I am writing to vehemently argue against out-of-office infusions for my patients. There are many general reasons for this, which I will enumerate. There are also often patient-specific reasons, such as frailty, chronic noncompliance with recommendations (which do not reach the level of a psychiatric issue but which make offsite infusions less safe), and patient-perceived intolerance of infusions (even if we see no objective signs of a reaction). While these …
Read more…
Burnout. We define, measure, and talk about it endlessly but do little to fix it. Unchecked, it can lead to medical mistakes, career dissatisfaction, early retirement, provider suicide, and excess costs. With the recent pandemic, the public has become more aware of it, but action to fix it is still lagging.
Feeling underappreciated, feeling one’s work is meaningless, feeling powerless to make changes, and feelings of moral injury are but a …
Read more…
I recently had the opportunity to be the informal medical navigator for a friend with an acute psychiatric crisis. This previously “normal” friend lives alone, is a high-functioning professional and was unable to sleep, to eat, to finish a coherent thought or to carry on his business for several weeks.
I was called to help after an embarrassing public meltdown. The first problem was finding a doctor who would deal with …
Read more…