Suneel Dhand, MD

Suneel Dhand is an internal medicine physician, author, and co-founder, DocsDox. He can be reached at his self-titled site, Suneel Dhand, and on YouTube.

Reducing hospital readmissions: The burden shouldn’t be all on the doctors

Suneel Dhand, MD

Policy

December 8, 2015

Readmissions to hospital, especially within 30 days of discharge, are on the radar of all health care organizations in the United States. This is due in no small part to stiff financial penalties that are now imposed on the worst performers by the federal government.

On the surface, it may seem like a reasonable thing to penalize hospitals that don’t successfully “get their patients better enough” to avoid readmission. However, the …

The bait and switch of health care IT

Suneel Dhand, MD

Tech

November 21, 2015

Last week I was playing golf with some friends. The Boston area has been having a bit of an Indian summer, and we are lucky to still be getting out there (long may it last). The conversation during one of the holes turned to health care information technology, when my friend, who is also a physician, told me about his experiences with a (certain famous) new electronic medical record that’s just been installed in their …

Read more…

The bait and switch of health care IT

Why medical scribes are the ultimate answer to our health IT woes

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

November 14, 2015

Statistics suggest that physicians are now spending a minimal amount of time in direct patient care, shockingly as little as 10 percent of their day. This proportion of time that physicians (and nurses) actually spend interacting with patients has been shrinking year by year.

There’s the need to communicate with other members of the expanding health care team, increased bureaucratic requirements, and over the last several years — the need to …

Health IT: Damaging patient satisfaction one click at a time

Suneel Dhand, MD

Tech

November 11, 2015

The use of information technology in health care holds so much promise, and potential yet to be realized. Ask any front line physician and they will list electronic medical records (EMRs) as one of their biggest daily frustrations. A brilliant video by Zubin Damania, also known as ZDoggMD, recently parodied the current situation and the pain felt by doctors on a daily basis.

But it really isn’t all about …

Physicians are not providers: It’s time to wake the sleeping giant

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

November 5, 2015

I wrote a piece about the word “provider,” and how physicians have been a bit blindsided to what’s fast becoming their new title. It started something of a social media wave. It was good to see the article encouraging lots of healthy debate, and I was also grateful for the large volume of supportive messages.

As we continue this important discussion, I wanted to specifically address five follow-up issues:

1. This …

There are too many cooks in the health care kitchen

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

October 28, 2015

shutterstock_61638394

There’s a new epidemic sweeping American hospitals, and a cure is desperately needed. It’s highly contagious and causes the sufferer much anxiety and psychological suffering. It also costs the health care system millions, if not billions, of dollars a year. You may never have heard of it. You won’t find it in the medical textbooks nor will you hear any of the …

Why we need to stop calling physicians “providers”

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

October 10, 2015

It’s a change in nomenclature that’s come a bit out of the blue over the last few years. The forces appear to be aligning to gradually push the word “doctor” out of the center and towards the periphery of health care. Whether we are talking about administrative communication or health care information technology order entry — it seems that we are no physicians or even clinicians, but we have all …

It’s time for hospitals to take nutrition seriously

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

September 27, 2015

I remember the day like it was yesterday. I was a medical student, rounding with my team, and we had just talked to a diabetic patient who was recovering from a myocardial infarction. The attending looked over at the side and saw some chocolate donuts and cakes lying on the tray table, which had been brought in by the patient’s relatives. The attending shook his head disapprovingly and said, “I don’t think those are going to …

3 things Walter White can teach doctors

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

September 22, 2015

Breaking Bad has been rated one of the best TV shows of all time, and for good reason. The improbable story of a regular and shy high school chemistry teacher, faced with a terminal diagnosis, turning into a gangster and drug kingpin certainly makes for good television.

A compelling storyline set against the backdrop of one of the nation’s most beautiful landscapes: For …

Read more…

3 things Walter White can teach doctors

The cafeteria can tell you a lot about the hospital. Here’s how.

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

September 14, 2015

Hospital cafeterias are important places. Great progress has been made over the last few years in raising the standard of the food served (to both patients and staff!), with much more emphasis too on making the options healthier and nutritious.

Speaking as someone who has worked in several different hospitals, and with my own general interest in health care quality and improving the patient experience, it’s always very interesting to look …

So doctor, who’s your boss?

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

August 31, 2015

shutterstock_124488283

As a relatively young physician, I always enjoy my conversations with the older members of our profession, who’ve seen so much change over the last few decades. I’m fascinated with their stories about how different the medical world was when they were residents, how treatments were so novel, and how they used solid clinical skills to get to the diagnosis.

Those were the …

Read more…

So doctor, who’s your boss?

So you had a bad day: 3 reasons why doctors should have some perspective

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

August 25, 2015

Being a doctor is one of the most emotionally and physically demanding professions out there. The health care landscape may have changed a lot over the last decade, but the basic unavoidable grueling nature of medical practice has been the same for time immemorial. I remember reading a careers advice book when I was a teenager telling me just that being a doctor was “the most challenging of jobs,” and …

Improve the patient experience with these 5 simple ideas

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

August 18, 2015

Being sick and hospitalized in a lonely and unfamiliar place is a terrifying time for our patients. It’s an easy thing for doctors and nurses to forget as we go about our hectic days, when time goes by so quickly that we barely have time to stop and think. Whether you are practicing medicine in a large academic center or a small rural hospital, the feedback that patients give about …

Health care could use someone like Donald Trump. Wait, what?

Suneel Dhand, MD

Policy

August 13, 2015

He’s loud, brash and audacious. He’s been a celebrity for decades, a well-known businessman and reality TV star. And anyone who is even remotely following the news at the moment knows he’s also dominating headlines with his presidential run. I’m going to pause here to say that I’m not going to get into the politics of anything he has said — no …

Patients can teach doctors these 5 things

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

August 3, 2015

For all the talk about patient-centered care and a new health care paradigm — which is, of course, the right way forward — the doctor-patient relationship will always remain relatively one-sided because of the nature of the profession itself. Essentially, patients come to doctors for help, and the knowledge transfer, advice, and guidance flows in one main direction.

But that doesn’t mean that …

I will not let a computer come between me and my patient

Suneel Dhand, MD

Tech

July 26, 2015

Ask any frontline physician at the moment what one of their biggest daily frustrations is and you will probably hear a very similar thing whether you are talking to a primary care, emergency room, or hospital physician. The thing that most takes them away from patients and makes them forget the reasons why they went to medical school in the first place, …

Want to solve health care problems? Ask the right questions.

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

June 25, 2015

In the world of health care, we face a lot of questions and challenges. Hospital administrations across the country are grappling with these and always on the lookout for solutions. As far as raising the standard of health care quality, there’s been great progress over the last several years in the areas of patient safety, adhering to best practices, and trying …

It’s time to give discharge paperwork a makeover

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

June 14, 2015

It could be the title of a new prime time show (maybe it should be): The Great Discharge Paperwork Makeover. Assemble a group of bright and creative minds from across the country and put them together in an exotic location for a week to talk about something that will affect all of us one day — either ourselves or a relative. …

It’s time that all hospitals have single patient rooms

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

June 6, 2015

The medical world has made terrific scientific and technological progress over the last century. Previously incurable diseases can now be treated as day cases, and patients no longer have to accept a paternalistic, one-sided relationship with their doctors. Hospitals too, have a come a long way if you look at pictures of what they used to look like in those old …

Doctors: Be sure to thank the case managers

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

June 1, 2015

As someone who has practiced hospital medicine up and down the East Coast for the last several years, I’ve had the fortune of working with some absolutely terrific colleagues. The hospital environment is by its very nature a busy and hectic one — where we all put our heads down and work tirelessly at the coalface for hours on end. Doctors …

Suneel Dhand, MD

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts