Bullying is a problem within health care.Stung by a physician's rebuke, Theresa Brown, an oncology nurse, takes to the op-ed pages of the New York Times to address the issue.In it, she cites several vignettes that paint doctors poorly:
But while most doctors clearly respect their colleagues on the nursing staff, every nurse knows at least one, if ...
Eric Cropp was a pharmacist who was sent to prison for a mistake that resulted in the death of a child.This was a high profile case, but it was just one of many examples of a disturbing trend I’ve seen in the U.S. in recent years: a person commits a mistake–with no malicious intent and without being under the ...
When I was a little girl, attending the circus was the highlight event of the year. I remember looking forward to it each year – perhaps because it was something fun, and each year something new. Never the same show twice. Very busy behind the scenes, yet at the same time, quite organized and appearing smooth on the surface.In the same way, the clinic can be a truly hectic scene. ...
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A 67-year-old businessman is evaluated during a routine health examination. He has a 30 pack-year history of smoking, but quit 5 years ago. He consumes two or more alcoholic beverages on most days. He is asymptomatic, but performs no regular physical exercise. He takes no ...
As a specialist, one of the saddest truisms about practicing medicine in the private world has always been how little one’s clinical skills determines referrals. Unfortunately, as our present healthcare climate pushes "providers" to consolidate along the lines of major hospital networks this injustice will only worsen.A decade-or-so ago when I started private practice it was obvious that referrals came to me because of my association with an established ...
One year after passage of the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has unveiled two programs that will most certainly be transformative for U.S. healthcare, affecting both quality and safety.With the announcement of the first-ever National Quality Strategy in March, HHS signaled a strong commitment to improving the quality of healthcare.In essence, ...
I am deeply conflicted about how we as a society have come to use physicians, medical science and advanced technology in our lives.Everything has its place in life, but we have given modern medicine with its focus on the chemistry and physics of illness too prominent of a place. We’ve forgotten that we are not treating diseases; we are helping people with diseases.Many readers, especially those with lifestyle diseases, can ...
I’ve read a number of recent articles on social media and medical professionalism. The post in the New York Times about physicians and Facebook prompted me to think about my own presence online.Dr. Ryan Greysen, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation clinical scholar at Yale School of Medicine, says he is concerned about the professionalism of “the new generation of ...
"She’s a really interesting patient!"The doctor visiting the lady in question at home is correct. Nothing about her illness either has been routine. The progression of her disease has confounded her regular doctors for months. Nothing about her condition is normal. Medications have not worked as expected. The original diagnosis -- Parkinson’s -- is in question. All my training and expertise is inadequate, for I am an ENT surgeon, not ...
An excerpt from The Inner Pulse: Unlocking the Secret Code of Sickness and Health.by Marc Siegel, MDThe Pulse of Recovery People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within. --Elisabeth Kübler-RossThe inner pulse can keep beating—loudly—long after doctors, researchers, and their monitors predict ...
by Mellanie True HillsI have heard from thousands of atrial fibrillation patients who have shared their afib experiences with me. For so many of us, the diagnosis and treatment of afib is confusing and scary.To improve communication between patients and their health-care providers, and ultimately, provide better care, I recently shared with doctors at the Western Atrial Fibrillation ...
After all the ridiculous fear-mongering about "death panels," Congress dropped a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning from the health reform legislation passed last March.But the administration had in fact quietly included reimbursing doctors for end-of-life counseling along with a host of new Medicare regulations. The provision, which authorizes payment for “voluntary advance care planning,” went into ...
Little more than a decade ago, most people had never heard of the word genomics; today it is used frequently. It is indeed a revolutionary science that is and will transform medical research and medical care. To better understand how this new science will markedly change medicine, it is convenient to consider it through a few categories:
We all like lists. US News & World Report has told us for years which colleges are considered the top in the nation. Castle Connolly tells us which are the “Top Doctors” in our community and Car & Driver gives us a ranking of cars by type.In The Order of Things, Malcolm Gladwell pokes serious holes in some of our most revered rankings and lists.If ...
Content drives conversations. Conversation engages your customers.Engaging with people is how your company will survive and thrive in this newly social world. In other words, online content is a powerful envoy for your business, with an ability to stir up interest, further engagement, and invite connections. Why hasn’t the healthcare industry focused more on better content that drives engagement and creates trust?Creating and sharing relevant, valuable information that attracts people ...
Primary care is a unique field of medicine.Primary care physicians (PCPs) are the gatekeepers to specialized care, provide preventative care, and most importantly, they have the ability to manage patients with multiple chronic conditions. Thus, primary care physicians are in prime position to become the point men in the I realized last week one of the hardest mindset transitions that I'm having to make as a medical student. It has to do with not really feeling like I belong, and the need to really make my patients ... well, MY patients!As a medical student, you can actually function reasonably well without ever having to actually see a patient.You can read ...Medical students are part of each patient’s health care team
On the night of October 4, 1984, a young girl named Libby Zion was admitted to New York Hospital in Manhattan for fever, agitation and strange jerking movements. No one knew that her death the next morning would, 27 years later, drastically change the quality of physician training, for better or worse.When Libby was evaluated in the emergency room that night, neither the ER physician nor her family physician Dr. ...
There are many aspects to being a doctor. Just as important are the many aspects that go into being a patient. Of course, the difference is that one has been perceived as being a position of power and the other one has not. I don’t believe this distinction is useful or true in today's world.Patients and doctors work ...
So now, in addition to the many other bits of medical meddling we have from CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), there’s this.Reimbursements to hospitals, from Medicare, will be partly tied to patient satisfaction scores. We’ve seen payments already being tied to ‘quality indicators,’ as dictated by the federal government; rewards for doing a better job on care for heart attacks, pneumonia, etc.. At least that’s quantifiable, whether ...
Who has the potential to be the most influential physician of our generation? It's Priscilla Chan, who not only recently graduated from...
In a widely anticipated move, the USPSTF officially recommended against prostate cancer screening in healthy men. Case closed, right? Hardly. The prostate...
When it comes to medicine and social media, much of the attention is negative. Doctors losing their hospital privileges because of Facebook....
A version of this column was published on April 24, 2012 in USA Today. There has been a recent uptick of elderly men...
I was appalled recently by the coverage of radiology “test recalls” by CNN, amplified by Dr. Gary Becker of the American Board...
I was invited to a medical staff leadership conference sponsored by our hospital. A company specializing in training physician leaders ran the...
As a cardiac electrophysiologist, I have had to discuss bad news with patients and families more times than I would like during...
He looked dead. The paramedics brought him down the hall toward one of my critical care beds, and for a moment I...
I was honored to be part of a beautiful experience in late January of 2011. It was the death of my mother-in-law...
Theirs is a lonely journey; to be moving towards the separation and end of all things known and loved. Being with a...
As a patient who was asked to speak at the Association of Health Care Journalists 2012 conference, I felt a bit covert....
Nothing will force you to live life on your own terms faster than almost losing it. In 2008, I was on fire....
America has this paradox of excellent biomedical science, innovative drug manufacturers and entrepreneurial device developers along with outstanding providers but at the...
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ..." So begins a story called A Tale of Two...
The nation’s “safety net” hospitals are designed to ensure that uninsured, lower income and indigent populations receive adequate medical care – a...
Technology to lower costs rather than accelerate them. Smart phones to increase physician and other providers’ productivity. Fewer primary care physicians but...
Propaganda and non-truths abound all around the Internet saying that mobile health apps are everything from a threat to Big Pharma to...
The policeman was two cars in front of me. I meandered down the road cautiously adjusting my speed a few ticks above...
Every month, hundreds of thousands of people look for a doctor on Google. As an amazing practitioner, your site deserves to be...
The first thing I noticed when I walked into the physician’s office were the tall cabinets filled with manila folders, tabbed with...
Prior to 1794, farms across the world could only pick cotton as fast as humanly possible. In the late 18th century, Eli Whitney...
Social media in healthcare is all the rage these days. You can’t visit even one physician-oriented website without someone breathlessly advising you...
Want to understand social media? Physicians wanting to learn about social media must learn transparency. We must learn transparency on a personal...
It was my first ER shift in charge of the resuscitation area. Needless to say, my adrenaline and nerves were firing like...
