straddle the transition from paper … to even more paper (thanks EHR, you’re the …

Read more…

A medical student’s psychiatric hospitalization

Education
October 19, 2015

“You work here?!”

I nodded, a hint of a smile revealing my bemusement at his incredulity.

“Well … probably not after this.”

The other patients in the psych waiting area of the ER nodded in agreement. In my newly issued brown scrubs, stripped of my belongings, I was no longer a research coordinator at a top hospital, but rather one of them. And sadly, they believed being one of them meant you couldn’t …

Read more…

ADVERTISEMENT

5 tips for physicians to achieve financial freedom

Finance
October 18, 2015

shutterstock_86451046

In the ten years since I graduated from residency, I have noticed an interesting correlation between burnout and finances among my physician colleagues: The more secure we are financially, the more we enjoy our work. However, physicians working long clinic hours and moonlighting 15 times a month as a hospitalist in order to make alimony payments, boat payments, mortgage payments, or all …

Read more…

543
pages