Darrell E. White is an ophthalmologist.

From four clicks to burnout: How tiny stressors pushed me to the edge

Physician
June 29, 2023

Four clicks. That’s all it took. Four additional clicks were added to the process of putting in a post-op order after surgery, arriving without any warning or explanation. Eleven seconds of additional work on top of the tripling of the time taken to complete paperwork my way out of the operating room, necessitated by the advent of EMR. That’s all it took. Why? Why did we have to add this …

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From four clicks to burnout: How tiny stressors pushed me to the edge

When the time comes, be sure there’s something to retire to

Physician
August 30, 2022

“They may say I can’t sing, but they can never say I didn’t sing.”
– Florence Foster Jenkins.

I was a bachelor over the weekend. My wife Beth was in Columbus at a horse show, just killing it, while I languished at home in The Land with the dogs. Much of what a summer typically includes has been stolen by the traitorous behavior of my “good hip.” Where my left hip only …

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When the time comes, be sure there’s something to retire to

Call suicide by what it is: the cause of death

Conditions
June 17, 2018

As is often the case when flying I was rewarded for offering a greeting to my row mate on the plane with a bit of insight and knowledge I’d have missed had I not simply reached out a hand and said, “Hi, I’m Darrell.” My momentary companion (we each moved to more spacious seats) had been a schoolmate of the recently deceased Kate Spade. He confirmed her years-long struggle with …

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Call suicide by what it is: the cause of death

You can pick any two, but only two: conversations about health care costs

Policy
October 24, 2017

My wife Beth and I had a rather spirited discussion about how we in the U.S. might be able to pay for the health care of our citizens. Being ever practical, and also owning the job of writing the checks that pay for the health insurance our company offers its associates (including us), Beth in effect is arguing for a national consensus on something we might describe as a baseline …

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You can pick any two, but only two: conversations about health care costs

Stop trivializing conflict of interest

Physician
December 13, 2011

“I’m sorry, Doctor, but we can’t have you give that talk; you have a conflict of interest since you’ve been paid to do research on that medicine.”

“Well, Senator, it’s a conflict of interest for a doctor to sell those crutches in his office.”

“It is the opinion of this newspaper that physicians should declare to each patient any ownership interest they might have in a surgery center so that the …

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Stop trivializing conflict of interest

What exactly is unnecessary care?

Policy
October 15, 2011

It’s become one of those trendy phrases, “unnecessary care.” When you hear it on television or talkshow radio it’s usually said with a sneer. Indeed, the speakers almost spit the phrase out — “unnecessary care” — like it tastes bad.  It’s almost always accompanied by “fraud and abuse,” or a not so subtle accusation that some doctor is profiting off this unnecessary care at the expense of some poor …

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What exactly is unnecessary care?

Female doctors and the physician shortage

Physician
August 13, 2011

Someone has gone and rained the facts down on what is generally considered a feel–good story in American medicine, the dramatic increase in female doctors in America.

In response to Dr. Herbert Parde’s “The Coming Doctor Shortage” article in the Wall Street Journal, Dr. Curtis Markel pointed out that there is a difference between the raw, gross number of physicians in America, and the effective number of practicing physicians.  Not only …

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Female doctors and the physician shortage

Who takes care of doctors when they get sick?

Physician
July 29, 2011

I don’t feel so hot. No, that’s not quite right. I feel really lousy. That’s more accurate.

I’m really not much of a complainer. I go to work unless I simply can’t rise from bed and crawl to the shower. The entire staff, my family, and every patient who walks into my office, all feed off my mood. No matter how I feel, how up or down I might be, on the …

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Who takes care of doctors when they get sick?

Medical malpractice tort reform equals healthcare reform

Physician
May 26, 2011

I’m a big game theory guy.

I think you can explain the actions of the participants in any structured activity or enterprise by looking at the rules of the game. When you look backwards in time you discover that the “players” almost always made choices that represented rational self-interest. This is especially true in games played using zero sum rules: someone wins only if someone else loses. How the game is …

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Medical malpractice tort reform equals healthcare reform