Karen S. Sibert is an anesthesiologist who blogs at A Penned Point.
New York Post reporter Susan Edelman revealed the name of the unfortunate anesthesiologist allegedly present on August 28 at Yorkville Endoscopy, during the throat procedure that led to the death of comedian Joan Rivers. She is reported to be Renuka Reddy Bankulla, MD, 47, a board-certified anesthesiologist from New Rochelle, NY.
Having her name made public will be a nightmare for Dr. Bankulla, as …
No one wants a hospital-acquired infection — a wound infection, a central line infection, or any other kind. But today, the level of concern in American hospitals about infection rates has reached a new peak — better termed paranoia than legitimate concern.
The fear of infection is leading to the arbitrary institution of brand new rules. These aren’t based on scientific research involving controlled studies. As far as I can tell, …
“I’m here to say ‘Yes, they can,’ which is different from ‘Yes, they always do,’” says James Moore, MD, president-elect of the California Society of Anesthesiologists (CSA).
To the contrary, enthusiasm for electronic medical records (EHRs) is part of a “syndrome of inappropriate overconfidence in computing,” argues Christine Doyle, MD, the CSA’s Speaker of the House.
The two physician anesthesiologists (and self-identified “computer …
The ear, nose and throat specialist who treated comedian Joan Rivers on August 28 has been identified as Dr. Gwen Korovin, a prominent New York physician who is known as a voice doctor to many entertainers and Broadway stars including Hugh Jackman and Julie Andrews.
With a physician who is an expert in airway anatomy at her side, and all the technologic advantages …
There are minor operations and procedures, but there are no minor anesthetics. This could turn out to be the one lesson learned from the ongoing investigation into the death of comedian Joan Rivers.
Ms. Rivers’ funeral was held on September 7. Like so many of her fans, I appreciated her quick wit as she entertained us for decades, poking fun at herself and …
Dr. Sandeep Jauhar, a cardiologist, believes with good reason that many physicians have become “like everybody else: insecure, discontented and anxious about the future.” In a recent, widely-circulated column in the Wall Street Journal, “Why Doctors Are Sick of Their Profession,” he explains how medicine has become simply a job, not a calling, for many physicians; how their pay has …
There’s no mystery about why the July 23 execution of Joseph Wood in Arizona took so long. From the anesthesiologist’s point of view, it doesn’t seem surprising that the combination of drugs used — midazolam and hydromorphone — might take nearly two hours to cause death.
Here’s why.
The convicted murderer didn’t receive one component of the usual mixture of drugs used in lethal injection: a muscle relaxant. The traditional cocktail includes …
Here’s a doctor’s health tip for patients that I’ll bet you haven’t heard before.
If you’re a patient who walks into a hospital for an elective procedure of any kind — surgery, or a diagnostic test — and you find out that Joint Commission reviewers are on site, reschedule your procedure and leave. Come back another day, after the reviewers have left.
Why? …
The Institute of Medicine in 2010 famously recommended that nurses should be encouraged to practice “to the full extent of their education and training.” Often, you’ll hear people advocate that every health care worker should “practice at the top of their license.” What this concept is supposed to mean, I think, is that anyone with clinical skills should use them effectively and not …
I give what could be lethal injections for a living.
That’s right. Nearly every day I give someone an injection of midazolam, vecuronium, and an IV solution containing potassium chloride–the three drugs in the “cocktail” that was supposed to kill convicted murderer Clayton Lockett quickly and humanely in Oklahoma.
Here’s the difference between an executioner and me. I use those medications as they are intended to be used, giving anesthesia to my …
Nobody stands up to argue against quality and value in health care. You might as well argue against motherhood, or puppies. Yet many physicians are inherently skeptical of definitions of “quality” that are imposed from above, whether by outside evaluators like The Joint Commission, or (worse) by the government.
There’s good reason for skepticism. Some of the “evidence” behind “evidence-based medicine” has turned out to be flawed, tainted by financial conflict …
The creatures cause pain by being born, and live by inflicting pain, and in pain they mostly die.
–C. S. Lewis
The problem of pain, from the viewpoint of British novelist and theologian C. S. Lewis, is how to reconcile the reality of suffering with belief in a just and benevolent God.
The American physician’s problem with pain is less cosmic and more concrete. For physicians today in nearly every specialty, the problem …
We hold these truths to be self-evident:
A hospital administrator with a clipboard is in search of a physician who isn’t following “evidence-based guidelines.”
There are fads in medicine just as there are in fashion — today’s ”evidence-based guidelines” may be tomorrow’s malpractice.
Did your hospital, like so many, abruptly switch from povidone-iodine antiseptic solution to ChloraPrep® for cleaning a patient’s skin before surgery? If so, I’m sure the staff was told that ChloraPrep would …
We guard the privacy of patients in my hospital zealously — we take care of a lot of celebrities since we’re right in the shadow of Beverly Hills. And of course we live in terror of HIPAA violations, those federally mandated HHS rules that protect individually identifiable health care information and could bring down “civil money penalties” upon us if we don’t keep our patients’ medical records strictly confidential.
But for …
A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
When you need anesthesia for surgery or a diagnostic procedure, of course you want to know who’ll be giving you anesthesia. If you live in Texas, Florida, the District of Columbia, or 14 other states, you may be lucky enough to have an anesthesia team taking …
We were startled to learn recently that Sheridan Healthcare Inc., a physician services company based in Florida, has bought one of the largest private anesthesiology group practices in California, the Medical Anesthesia Consultants Medical Group Inc. (MAC) of San Ramon.
The deal, which closed November 14, is Sheridan’s first in California, and “provides a platform that will accelerate our expansion in the California …
The latest salvo in the federal government’s war on physicians comes to us courtesy of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), which is proposing drastic policy changes to expand nursing scope of practice in all veterans’ hospitals.
A new draft VHA Nursing Handbook would eradicate all existing VHA policies concerning physician supervision, and would designate all advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), including nurse anesthetists, as licensed independent practitioners (LIPs). This means that …
A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists.
Not so many years ago, surgeons wouldn’t operate on patients they considered too old to tolerate the stress of anesthesia and surgery. Today, however, patients of every age — from Baby Boomers to the Greatest Generation — undergo anesthesia safely for surgery and diagnostic procedures.
Realistically, even if you believe …
We’ve run amok with wearing gloves in the hospital. And by “we” I mean every healthcare worker in sight. I see people putting on gloves before they’ll give a patient a clean warm blanket. This is not only ridiculous, it’s actually harmful. Here’s why.
We learned the hard way in the 1980s, during the early days of the AIDS epidemic, that the …
To the literal-minded, burning out is the fate of light bulbs and matches. But whether you read the popular press or medical journals today, you’re likely to find writers who are deeply concerned about physician burnout.
What defines physician burnout, and who exactly is suffering from it? Is burnout an actual clinical syndrome, a slang term connoting fatigue and boredom, or a hazy …
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