Practice Management

5 things physicians can do to protect themselves

Physician
October 1, 2017

As someone who talks to many physicians about burnout and life in medicine, I find myself having a lot of discussions about the circumstances of people’s jobs. Almost inevitably, there comes a point in the conversation where someone expresses dissatisfaction about an aspect of their contract or an additional responsibility that was placed on them.

As physicians, we’re groomed to take care of patients. During training, we don’t talk about compensation, …

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10 things a doctor’s spouse wants you to know

Physician
September 29, 2017

1. This is a calling. Physicians do not typically start out undeclared, drink through a couple of semesters and randomly apply to med school. For many, they started dreaming in grade school. They started pushing themselves for straight A’s in third grade, fought for valedictorian, turned down frat party invites to study, and then essentially gave up four years of their lives to med school incurring an average debt of …

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Want to stay in shape during residency? Here’s how.

Physician
September 28, 2017

How many times have you heard resident physicians say that they do not have time to exercise and get in shape? When looking at the numbers, it’s hard to blame them. An 80-hour work week is enough to make anyone realize that time is a precious commodity.

Take away six-to-eight hours for sleep each day, plus a couple of hours for eating, showering and studying, and you are left with approximately …

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Physicians and magicians are not as different as you think

Physician
September 27, 2017

We all know what, in 1888, Rudyard Kipling pronounced to be the world’s oldest profession. But what’s the world’s second oldest? Hunter-gatherer? Nah, everybody did that. Primitive politician? That’s a tautology. Neolithic attorney? Nope. Too similar to the oldest.

I strongly suspect that the second oldest profession was healer/magician. Fire up Mr. Peabody’s Wayback time machine, and you’d probably find that the first healers were regarded as magicians, and the first …

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It’s time to ban productivity from medicine

Policy
September 25, 2017

According to Wikipedia, “Productivity describes various measures of the efficiency of production. A productivity measure is expressed as the ratio of output to inputs used in a production process, i.e., output per unit of input. Productivity is a crucial factor in production performance of firms and nations.”

Please tell me how this relates to being a physician or a patient.  We do not produce anything.  Rather we work with individuals to …

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For women physicians, is there a connection between productivity and burnout?

Physician
September 16, 2017

Is the practice of medicine a different experience for male and female physicians? Two recent studies from athenahealth suggest that it is — in ways that should make us rethink what we value in health care.

The first study found that male physicians are more productive than their female counterparts. In an analysis of 47 million visits on the athenahealth network in 2016, male physicians generated 30 to 40 percent more …

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The surprising sleeping arrangements of an emergency physician

Physician
September 15, 2017

I used to practice locums medicine; which for the lay person means traveling to different jobs, sometimes several states at a time.   During that time I stayed in a lot of hotels.  But, occasionally, I had more unique accomodations.  Obviously, if you travel enough, you’ll sleep in an airport here and there. No big deal.  I actually like sleeping in airports occasionally.  When you’re stuck, you’re stuck.  Weather or …

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Take back our practices with physician cooperatives

Physician
September 14, 2017

One of the biggest points of contention in the ongoing discussion of burnout is that the system of health care is flawed.  The endless bureaucracy, decreasing physician pay, and increasing meaningful use requirements that spawn endless clicking on an already inefficient electronic medical record platform have become unbearable by most practicing physicians today.

Furthermore, all the talk about mindfulness only riles up more anger in physicians as they feel they are …

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5 keys to a successful long-distance relationship during medical school

Education
August 31, 2017

When my husband Brian started first-year of medical school at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, I jettisoned off to Thailand to spend a year teaching English and traveling.  We figured if we were going to date long-distance, why not go all in? Why not ensure that we were a full 12 hours apart, on literal opposite sides of the world. What can I say? We like a …

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Help me help doctors in recovery

Physician
August 24, 2017

Approximately 12 years ago, I hired my first physician in recovery. He had temporarily lost his license following a bout with alcohol. After a stint in a rehabilitation clinic, he was ultimately reinstated. My journey to hire this physician was arduous at best. During the interviewing process, I narrowed the field down to two candidates: one with a past and one without. I wrestled with the “in recovery” situation and …

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Stop the patient leakage in primary care practices

Physician
August 24, 2017

Yesterday, we had a meeting about leakage.

No, it was not about urinary or fecal incontinence, but it was about care that could have been provided within our institution that ended up, for a multitude of reasons, happening with providers beyond the walls of our institution.

Representatives from our accountable care organization had requested a meeting to go over some issues they’ve been having with our practice, including low levels of usage …

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This doctor sings to her patients. And the results are beautiful.

Physician
August 22, 2017

I am an interventional pain physician. I spend most of my days doing spine injections with a fair amount of kyphoplasties and spinal cord stimulators thrown in as well. It seems to me that these are minor procedures that shouldn’t evoke anxiety in patients, but they do. Patients get nervous. They get anxious.

I am also a singer. I had the privilege of being classically trained through my college years. Like …

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CME Spotlights