Primary care's woes have been well documented, especially on this blog.
Pressure on reimbursement, combined with rising bureaucratic impediments to the doctor-patient relationship, are both causing primary care physicians to retire early, or seek another career path.
But what about on the other side of the spectrum, namely, newly graduated primary care doctors?
Well, they're no dummies, as it's obvious to them how difficult it is to practice primary care in a traditional ...
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Originally published in HCPLive.com
by Owen Dahl and Altamash Rahman
“Her MA is very rude, uncompassionate. Dr. ABCD doesn’t return phone calls. They’re not helpful and not good with following up with the care plan for patients. We’re new seeing this doctor, but will never go back. I would not recommend this practice at all!!!!!!”
How would you handle a comment like this ...
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Dr. Barth Green co-founded Project Medishare, which has worked in Haiti for two decades. He led the first team of U.S. physicians to Port-au-Prince after the earthquake and, together with the University of Miami’s Global Institute, spearheaded the development of a 240-bed tent hospital that is now the country’s largest functioning urgent care hospital. His group is working with the U.S. government to establish Haiti’s first rehabilitation hospital. Green ...
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I am very blessed. The hospital where I practice, while concerned with patient satisfaction, does not worship at its altar.
That is, so far our administrators seem to understand that people will occasionally be angry or unsatisfied, and that such dissatisfaction is within the realm of real life. We still have people storm out of the emergency department, prattling on about lawyers and lawsuits, promising to go to another hospital in ...
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Are hospitals victims of hospitalists' success?
Interesting observation from cardiologist Dr. Wes, writing in Better Health. He notes that hospitalist services are so busy that they are limited in the number of patients they see. That's similar to the caps many medicine programs have on their residents.
Who, then, takes care of the patient?
It won't be the primary care doctor, who has divorced himself from inpatient care (besides, as ...
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I just finished rotating at a community hospital where one of the most interesting things I’ve enjoyed is stopping by the Doctor’s Lounge. I can always count on a getting coffee there and hearing some good conversation – doctors asking for input on interesting cases, laughing, sharing stories, both personal and professional, and catching up on each other’s busy lives. In fact, I ran into an old friend of mine ...
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A recent editorial in the Boston Globe addressed the dearth of primary care physicians. The piece concluded: “Federal funding for new residency slots should follow reforms that address the underlying reasons - principally money - that lead doctors to choose to specialize.”
Money is certainly important. But there is another obstacle to attracting primary care doctors that is more subtle, though perhaps equally important. Consider the following story.
Recently I had ...
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Every now and then, I read and enjoy a book, but only later fully appreciate it as its lessons and insights slowly become apparent. Judging by the number of times I’ve said, “That reminds me of Gawande’s observations about ___” over the past month, The Checklist Manifesto is one such book.
In this short, deceptively simple volume, Atul (who I count as both friend and inspiration) discusses the history ...
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Originally published in MedPage Today
by John Gever, MedPage Today Senior Editor
Tube-feeding patients with advanced dementia -- a practice whose effectiveness has been questioned by two widely cited literature reviews -- is most common in larger hospitals and those run for profit, researchers said.
The odds of a feeding-tube insertion in a hospitalized patient with advanced dementia were about 50% greater ...
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The ER is the portal of entry to our hospitals now, for better and for worse.
On the plus side, this means that most patients being admitted to general medical and surgical services have a workup at least started and are triaged appropriately to their destination.
A good ER evaluation should answer the following questions:
1. What’s the nature of the illness?
Are we dealing with the heart, the brain, or an abdominal organ? ...
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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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