Emergency medicine

2,327 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 48

The “go to the ER” mentality of American medicine

March 29, 2016Mar 29, 201658

Currently, in American health care, experts are wringing their hands in confusion. I mean, people have insurance, right? And yet, health care is still expensive and dang it, people just keep going to the ER. Visits are climbing everywhere, and I can speak from personal experience when I say that we’re tasked with more and more complex and multi-varied duties in the emergency departments of the 21st century.

I’m not a …

Physician voices

Why don’t patients pick up their prescriptions?

Alister Martin, MD

March 16, 2016Mar 16, 201619

As emergency physicians, we write prescriptions for patients that we discharge home for all manner of presenting complaints. I used to believe that the overwhelming majority of these prescriptions would be filled by the patient after discharge. It turns out…

It turns out I was wrong.

Research estimates that patients discharged from emergency departments (EDs) fail to pick up their high urgency prescriptions, like antibiotics, nearly 35 percent of the time.

This is problematic because failure …

Physician voices

A female physician is murdered. A call to action to end intimate partner abuse.

Esther Choo, MD, MPH

March 13, 2016Mar 13, 201617

This week, the community of women physicians was rocked by the death of one in our midst, an anesthesiologist, intensivist, medical school faculty member, and mother, in an apparent domestic violence homicide. Dr. Casey Drawert (yes, we will say her name) was a highly accomplished physician married to a “prominent businessman” adding to the media-stickiness of the story. Her success clashes with our deeply entrenched biases about the demographics of domestic violence victims.

Yet …

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Physician voices

I’m an emergency doctor and I’ve become human

Jeffrey McWilliams, MD

March 9, 2016Mar 9, 2016

We walk down the halls, time and time again, each encounter a new discovery, mystery, or typical presentation. As ED providers, we see new faces, entwined with “frequent flyers” that have become in a weird way part of the family. Our job is often loosely entangled with our identity and existence. It becomes hard to have dinner conversations without discussing therapies, changes in health care, Obamacare, or “unusual cases.” We …

Patient voices

A family caught in a vortex of questionable medical care

Elizabeth Kemp Baker & Sujana S. Chandrasekhar, MD

March 6, 2016Mar 6, 20167

I am an ENT surgeon, a friend of the author, the patient, and their daughter, whose intervention saved his life. This is a smart, loving family caught in a terrible vortex of terrible medical care until they pulled themselves out, and a story that physicians must read, as we struggle to reinstate humanity and humility into our noble profession. Here is Paul’s tale, as told by his wife.

***

On a mid-December …

Physician voices

Why you should care about the Syrian refugee health crisis

Tanu S. Pandey, MD

March 4, 2016Mar 4, 2016

“We are witnessing a paradigm change, an unchecked slide into an era in which the scale of global forced displacement as well as the response required is now clearly dwarfing anything seen before.” - Antonio Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner…

“We are witnessing a paradigm change, an unchecked slide into an era in which the scale of global forced displacement as well as the response required is now clearly dwarfing anything seen before.”
– Antonio Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

The global political upheaval caused by the Syrian refugee crisis could potentially mask a critical issue that has all the signs of a catastrophic public health disaster — the health of …

Physician voices

This is what I’m wearing instead of a white coat

Kristin Prentiss Ott, MD

February 16, 2016Feb 16, 201622

Hospitals are places of long-standing hierarchies where some people are made to feel important and others … not so much. A long time ago, I was told nurses used to stand when a white coat walked into a room. (Imagine that now. Laugh. Snort. Choke. Cough.) In those days, in the patient care setting, white coats were synonymous with importance.

These days, non-clinical hospital administrators, various technicians, and Clinique make-up counter …

Physician voices

My patients’ pregnancy losses remind me why I became a doctor

Trudi Cloyd, MD

February 6, 2016Feb 6, 2016

I know we all bemoan the chief complaint of vaginal bleeding when it pops up on the board. Your heart sinks even more when it is followed by the dreaded home pregnancy test. No ED provider is going to love seeing patients with first trimester bleeding. More than anything, I loathe the drag it takes on my time and productivity. Labs, urine, moving them to the appropriate room for the …

Physician voices

Communication with patients is a problem. How do we fix it?

Jeff Kane, MD

February 6, 2016Feb 6, 201642

In my practice of facilitating cancer support groups, all I do is listen to patients and their families. Consequently, I hear much about the nature of their care. They generally speak favorably about its technical aspects, and indeed these are often awesome. But when they complain, it’s uniformly — and I mean one hundred percent — about communication.

One man has been trying to get an appointment with a pulmonologist for …

Physician voices

I became a physician when I took off my white coat

Jeffrey McWilliams, MD

February 4, 2016Feb 4, 2016

I walk out of a room filled with emotion and despair. A battle lost but the war rages on. I’ve seen miracles, often only a daily basis. Life is precious but peculiarly fragile while resilient and strong. Every emergency provider understands the feeling after a patient has passed. It’s the unexplainable reverence and daunting silence as I put on the white coat. It’s the echoing footsteps that never go away …

Physician voices

Celebrate National Women Physicians Day #Iamblackwell #NWPD

Hala Sabry, DO, MBA

February 3, 2016Feb 3, 201657

It’s amazing what you can learn from the stranger sitting next to you on a flight. As I wait for my neighbor to grab her seat next to me, I secretly hope she embodies the qualities I hope for in…

It’s amazing what you can learn from the stranger sitting next to you on a flight.

As I wait for my neighbor to grab her seat next to me, I secretly hope she embodies the qualities I hope for in a fellow passenger — keeping to herself and not requiring in-flight medical assistance. I make eye contact with a young woman who gives me the nod that she has the middle …

Physician voices

A kind word at bedside can be life-changing for patients

Jeffrey McWilliams, MD

February 2, 2016Feb 2, 2016

As a goal-oriented individual, I pack my days with appointments, deadlines, and to-do lists. Unfortunately, the time I spend getting from one task to the next gets lost in my focus on end results — a common blindness of Westerners who measure success or achievement by results and not by how one “plays the game.” As parents, we teach our children it’s not whether you win or lose, but how …

Physician voices

Doctors: Feel like a fraud? You’re not alone.

Arlene S. Chung, MD

February 2, 2016Feb 2, 20163

Imposter syndrome (n.): Term coined in 1970 by psychologists and researchers to informally describe people who are unable to internalize their accomplishments despite external evidence of their competence. When I was in medical school, I remember walking outside the library…

When I was in medical school, I remember walking outside the library and trying not to glance inside to see how many of my classmates appeared to be meticulously studying for final exams. I remember trying to ignore their off-hand, and occasionally self-congratulating, …

Physician voices

The heartbreak of physician mommies. How this doctor learned to let it go.

Wendy Woolley, DO

January 24, 2016Jan 24, 2016

After a stressful morning, a physician colleague receives a note from her 4 year old that read, “MOMYOUFORGOTTOGIVEMEAKISSTODAY” in classic large, space less toddler scrawl. She shared it knowing that other physician mommies can relate. We’ve all been there. The…

We’ve all been there. The heartbreak that is a part of life as a physician mommy takes many forms. Whether a pout, a stare, a cry, a comment, a scowl or a note, no one can …

Physician voices

Physicians: Listen to voices of the past. And learn.

Jeffrey McWilliams, MD

January 3, 2016Jan 3, 2016

I’ve noticed as I get older, life seems to travel full circle no matter your path or destination. I find myself trying to teach my son Grant things that my father attempted to teach me not so long ago. “Don’t do that, you’ll fall and hurt yourself.” Or, “Try it this way and the process will be much easier.” There is that brief moment of acknowledgment often followed by scraped …

Physician voices

A physician goes on paternity leave. Here are 6 things he learned.

Nadim Lalani, MD

January 1, 2016Jan 1, 20163

It is important that I make two disclaimers: Disclaimer 1: I am a human being. I feel we run the risk of idolizing people through social media and I want to come out and say that I am really no…

It is important that I make two disclaimers:

Disclaimer 1: I am a human being. I feel we run the risk of idolizing people through social media and I want to come out and say that I am really no different than any other person — flaws and all.
Disclaimer 2: I am well aware that your amazing blog aims to promote the stories, journeys and challenges of women in EM …

…

Physician voices

A guideline for physician satisfaction that every administrator should read

Edwin Leap, MD

December 25, 2015Dec 25, 2015

I have never been the director of any professional group. I have, however, been directed. As such, I have a few tips for those who are directors and administrators. I give you my physician satisfaction system. It is arranged in…

In every physician break room or lounge, there should be a wall for photos of girlfriends, boyfriends, children, spouses, parents, dogs, cats, horses, boats, new shotguns or whatever …

Physician voices

EMTs and paramedics are part of the health care team. Don’t forget that.

James D. Turner, JD, NREMT

December 22, 2015Dec 22, 20152

After having read the article by Marjorie Stiegler, MD entitled "Stop the hostility among health care professionals," I wanted to talk briefly about a group that was not mentioned, but needs to have a voice speak out for them. The…

After having read the article by Marjorie Stiegler, MD entitled “Stop the hostility among health care professionals,” I wanted to talk briefly about a group that was not mentioned, but needs to have a voice speak out for them. The EMTs and paramedics that serve this country as paid professionals and volunteers in ambulance services and fire departments all over this nation.

Yet, I sometimes find that EMTs and …

Conditions and diseases

9 tips to find a doctor if you work with venomous animals

Leslie Boyer, MD

December 21, 2015Dec 21, 2015

Because of their beauty, their amazing biology, and their use in developing medicines, venomous animals are found in captive collections far beyond their native ranges. Fortunately, accidents involving them are rare. But people who take care of such animals need to be prepared for an emergency, and if they wait until the last minute things can go very wrong. Speaking as one who receives emergency calls, I offer the following …

Physician voices

Physicians are jaded, but this is what keeps them in medicine

Cindy Winebrenner, MD

December 15, 2015Dec 15, 201512

I am constantly coming across articles of physicians with strong voices. Physicians that are jaded. Physicians that didn’t go into medicine to be defined by patient satisfaction surveys. Physicians that didn’t go into medicine expecting that people wouldn’t trust in their training because the Internet begs to differ. Physicians that cringe at the drive-through mentality that patients can present with diagnoses in hand and demands for tests to be done. Physicians …

Emergency medicine

Articles, page 48

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