While typing words, the advertisement for yet another hospital is overheard from the TV. "Ignore it John," I think to myself, but, it is impossible to not look up and see. The head shakes with a smirk, like my grandfather did and without words displeasure was easily conveyed.
Do people really think the graphical professionalism of a TV spot is even remotely an accurate metric of quality of medical care?
At work, ...
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As physicians progress through medical training and acquire new knowledge and skills, something interesting happens. They also develop a new and increasing awareness of not only how much they didn't previously know but also how much they still don't know. This process sounds paradoxical but has been consistent with my personal experience: The more I learn, the less I think I know.
Any seasoned clinician knows that in order for one ...
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Doctors are often encouraged to discuss advance directives with their patients.
But sometimes, when it comes to act on a "Do not resuscitate" (DNR) order, the situation can be far from clear.
In a provocative essay from the Washington Post, emergency physician Boris Veysman discusses a case where he successfully revived a man who, unbeknown to Dr. Veysman, had a DNR order.
Despite the temporary nature of the illness, the family honored ...
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Ten years after the release of the IOM report To Err is Human, which documented the toll taken by medical errors in this country, the question remains: What can be done to reverse the trend of ever-increasing morbidity and mortality due to medical errors?
Last December, a look back over the decade since the release of To Err is Human -- and a steady medical error death rate of about ...
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Overuse of the emergency department is commonly discussed during the health care conversation. Especially with the lack of primary care access shunting patients with seemingly routine symptoms to the ER.
But is this a myth?
That's what two emergency physicians contend in a piece from Slate.
The emergency department is functioning just fine, they say: "Just 12 percent of ER visits are not urgent. People also tend to think ER visits ...
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Thanks to AOL News for publishing my latest opinion piece, Reform's Great, But We Need More Doctors.
I discuss how health reform's ultimate success or failure is largely dependent on whether our primary care system can accommodate the millions of newly insured patients:
... having health insurance doesn't necessarily mean it will be easy to find a doctor. Even before reform, ...
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Medicare's sustainable growth rate, or SGR, has been the bane of doctors for years now. To encapsulate, this is the reason for Medicare's annual threat to cut doctors' fees by 20% or more, only to be staved off at the last minute. Emergency physician Shadowfax has a nice take on it, explaining why it has devastated primary care:
Primary care has many fixed expenses in addition to those we bear: they pay ...
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One of my interns was “running the list” with me last week (giving me a thumbnail update on the plans for each of our inpatients). It was standard stuff until he got to Ms. X, a 80ish-year-old woman admitted with urosepsis who was now ready for discharge. “I stopped her antibiotics, advanced her diet, called her daughter, and YoJo’ed her.”
Say whaa?
I’m pretty sure that the most valuable thing I’ve done ...
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In America, too many people die in the hospital.
I don’t mean that they die due to medical error or incompetence, though that’s always a hot topic of discussion amongst doctors, researchers, administrators, and regulators.
What I mean is that if you ask most people, they say they’d rather die at home, surrounded by their loved ones, drifting off to sleep painlessly after having had last rites administered (feel free to plug ...
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An excellent article appeared recently in the Washington Post, entitled, "Having health insurance doesn't ensure it will be easy to find a doctor," where a young, otherwise healthy and insured woman discusses her extreme difficulty in finding a doctor in Washington, DC who will see her.
"I was just 23, basically healthy and, most important, insured. So I pulled out my computer, looked up the UnitedHealthcare list of pre-approved doctors ...
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"A comprehensive and extremely useful roadmap for doctors."
-Eric Topol, MD, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine
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Past 6 Months
Dear lawmakers: This is what it’s like to be a doctor today
Matthew Moeller, MD | PhysicianA gun owner responds to Sandy Hook
Edwin Leap, MD | PhysicianIs Chris Christie too obese to run for president?
Jeffrey Parks, MD | PhysicianIf I’m wrong about guns, can you please explain why?
Claire McCarthy, MD | PhysicianPrimary care doctors may no longer be needed
Doug Olson, MD | PhysicianWalgreens moves into primary care, and it’s our own damn fault
Kevin Pho, MD | Kevin's Take