Hospital medicine

5,188 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 89

What is a 5-star hospital? The answer may surprise you.

August 24, 2015Aug 24, 201513

Now we’re giving star ratings to hospitals? Does anyone think this is a good idea? Actually, I do. Hospital rating schemes have cropped up all over the place, and sorting out what’s important and what isn’t is difficult and time consuming. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) runs the best known and most comprehensive hospital rating website, Hospital Compare. But, unlike most “rating” systems, Hospital Compare …

Physician voices

What laryngitis taught this surgeon about disrupting health care

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

August 23, 2015Aug 23, 20152

Smitty greets Sully as they meet to head to work, “Hey there, Sully! How’s your wife?” Sully answers, “Oh, geez. She’s up in bed with laryngitis.” Then Smitty says, “Laryngitis?! That damned Greek!” As you may have guessed, I am…

Smitty greets Sully as they meet to head to work, “Hey there, Sully! How’s your wife?” Sully answers, “Oh, geez. She’s up in bed with laryngitis.” Then Smitty says, “Laryngitis?! That damned Greek!”

As you may have guessed, I am nursing a case of laryngitis, my voice muted and strained. This time, it has not stopped me from attending to my work responsibilities or other activities. It has required some adjustments though, …

Health policy

Want satisfied patients? Keep nurses happy.

Jayson Marwaha

August 23, 2015Aug 23, 20154

Ever since Medicare started using patient satisfaction surveys in 2012 to calculate hospital reimbursements, the healthcare system has been looking to the hospitality industry to learn how to make patients enjoy their hospital stay. Hotels do have the answer, but…

What hospitals are doing wrong

The concept behind Medicare’s HCAHPS survey — a short questionnaire asking …

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Physician voices

We should treat patients, not our ideas of patients

Chiduzie Madubata, MD

August 22, 2015Aug 22, 2015

Throughout the course of a physician’s career, many patients come across the path with numerous complaints and medical conditions requiring interpretations and actions, respectively. In a field with little time to see everybody at length, pattern recognition becomes important to make efficient decisions with regards to patient care. Usually, it involves focusing on the patient’s condition exclusively, but at times, the social aspects of a patient come into play with …

Physician voices

You won’t necessarily be admitted to the hospital. Here’s why.

Edwin Leap, MD

August 19, 2015Aug 19, 20157

When we take our sick or injured loved ones to the hospital, we often hope that they will be admitted. In many instances, this is a very reasonable request. When heart or lung disease are at work, when severe infections, dehydration, fractures or strokes occur, admission may well be the only option. However, sometimes our desire to admit our family members is a throwback to a simpler time in medicine; …

Health policy

The crumbling walls of health care is a good thing

James C. Salwitz, MD

August 18, 2015Aug 18, 201510

There was a doctor. The doctor had an office. In the office, he had a practice. The doctor worked hard, was honest, smart and compassionate. He took care of many patients, everyday, and helped many people. The people paid with…

There was a hospital, near the doctor. It was an important hospital. It took care of many patients, …

Physician voices

Improve the patient experience with these 5 simple ideas

Suneel Dhand, MD

August 18, 2015Aug 18, 20154

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 …

Physician voices

7 ways physicians can improve health care quality

Robert Pearl, MD

August 16, 2015Aug 16, 201533

Patients want to receive health care that is of the highest quality. Physicians want to provide it. But what is “high-quality health care?” On that, few agree. Ask most Americans and they’re unsure where to find it. They know they…

Patients want to receive health care that is of the highest quality. Physicians want to provide it. But what is “high-quality health care?” On that, few agree.

Ask most Americans and they’re unsure where to find it. They know they want to be kept healthy, have rapid access to personalized care whenever they need it and be charged only what they can afford.

Ask the leaders of the national medical and surgical …

Physician voices

Doctors now diagnose in code. ICD code, that is.

Frederick Gandolfo, MD

August 16, 2015Aug 16, 20156

“Hi, it’s Dr. Smith, are you taking consults today?” the voice on the other side of my short-range hospital phone said. I recognized the caller's name as one of the new hospital doctors, known as hospitalists. “Of course,” I said,…

“Hi, it’s Dr. Smith, are you taking consults today?” the voice on the other side of my short-range hospital phone said. I recognized the caller’s name as one of the new hospital doctors, known as hospitalists.

“Of course,” I said, “What have you got?” I guess some groups have a specific doctor for the day “take” the consults. If I am in the hospital, I am always taking consults.

“Great,” the hospitalist …

Health policy

What happens when moral physicians stand up to power

Richard Gunderman, MD, PhD

August 14, 2015Aug 14, 201525

Dr. Melos is a gastroenterologist in solo practice in a medium-sized Midwestern city. One day she hears a knock on her door. When she answers, she finds two representatives of Athenian Health System, who request a few minutes of her…

After exchanging pleasantries, the visitors get down to business. They extend Dr. Melos an …

Physician voices

When doctors win, patients are the ones that sometimes lose

Jordan Grumet, MD

August 13, 2015Aug 13, 201519

Like two ships passing in the night, we sidled up to each other at the nursing station on the hospital telemetry ward. I had already been home, ate with the kids, and returned, while he hadn't left floors all day.…

After we exchanged common pleasantries, we jumped into local politics. …

Physician voices

What happens when the best medicine has to offer can’t be offered to everyone?

Taimur Safder, MD, MPH

August 10, 2015Aug 10, 201529

“We have an admission.” The dreaded four words for most interns on a day you are swamped with discharges while trying to get your post rounds orders in. “Hypertensive emergency and possible osteomyelitis of the foot,” my senior informed me…

“We have an admission.”

The dreaded four words for most interns on a day you are swamped with discharges while trying to get your post rounds orders in.

“Hypertensive emergency and possible osteomyelitis of the foot,” my senior informed me with a few other details as we made our way to the emergency department. Mr. Rodriguez was a very pleasant middle-aged gentleman, with graying hair and a goatee. I introduced myself, explained …

Health technology

Those in charge of EHRs are uninterested in cooperation. How sad.

Rocky Bilhartz, MD

August 10, 2015Aug 10, 20157

Eleven billion dollars. Sounds like a lot of money, doesn’t it? It is. But, I’ll give you even more perspective, Tony Robbins style. Eleven seconds ago you started reading this page. A few blinks of an eye. But, eleven million…

Eleven billion dollars.

Sounds like a lot of money, doesn’t it?

It is. But, I’ll give you even more perspective, Tony Robbins style.

Eleven seconds ago you started reading this page. A few blinks of an eye. But, eleven million seconds? That was a few months back. 127 days to be exact. Can you remember what you were doing then? Eleven million seconds have passed since you did it.

But, when you jump to billions, you’ll …

Physician voices

How to hire a great millennial physician

Chesney Fowler, MD

August 7, 2015Aug 7, 20155

What does a millennial physician look like? And, importantly for physicians’ groups, hospitals, and health systems, how do you effectively recruit them to come work for you when they are in such high demand? Much has been written about this…

Much has been written about this generation of overeducated and underemployed young people — all full of entitlement and purpose — who have been transforming values and expectations in …

Health policy

There’s a difference between happy and satisfied patients

Rick Evans

August 6, 2015Aug 6, 201518

Recently I have been reading articles regarding the patient experience that I find both stimulating as well as challenging. As the chief experience officer at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), you might imagine just how many times these articles are forwarded…

In “The Problem with Satisfied Patients” by Alexandra Robbins in April’s edition of The …

Health technology

Why should physicians have to enter orders in the computer?

Edwin Leap, MD

August 5, 2015Aug 5, 2015114

So, there I was yesterday, working frantically to keep myself above the water level of the rapidly rising swamp of patients. Navigating, haltingly, the onerous and demonic EMR. So I thought I ordered three nebulizers, but it was only one. The respiratory tech approached me and informed me that she would put them in, but only this time. That I’d have to …

Physician voices

Listen to patients rather than rely on tests

Val Jones, MD

August 5, 2015Aug 5, 201513

I met my newly admitted patient in the quiet of his private room. He was frail, elderly, and coughing up gobs of green phlegm. His nasal cannula had stepped its way across his cheek during his paroxysms and was pointed at his right eye. Although the room was uncomfortably warm, he was shivering and asking for more blankets. I could hear his …

Physician voices

Patients can teach doctors these 5 things

Suneel Dhand, MD

August 3, 2015Aug 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,…

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 …

Physician voices

Young physicians must take a leadership role. Here’s why.

Hakeem Shakir, MD

August 2, 2015Aug 2, 2015

My young patient was dying as a blood clot under the cover of her brain accumulated and began compressing the fragile tissue within her skull. She needed surgery to remove the clot that would save her life. As the team pushed her from CT scanner to the operating room, it was soon realized labs were missing and were needed before opening her …

Physician voices

Why doctors overtreat patients. And how to fix it.

Robert Pearl, MD

July 31, 2015Jul 31, 20159

In the late 19th century, Dr. William Halsted, a pioneer of modern surgical techniques, performed ultra-radical mastectomies for women with breast cancer. The procedure, soon named after him, involved the surgeon removing not only the breast itself but also surrounding…

Halsted believed, and taught generations of medical students, that the more radical the procedure, the higher the …

Hospital medicine

Articles, page 89

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