Primary Care

How you can thrive despite the looming physician shortage

Physician

January 7, 2023

A perfect storm is brewing in the U.S. health care system, and we must prepare to counter the rushing waves. America is facing a potentially catastrophic physician shortfall. All indicators point toward unprecedented times ahead. If I were an attorney, I would state my case something like this.

Exhibit A

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the United States is facing a projected shortage of between 37,800 and 124,000 …

Understanding patients’ religious and spiritual beliefs promotes healing

Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA

Physician

January 6, 2023

Religious and spiritual experiences have shaped my worldview since I was a teenager. At age 13, I celebrated my bar mitzvah. Later that year, I underwent an appendectomy. A priest asked my mother if he could pray for me prior to the operation. My mother did not hesitate to accept the priest’s blessing. I learned at an early age that prayers for one’s well-being should be welcomed regardless of …

How to deal with challenging patients

Jean Paul Brutus, MD

Physician

January 6, 2023

Dealing with challenging patients can be difficult and stressful for doctors and health care professionals.

It can be helpful to remember that they can be difficult for a variety of reasons, such as pain, fear, confusion, or unmet expectations that were expressed or not — reasonable or not. To effectively handle challenging patients, a few key points must be kept in mind.

Remain calm and professional. This will help keep the situation …

Read more…

How to deal with challenging patients

Treating rare, multi-system illnesses [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

January 4, 2023

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!

“If patients had an accurate diagnosis and their physicians knew the root of their illness and could treat it effectively, then the medical care costs would go down. The effect on patients of being diagnosed years earlier …

Doctors trained abroad will save rural health care

G. Richard Olds, MD

Policy

December 31, 2022

Health care is growing hard to come by in rural America.

Three-quarters of rural counties suffer from doctor shortages. More than 200 rural hospitals are at risk of closing due to financial hardship within the next two to three years, according to a study published this spring. And while 20% of the U.S. population lives in a rural region, just 10% of physicians practice in these communities.

Fortunately, there’s a group of …

The transformation of doctors into “Dr. Widgets”

Susan MacLellan-Tobert, MD

Physician

December 29, 2022

It has finally happened, I have transitioned to viewing myself as a widget, a depersonalized interface between the EMR and the patient. I am the unnamed device that collects the patient data and subsequently transcribes it into prose for billing purposes and maybe the occasional colleague review. There is a bit of curious comfort in identifying myself as a mere cog. I’m imagining I will now fly below the radar, …

Ode to the paper chart

Eve Makoff, MD

Physician

December 29, 2022

Oh how I miss the feel of your thick spine, so wide I could barely grasp you with my oddly small hands. Wrist cocked, an awkward drag ensued from rack to desk, your heft landing with a thump under fluorescent lights on the laminate desk. I scooted into the low chair and dove in with aplomb. I was ready.

I started just beneath your mauve plastic cover. There, just under the …

Read more…

Ode to the paper chart

Myths and misconceptions about virtual primary health care

Geoff Rutledge, MD, PhD

Tech

December 27, 2022

Virtual primary care, unlike virtual urgent care, involves doctors who take the time to get to know their patients, creating (and nurturing) trusted doctor-patient relationships. Virtual primary care requires that doctors be consistently available for providing ongoing care to their patients.

Can doctors who meet their patients via video form an effective doctor-patient relationship, and does that relationship lead to appropriate and needed primary care?

The answer is a resounding “yes” on …

The solution to America’s primary care shortage is direct primary care

Sara Pastoor, MD

Physician

December 24, 2022

Primary care in the United States is on the brink of collapse. Primary care providers suffer existential burnout, are the lowest compensated among all medical specialties, and there is a crisis-level shortage of primary care physicians, especially in health professional shortage areas. Despite strong evidence linking primary care (unlike any other medical specialty) to a better quality of life, longer life expectancy, better patient experience, and lower total …

What consumers want from telehealth

Lyle Berkowitz, MD

Tech

December 24, 2022

After becoming more familiar with telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing number of consumers today are realizing the value and convenience of virtual visits for minor urgent issues, chronic disease management, and mental health services.

At the same time, an overwhelming majority of consumers believe it is important that both their regular doctor and their telehealth provider have access to their health records for sharing critical data such as current …

Read more…

What consumers want from telehealth

Gil Scott-Heron’s “Winter in America” is upon us

Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA

Physician

December 21, 2022

For me, the cheerful musical sounds of the holiday season invariably give way to a somber song: Gil Scott-Heron’s “Winter in America.” Dubbed the “Godfather of Rap,” Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011) embraced diverse musical styles alternating between jazz, blues, soul, and hip-hop. He wasn’t known for delivering good tidings as much as he was for sermonizing and engaging in “Small Talk at …

Physicians: Are we still the good guys?

Joan Naidorf, DO

Physician

December 20, 2022

In the very realistic fictional world of The White Coat Diaries by Dr. Madi Sinha, a first-year internal medicine resident goes through a harsh initiation into the realities of medical training. Protagonist Norah Kapadia encounters a complication of a penile implant in an elderly patient with end-stage liver disease and dementia. Her senior resident talks her through the problem of causing hematuria as she placed a catheter through an …

Read more…

Physicians: Are we still the good guys?

The demise of primary care in America

Gregg Coodley, MD

Policy

December 20, 2022

An excerpt from Patients in Peril: The Demise of Primary Care in America.

The last 100 years have seen an astonishing drop in the percentage of American physicians who practiced primary care. In the early 1930s, 87% of private practice physicians were in general care; by the early 1960s, this percentage …

Read more…

The demise of primary care in America

An expert’s advice about staying in private medical practice

Curtis G. Graham, MD

Physician

December 19, 2022

Most physicians are aware of our nation’s disintegration of private medical practices. Bailing out of private medical practice for financial or other reasons predicts the takeover of government-controlled employed medical practice as well as the medical profession itself—including medical school education.

One world-renowned marketing and business expert offers important advice for medical care professionals who prefer to remain independent of such medical practice restrictions while we still can do so:

A lot …

Read more…

An expert’s advice about staying in private medical practice

Reflecting on health and wellness: Celebrating the wins and learning from the losses

Anthony Fleg, MD

Physician

December 18, 2022

The game came down to the last seconds.

Down by three, we scored on a layup. Now a one-point game. And then, it was over. A narrow 1-point loss in the championship game for our middle school boys team.

One started crying, then another. It caught on like something infectious, and suddenly parents were tearing up as well. As one of the coaches for the team, I wondered what we could have …

A blessing for health care workers

Michele Luckenbaugh

Conditions

December 16, 2022

As winter approaches and life slows down, it’s a time to pause and reflect on all everyone has had to endure these past few years. To those involved in health care, it has been an especially difficult time… a test of both resolution and inner strength. With my hope that all will see brighter days ahead, I offer the following as my means of giving thanks to all of you …

Read more…

A blessing for health care workers

Ethical consumerism: How to shop responsibly for the holidays

Spencer Kelly and Recha Bergstrom, MD

Physician

December 15, 2022

After record-setting sales of $889.3 billion last holiday season, the National Retail Federation predicts that Americans will spend between $942-960 billion this year. Deloitte forecasts that each American will make $1,455 worth of holiday-related purchases individually.

It is possible to have your holiday spending support impactful companies and causes while getting the gifts you want your loved ones to enjoy.

What is ethical consumerism?

Business Insider defines ethical consumerism as “the practice of spending …

The solution to a crumbling primary care foundation is direct primary care

Sara Pastoor, MD

Policy

December 14, 2022

In a report published by the Commonwealth Fund and released in August 2021, the performance of the U.S. health care system was compared to that of other high-income countries. The results were stunning: despite investing far more of its gross domestic product in health care, the U.S. ranks dead last overall and last on access to care, administrative efficiency, health equity, and health …

What my 10 year old is teaching me about boundaries [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

December 12, 2022

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!

“As I’ve been coaching physicians, I’ve realized that many of us have a tendency to just ‘grin and bear it’ when it comes to the challenges and stresses of the medical profession. We often tell ourselves that …

Perfectionism will kill you

Jean Paul Brutus, MD

Physician

December 11, 2022

Every doctor wants to be perfect. We want to make sure our diagnosis is perfect. Our treatment plan is perfect, and our outcome will be perfect. Patients want the perfect doctor. They want us to get it right on the first try, each and every time. The problem is perfectionism, as hard as we try to achieve it or wish for it, is not attainable. Perfectionism will kill you.

Primary Care

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