I am old enough to remember when physicians did not advertise. It was considered a professional ethical issue. Hospital advertising consisted of institutional “We’re here” ads. Anything aggressive by docs or hospitals was considered bad taste… but that was before health care became as competitive as any other type of business.
I have been barraged, as have many of you, by a wave of hospital advertisements as our health care marketplaces ...
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Ensuring that Americans who live in rural areas have access to healthcare has always been a policy priority. In healthcare, where nearly every policy decision seems contentious and partisan, there has been widespread, bipartisan support for helping providers who work in rural areas. The hallmark of the policy effort has been the Critical Access Hospital (CAH) program– and new evidence from our latest paper in the Journal of the ...
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Hospitals can save you, but they can also harm you. So how can you stay safe in hospitals? Follow these 12 life-saving tips:
1. Never go alone. Always bring someone else—a trusted family member or friend—with you. That person will be your primary advocate, and can serve as an extra set of eyes and ears to help make sure you are safe. (This tip applies to routine doctors’ appointments too; always ...
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My son has been accepted into medical school, we learned last week, and I must say I’m about as happy a mother and a physician as you could find anywhere. For everything that’s wrong with the American healthcare system today, medicine is a wonderful profession and it’s still the greatest honor in the world for a patient to have faith in your skills and care.
It will be interesting to see ...
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In 2010, a surgical scrub technician named Kristen Parker was sentenced to thirty years in federal prison after allegedly diverting fentanyl from operating rooms, injecting herself with the powerful intravenous narcotic, refilling the contaminated syringes with saline, and replacing them to be used on patients. She was infected with hepatitis C, and her drug diversions infected over two dozen patients in the Denver area.
In 2012, David Kwiatkowski, also positive for ...
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As part of the health reform movement, hospitals that meet various quality measures, like reduced readmission rates or improved patient satisfaction measures, get financially rewarded. Those that don’t will be penalized.
How’s it going so far?
Well, it appears that safety net hospitals that can least afford a financial hit are getting dinged, while doctor-owned hospitals are getting rewarded.
Oops.
According to Kaiser Health ...
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First a disclaimer: People often receive compassionate, considerate and effective care at hospitals. They have countless interactions which impart the miracle of human caring and enrich their lives. It is also institutionally prevalent to have haphazard care with poor communication, near misses and avoidable misery.
I have been working at a university hospital emergency room as part of a mini-fellowship in bedside ultrasound. It is the first time I have spent ...
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Just three words, a short phrase, heard from an ICU nurse that changed my friend’s well-being as she lay in an ICU bed. In fact, it is the only phrase my friend remembers from her entire hospital stay after having brain surgery to remove a tumor.
She was experiencing nausea, a sick feeling, and needing and wanting care, direction, and guidance from hospital staff. And three powerful words spoken from a ...
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The metaphor we use, almost universally, to describe the experience of illness is that of warfare. Someone diagnosed with cancer is said to be “battling” cancer (as if the diagnosis itself implies a fight). Family members often say that their hospitalized loved one is a “fighter” who “will never give up” or surrender. Doctors refer to the most potent antibiotics as “big guns” that are prescribed to “kill the bugs” ...
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Being a clinical student is not a walk in the park. When we get together for “Reflections on Clerkship” days every two months in our small groups, students let the floodgates open about the hardships they have been facing on rotations. I am no exception. Transitioning to a strict schedule in the hierarchical world of academic medicine has been no small feat. In fact I was planning earlier this morning ...
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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