Jordan Grumet is an internal medicine physician, host of the Earn & Invest Podcast, and author of Taking Stock: A Hospice Doctor’s Advice on Financial Independence, Building Wealth, and Living a Regret-Free Life.
He has worked in academic as well as private practices, served as medical director of several nursing homes, and created palliative care programs for skilled nursing facilities.
He is a writer and storyteller who has been published in Medical Economics, the Pharos, the Annals of Internal Medicine, and the Journal of General Internal Medicine. His book, I Am Your Doctor And This Is My Humble Opinion, was published in 2015, and followed by Five Moments: Short Works of Fiction in 2017.
Jordan shares his stories at conferences nationwide, highlighted by an acclaimed performance at the dotMD conference in Dublin, Ireland.
Jordan speaks about the following topics:
He is a member of Physician Speaking by KevinMD and is available for speaking opportunities. Please contact us for inquiries.
Jordan Grumet is an internal medicine physician, host of the Earn & Invest Podcast, and author of Taking Stock: A Hospice Doctor's Advice on Financial Independence, Building Wealth, and Living a Regret-Free Life.
He has worked in academic as well as private practices, served as medical director of several nursing homes, and created palliative care programs for skilled nursing facilities.
He is a writer and storyteller who has been published in Medical Economics, the Pharos, the Annals of Internal Medicine, and the Journal of General Internal Medicine. His book, I Am Your Doctor And This Is My Humble Opinion, was published in 2015, and followed by Five Moments: Short Works of Fiction in 2017.
Jordan shares his stories at conferences nationwide, highlighted by an acclaimed performance at the dotMD conference in Dublin, Ireland.
Jordan speaks about the following topics:
He is a member of Physician Speaking by KevinMD and is available for speaking opportunities. Please contact us for inquiries.
Ruth was problematic. Well into her seventies, her body may have dulled but her tongue was sharper than ever. And she used it to lash me with complaint after complaint. If it wasn’t her knees, it was her ankles. If it wasn’t her ankles, it was her hips. I battled the impossible month after month, year after year. Our interactions left a bitter taste in my mouth. Nothing makes a …
The e-patient movement represents everything that is positive in medicine today. This grass roots force has introduced shared decision making and empowered both physician and patient. The quality of health care dialogue has risen meteorically both in the exam room and out. Today’s health care “consumer” is more engaged, more intelligent, and more agile at wending their way through the confusing maze of sickness and health.
It’s awfully sad that it …
There is much to deplore in our medical system. Atrocities abound in the dark recesses of hospital wards, the overpacked waiting rooms of outpatient offices, and the algorithmic hum of insurance claim denials. Yet time and again, the most vile of of insults are hurled at one setting in particular. I’m talking of the place cursed by emergency room physicians when admitting yet another poor soul with a sacral ulcer, …
She was sick. Not sick like a high fever, body aches and a runny nose. Sick like she had spent the last half a decade in nursing homes as most of her internal organs failed. There was oxygen, and dialysis, and a colostomy. She propelled herself vigorously through the crowded halls in the custodial wing of the nursing home, her wheelchair a natural extension of her body thoroughly unhampered by …
We were intimate.
As intimate as a doctor and patient can become. He had long outlived his wife and there were no children, no family, just friends. When he first came to me he was lively and active, but the years took their toll. Our visits became more regular. Every six months. Then every three.
His memory started to slip. Occasionally he would look at me suspiciously when something went wrong. His …
On the face of it, the phone call was relatively innocent. A family member was confused about the test I scheduled. Apparently the lab refused to draw the blood. When I inquired why, I was informed that the patient hadn’t been fasting. I calmly explained to the daughter that fasting was not necessary. Recent studies had shown little effect on lipid panel results and I was using the glycosylated hemoglobin …
She was having excruciating pain in her pelvic area. I pulled the sheets down cautiously and noted the bruising encircling the waist and inching towards the thighs. I finished my exam and retreated to the nursing station of the skilled nursing facility to comb through the chart. ER records, floor notes, consultations, but no x-ray of the pelvis. There was no mention of pelvic pain.
The emergency room physician had dutifully …
Sometimes my day is like a book. The first chapter may begin in the darkness of a self imposed corner as a phone call is made. A voice, full with the thickness of slumber, answers unexpectedly.
“I think today is the day.”
No matter how many years I have been discussing death I still find myself using poor euphemisms. The bane of medical school teaching, I often struggle with the directness. “Your mother …
William was doing great. His C. Diff was finally gone after a month taper of vancomycin. He was stronger. The nursing home staff reveled in how much progress was being made over such little time. It seemed every one was ecstatic, except for, of course his family. Every step this octogenarian took forward was accompanied by a litany of concerns and complaints from his daughter.
If he was not gaining weight, …
A dozen set of eyes stared upwards. The nurses ate their pizza and glanced back and forth between me and the dry erase board that I had recently filled with incomprehensible scrawl. I had given this lecture many times and said the words over and over again. And yet the response was always surprising.
“Why do you think physicians get angry and …
The house was getting cold. My wife and kids snuggled in their blankets as I crept out of bed and checked the thermostat. The subzero winter air howled as a blustery morning took shape outside our windows. I looked at the digital display with disbelief and manually tapped the screen with my finger, hoping that the jarring motion would loosen the exact faulty screw leading to our frigid state. …
If you put ten physicians in a room, you will get nine different opinions. It doesn’t matter if you are discussing policy, diagnostics, or politics. Indeed, medical training develops deep independent thinking. We often feel alone in the care of our patients, we picture ourselves the sole barrier between illness and well being. We battle our fellow physicians, administrators, and insurers. You can argue the pros and cons of …
I have a confession to make. The purpose of a recent blog post was to set up this one. What I questioned, at that time, is whether the future of primary care will come from outside change (business, politics, or even specialist physicians and administrators) or internally, hence creative destruction versus internal combustion.
When I entered my first primary care practice in 2002, I had great doubts that the traditional …
It was a sunny spring day as the bus turned the corner. It was a yellow school bus filled with young children jumping up and down in their seats. It was an average day in an average school year. Nothing about it stood out. Let’s take a closer look.
The boy sitting in the front of the bus holding tightly to his lunch box is named William. His clothes are tattered …
It’s time for the American physician to stand up.
We will no longer bend to the tyranny of bureaucracy, the venom of litigation or the naivete of legislation. For we have spent many a night sweating on the phone as our dear administrators slept comfortably in their beds stuffed with hundred dollar bills. Our experience standing in the line of fire dwarfs …
He was rather tall. Or at least he appeared so with his long erect back jutting from the bicycle seat. The cringe worthiness of his helmet-less head was assuaged by the gigantic headphones covering his ears. I figured they would provide minimal protection during a crash, but at least he would be listening to groovy tunes.
He weaved in an out of …
It’s not that I was stressed out about being alone with the kids. My wife had gone out of town before. It was the darn mornings. I’m used to racing out of the house at the crack of dawn, when the rest of my family is still asleep. My most productive hours of the day are before most people even wake up. With my wife gone, the mornings with the …
The process of becoming an excellent physician is one of mastery. The passion of the child is replaced by the studiousness of the teenager, and the bottomless energy of the young adult. The leap from decision to clinician takes decades. Forged in the steel of experience, trampled by pain and tortuous repetition, ability accrues.
The apprentice guards his knowledge closely. He bows …
I have often spoken of the doctor-patient relationship as a covenant. Our patients bear their bodies and souls in exchange for a thoughtful, engaged, respectful partner in navigating health and disease. This dyad, this trusted space, allows for the breaking of cultural norms and full disclosure. Proper healing is an agreement, it is a relationship.
Although often not spoken of, any successful flourishing health care system also requires another …
When someone asks me about what it is like to be a doctor, a funny thing happens. My eyes start to water and the words catch.
It’s rather comical how emotional I can be. I have been all my life. I sometimes feel the sadness flow through me. I am a sieve. Whether it be a touching book or a sappy TV commercial, I cry. Silently. Often missed by others in …
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