Practice Management

Physicians writing on KevinMD about running a practice: staffing and overhead, the payer paperwork that arrives with every patient, ownership and consolidation, the administrators and executives who now employ most physicians, and the models physicians have built to get out from under all of it. Four maintained records draw on this archive: Primary care: what physicians say, in their own words, Direct primary care: what physicians say, in their own words, Physicians and administrators: what physicians say about who runs medicine, in their own words, and Private equity and corporate medicine: what physicians say, in their own words.

Take back our practices with physician cooperatives

Maiysha Clairborne, MD

Physician

September 14, 2017

One of the biggest points of contention in the ongoing discussion of burnout is that the system of health care is flawed. The endless bureaucracy, decreasing physician pay, and increasing meaningful use requirements that spawn endless clicking on an already inefficient electronic medical record platform have become unbearable by most practicing physicians today.

Furthermore, all the talk about mindfulness only riles up more anger in physicians as they feel they are …

Pay off debt, invest, or both: Advice to young physicians

Another Second Opinion, MD

Physician Finance

September 14, 2017

Let me start by saying that I am a huge Dave Ramsey fan. When I completed residency and began my current position, The Total Money Makeover was the first personal finance book I read, and pardon the cliché, but it changed my life. It instilled in me a strong foundation in money management and offered me a road map to handle the situation I was in: hundreds of thousands of dollar in …

5 keys to a successful long-distance relationship during medical school

Sarah Epstein

Medical Education

August 31, 2017

When my husband Brian started first-year of medical school at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, I jettisoned off to Thailand to spend a year teaching English and traveling. We figured if we were going to date long-distance, why not go all in? Why not ensure that we were a full 12 hours apart, on literal opposite sides of the world. What can I say? We like a …

Why patients should be investors, not customers

Vincent C. Thomas, MD

Physician

August 31, 2017

In this current era of health care, patients are increasingly being labeled as “customers” to provide a landscape suggestive of the need to provide customer satisfaction. Many health care providers grow increasingly frustrated with that terminology. It demeans the relationship that is fostered in the patient-physician encounter; belittling it to a transaction that occurs as the exchange of goods for an expected outcome. Perhaps a more appropriate corollary to the …

How this physician transitions to becoming an empty nester

Manoj Jain, MD, MPH

Physician

August 30, 2017

Next month when our youngest child leaves for college, the biggest change may not be in his life but in ours.

We are done with dropping them off at school, or giving them driving lessons, or helping them with difficult homework assignments: We will officially become “empty nesters.”

My wife and I ponder sitting at the dinner table and standing by the kitchen counter, where exuberant political dialogue takes place, and common …

Help me help doctors in recovery

Stephen F. Chambers, MD

Physician

August 24, 2017

Approximately 12 years ago, I hired my first physician in recovery. He had temporarily lost his license following a bout with alcohol. After a stint in a rehabilitation clinic, he was ultimately reinstated. My journey to hire this physician was arduous at best. During the interviewing process, I narrowed the field down to two candidates: one with a past and one without. I wrestled with the “in recovery” situation and …

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Help me help doctors in recovery

Stop the patient leakage in primary care practices

Fred N. Pelzman, MD

Physician

August 24, 2017

Yesterday, we had a meeting about leakage.

No, it was not about urinary or fecal incontinence, but it was about care that could have been provided within our institution that ended up, for a multitude of reasons, happening with providers beyond the walls of our institution.

Representatives from our accountable care organization had requested a meeting to go over some issues they’ve been having with our practice, including low levels of usage …

Improving physician satisfaction by eliminating unnecessary practice burdens

Yul Ejnes, MD

Health Policy

August 23, 2017

A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

In April, the American College of Physicians (ACP) released a position paper titled Putting Patients First by Reducing Administrative Tasks in Health Care, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The paper, part of ACP’s Patients Before …

Is the end of disparities in medicine near?

Linda Girgis, MD

Physician

August 23, 2017

The patient looked at me and said that he did not remember the name of the specialist, only that she was a “woman doctor.” As this was completely unhelpful, I pondered the fact that a doctor who was male is never referred to as a “man doctor.” Why is it that woman physicians need the added label, as if the norm is a doctor who is supposed to be a …

Traditional private practice needs to change

TheBossMD

Physician

August 22, 2017

Owning a business is not some pie in the sky deal where you take a phone call when you make the turn at the country club every day. The public at large, however, thinks that is exactly what business owners do.

Owners are the people that collect money while others work right? They are rich people that just happened to be rich, so they bought a business for other people to …

This doctor sings to her patients. And the results are beautiful.

Jessica Jameson, MD

Physician

August 22, 2017

I am an interventional pain physician. I spend most of my days doing spine injections with a fair amount of kyphoplasties and spinal cord stimulators thrown in as well. It seems to me that these are minor procedures that shouldn’t evoke anxiety in patients, but they do. Patients get nervous. They get anxious.

I am also a singer. I had the privilege of being classically trained through my college years. Like …

Our noble profession is being destroyed by legislators and administrators

Cathleen London, MD

Physician

August 22, 2017

I had a great day in the office today. Not that I came up with any brilliant diagnosis nor cured anyone. I was able to just be a physician. No time wasted on the phone with insurance companies. No prior authorizations to do. It was a reminder of how much I love my job. I love my actual job — the one I trained for — being a physician. Listening …

Do doctors need an emergency fund?

Dads Dollars Debts, MD

Physician Finance

August 19, 2017

There is a lot of talk on the web about having an emergency fund. Typically this is three to six months of expenses. Some would argue to keep three to six times bare bones expenses, and others would argue to keep three to six times the average amount you spend on expenses. Having an emergency fund makes sense to cover life’s unexpected occurrences. What could these be? Well, the biggest …

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Do doctors need an emergency fund?