For an introduction to SPR, read this overview. Additionally, you can explore the history of SPR.
When summoned for a peer review, how can you tell if it’s a sham? The biggest clue is whether the peer review process seems intended to help or harm you. If you feel sincerely supported by colleagues and the peer review proceedings are uniformly applied throughout your practice, you have less cause for …
Hospital readmissions continue to be frequent despite their negative impact on health outcomes and financial strain on the health care system overall. On average, 14.56 percent of patients across the nation who have been discharged from a hospital, whether to a post-acute care facility or a home, will be readmitted for unforeseen circumstances. Readmissions can be triggered for various reasons and may be inevitable, yet some could be easily …
An excerpt from Healing Healthcare: Evidence-Based Strategies to Mend Our Broken System.
The greatest challenge facing our professional workforce today is creating a healthy work environment in which nurses care for patients. A significant characteristic of a healthy work environment is appropriate staffing. Nurse staffing is a multifaceted issue, and it is extremely difficult to objectively advocate for change. Different members of the health care team have different concepts of …
When patients go to the hospital seeking help, they are vulnerable and fully trusting of the modern hospital system to do only what is needed and nothing more. And with good reason—patients are well aware of the incredible sacrifices doctors have made, including the oath to do no harm, and their passion to save lives. What is less known by patients is the fee-for-service model of health care that awaits …
It was recently circulated on social media that flamingos are known to lose their bright pink hue in times of adversity, such as when raising their young. This is due to the tremendous energy it takes to nourish their young flaminglets, often at the sake of their own wellbeing. Similarly, women lose their metaphorical bright “pink” during …
“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that count.”
– Winston Churchill
In this vast world of hopes and dreams, few would shine as brightly as the dream of becoming a physician and saving lives. Each year, amidst tough competition, millions of young, eager minds compete for the limited spots in medical schools in their respective countries. After this first stepping stone, they continue to …
A formal clinical track should allow experienced hospitalists to function as inpatient subspecialists: a so-called “focused practice in inpatient subspecialty.” This proposal makes sense on multiple levels.
First, there is a shortage of inpatient subspecialists, particularly in small community settings. Hospitalists, qualified and certified as inpatient subspecialists, could fill this gap.
Second, the practice of hospital medicine is an ideal launching pad for a focused practice in an inpatient subspecialty. Hospitalists are …
Terminology has changed over the years.
When I was in training (1996-2000), we were called physicians. Nurses were called nurses. Nurse practitioners (NPs) were called nurse practitioners. Physician assistants (PAs) were called physician assistants. Patient care assistants (PCAs) were called patient care assistants. And the suits were just that … the suits. They kept the lights on and the doors open. They didn’t provide any direct …
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Join us for an insightful discussion with Moksha Patel, an internal medicine physician, as we explore the fascinating parallels between clinical reasoning and photography. Moksha shares how principles like focus, zoom, and flash …
An excerpt from NERVE: Surviving Medical Madness.
“There are moments which mark your life. Moments when you realize nothing will ever be the same and time is divided into two parts, before this and after this.”
— N. Kazan
It was a peaceful, uneventful drive—until it wasn’t. My husband and I flipped to the local news radio station and heard them discussing an extreme weather event just as we looked straight ahead …
Labor shortages have become a pressing concern across the health care sector, with the nurse staffing crisis looming large over hospitals and health systems nationwide.
A report from the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission illuminated the severity of the workforce challenges, revealing a doubling of vacancy rates for registered nurses in the state’s hospitals from 2019 to 2022. Despite concerted efforts, the problem persists, with health systems still resorting to costly pandemic …
The U.S. infant mortality rate, children who die under one year of age, rose to its highest rate in two decades in 2022, up about 3 percent to 5.6 infant deaths per 1,000 live births.
At the same time, the nation’s neonatal mortality rate, infants who die in less than 28 days, increased by 3 percent from 3.49 to 3.58, and the post-neonatal mortality rate, infants who die between 28 days …
I would not recognize her if she crossed before me on the street. I could not pick her out in a staff photo of her and her colleagues. I do not know the color of her hair or skin; I could not even guess if she is short or tall. But her voice—I know her voice. I could recognize that voice anywhere.
I first met Julie sometime before the COVID pandemic, …
The reward for good work is always more work. The employer becomes dependent on the quality of work that you do because he knows that you, as a person, are a workaholic and perfectionist. You put your heart and soul into everything you do. No other employers can do the kind of work that you do. But don’t ever think that you would be appreciated for your hard work. You …
I found myself compelled into the complex world of health care advocacy under extraordinary circumstances last year when I went to my university administration to request a table to do a free speech petition because of a personal and troubling experience. My mother, a respected pediatric intensive care doctor, had been abruptly terminated from her workplace after she raised concerns about patient safety.
Throughout my studies as an undergraduate, I frequently …
Patients come into the emergency department (ED) with symptoms, not diagnoses. That’s when time is of the essence. Clinicians must quickly triage patients and establish an appropriate care pathway to obtain the best possible outcome. Most patients entering the ED are time-sensitive, requiring clear protocols for care. However, even some of the deadliest conditions still lack the necessary data, tools, and standards to quickly diagnose and effectively treat patients.
Over the …
Nearly three decades ago, David Hilfiker, a family medicine physician in rural Minnesota, authored an essay in the New England Journal of Medicine titled “Facing our mistakes.” In the piece, he chronicles three major medical mistakes he made during his long career practicing medicine. Some of the mistakes are horrifying and others simply tragic, but he is brutally honest and forthcoming—displaying a frank self-reflection that is too frequently absent …
A little anecdote
The year was 2022, and it marked the first month of my initial rotation at one of the largest tertiary care hospitals in Punjab, Pakistan. After having assisted with several procedures in the ENT operating room one morning, I found myself on call for the next 18 hours in the emergency department as the new intern.
As soon as the shift changed, a young boy landed in the ED …
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