Phillip Stephens is chief physician assistant, department of emergency medicine, Southeastern Regional Medical Center, Lumberton, North Carolina. He is the author of Winning Fights: 12 Proven Principles for Winning on the Street, in the Ring, at Life, and can be reached at his self-titled site, Dr. Phillip M. Stephens.

Here’s the secret to emergency department efficiency

Policy
June 5, 2019

A gray-haired emergency medicine physician once provided the most succinct view of ED efficiency ever uttered. He said, “Sometimes they ask us to dig a ditch. Then they give us spoons with which to do the job.” Though cynical, it is the view of many. There really is only one problem and a single solution to ED efficiency. The problem is variation. The answer is scale.

Biologists understand variability best. Biologic …

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Here’s the secret to emergency department efficiency

Why doctors crash planes

Policy
May 6, 2019

Physicians actually make good pilots. But, in 1966 they received a bad rap due to a report published by the FAA’s Chief of Aviation Medicine, Dr. Stanley Mohler. Mohler had a point. Physicians were crashing planes at a higher rate as opposed to the general aviation population. His report would be a cautionary tale for all of us. It would be three decades before we even began to understand why …

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Why doctors crash planes