Most psychiatrists and primary care physicians who work in corrections long enough will end up being named in a lawsuit or having a complaint filed against them with their licensing board. So, from a risk-management standpoint, is it worth the potential hassle?
Yes, in most cases I think it is.
It is a fact that physicians who treat inmates are at greater risk of litigation. I don’t have specific figures to give …
One of the skills I really wanted to learn in med school was how to suture. It’s just one of those things that I felt like you’re supposed to know if you’re a doctor. How can you be a doctor if you don’t know how to suture?Anyway, by fourth year of med school, I had totally failed at my goal. I had already done a surgery rotation, but while …
Health care is a team sport, and one of the most important members is the office receptionist.
Receptionists are often the first people patients see when the visit the clinic. And those first impressions count.
In a recent piece from the New York Times, Pauline Chen notes a study of the responsibilities of the medical receptionist, and finds they impact …
With sixteen million more Americans expected to gain health care coverage in the coming years as a result of the Affordable Care Act, access to actual health care providers may become more difficult. This may be especially true for patients with marginal coverage such as Medicaid.
The Kaiser Family Foundation recently explored the role of non-physician clinicians – specifically nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) …
Is Dr. X a good doctor?
Being a doctor, I often hear this question being asked. More often than not, the response that I hear is a rather clear cut one, “oh yes, Dr. X is a great doctor,” or “oh no, Dr. X is not a good doctor,” making me wonder what such a definite response is based upon. Is it based on actual facts? Is it based on …
According to Wikipedia, up to the beginning of the 19th century there had been only 3 occupations that were considered to be professions, Divinity, Medicine and Law.
A profession is considered a trade or occupation that transforms itself through “the development of formal qualifications based upon education, apprenticeship, and examinations, the emergence of regulatory bodies with powers to admit, discipline members, and enforce adherence to an ethical code of practice.”
Professionals are …
Everyone liked him. Though his later years (the only ones in which I knew him) took away his ability to do most things, and though he was in great pain every day, it was easy to see the mischief in his eyes. The subtle humor was still there, coming out of a man who was weak, in pain, dying.
She lived for him. She was always telling me of his pain, …
To do nothing is sometimes a good remedy.
-Hippocrates
Edna Frost is 88 years old, a slender, slow-talking woman with a dry sense of humor and a blood pressure that’s all over the place. At best, she runs ten points higher than any of her previous doctors wanted to put up with. At worst, she flirts with systolics over 200, but that doesn’t seem to be a common occurrence.
Edna has been my …
It may not be rabbit season or duck season but it definitely seems to be doctor season.
Physicians are lined up squarely in the gun sights of the media, government agencies and legislators, our health care industry employers and coworkers, not to mention our own dissatisfied patients, all happily acquiring hunting licenses in order to trade off taking aim. It’s not enough any more to wear a bullet proof white coat. …
The American Medical Association recently released its membership numbers, and they’re declining.
According to MedPage Today, the AMA “saw another steep drop in its membership in 2010 — this time losing about 12,000 members or 5% of its total membership.”
It’s been well publicized that the AMA only represents a minority percentage of physicians, depending on what you read, it’s between 20 and 30%. But it seems many physicians have little …
Though there are few subjects as immediate to my experience as that described in Gardiner Harris’s article in The New York Times, “More Doctors Say No to Endless Workdays,” perhaps the truest indication of my opinion on the matter may be the fact that, upon first glance at the headline, I didn’t feel much need to read the rest of the article. More doctors say no …
This past spring, I took the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) exam.
7 weeks later, I received my results. Thankfully, I passed.
This was not entirely a surprise, as the pass rate for first-time test takers was 88%. But it definitely requires some studying. It’s not a gimmie.
Considering that I last took my board exam in …
I’ve heard some physicians wonder out loud if their career has been “wasted” – either because they were on a path that wasn’t a good fit or they spent years focusing on accumulating and worrying rather than on contributing and enjoying. The question is one of personal value: Am I measuring up? And by whose metrics?
How do you measure the value of your physician career? Dollars earned? Lives saved? Honors …
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by Jeffrey L. Cohen and Albert R. Meyer
Chiropractors and medical doctors (or D.O.s) have had a long and somewhat complex relationship.
Though they approach healthcare issues differently, there are many instances where they share care or even work together. Such “M.D./D.C.” relationships are legally complex, but often prove to be rewarding in many respects. Properly constructing the arrangements is critical, especially since government regulators and payers tend …
I was sitting next to a resident in the preceptor room yesterday. He was calling a patient to discuss lab results, and introduced himself on the phone by his first name and last name … but not with “Doctor.” (e.g., “Hi, this is John Smith from the Family Health Center.”)
I occasionally see the residents’ patients for urgent visits. When I ask them who their regular PCP is at the office, …
I had a patient once who wanted an exercise stress test even though he had neither symptoms nor risk factors to suggest the presence of coronary artery disease (such as chest pain with exertion). I argued vociferously against it. However, extenuating circumstances (not relevant here) prompted our mutual decision to go ahead with it anyway. To our surprise and dismay, it came …
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by George H. Northrup, PhD
No one becomes a mental health professional—in my case, a clinical psychologist—for the financial rewards.
With comparable (or less) education, far more lucrative careers exist in law, business, or other health care specialties. Psychotherapy tends to draw practitioners who are fascinated by the mysteries of the mind and who find satisfaction helping others in distress. Money has typically been a …
Private practices are organized in a corporate model where the physicians are shareholders, or where one or more physicians own the practice and employ other physicians or providers. Private practices are almost exclusively for-profit. Physician practices are organized into corporations for the tax benefits as well as protecting the owners from liability judgments.
Hospitals can be for-profit, not-for-profit …
Whenever I speak about social media to doctors across the country, I often get asked, “How do I deal with a negative online review?”
Here’s one way not to handle it: sue the patient writing the review.
There’s a well publicized case in Minnesota, where a resident posted a screenshot of …
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In my forays into the history of medicine I came across these six little words by Hippocrates.
They seem strangely modern, almost like something you might find on a Hallmark-card for today’s medical school graduates. I don’t know how old the translation is and I couldn’t understand the original text if I tried – but these simple words really touched me when I …
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