Patients are in charge of their own health care ship
One of the latest trends in health care is “patient choice,” meaning the patient is in charge of their own care. Our job as a physician is to educate patients about the diagnosis, discuss the various...
View ArticleGet disruptive: 8 ways doctors create change at work
“If you do not cooperate, doctor, we will have no choice but to label you as being ‘disruptive’ and take whatever steps are necessary to remedy the situation.” What physician does not dread hearing...
View ArticleThis physician gives Trump some health care advice
Dear President-elect Trump, You have stated that one of the first things you will do in office is to overturn Obamacare. You state that you will keep coverage for pre-existing conditions and children...
View ArticleI’m retired, but I’m disgusted with medical schools. Here’s why.
The year was 1976. I was graduating from a small branch of my state university with a bachelor’s in chemistry when I first applied to medical school. I was living at home and paying my own tuition....
View ArticleThe legal system must change to protect doctors
Anyone watching daytime or late-night cable TV has to notice that every third commercial is for a toxic tort. As my wife had breast cancer, one, in particular, caught my eye. In it, the claim was made...
View ArticleWill we solve health care by blaming doctors?
I started my career in the late 1980s and retired just recently. I am very grateful that I caught at least a few years of the “golden age” of medicine because those years made all the difference. Over...
View ArticleAre you now, or have you ever been, a bad doctor?
While I was in full-time practice, as far as I can tell, I received one bad anonymously written online patient review. It was on one of the numerous sites that exist but allows written reviews. The...
View ArticleFor doctors, treating pain is a pain
Sometime during my medical training in the early 1980s, a wise, old attending orthopedist taught me this about pain management: “Pain is a message that something is wrong, a red flag that corrective...
View ArticleThink you can do anything you set your mind to? Think again.
During my salad days, I — like a lot of physicians — thought I could take on the world. Despite working in a smaller, community hospital, our ER saw a lot of the same type of orthopedic trauma I saw...
View Article9 reasons the “golden age of medicine” was golden
To listen to all those desperate to reform health care, you get the impression that physicians are pretty horrible people. We are all sexist, greedy, money grubbing tyrants who will perform unnecessary...
View Article9 reasons you shouldn’t expect health care to change
Although I am now working part time, I still get my academy’s monthly newsletter. I pretty much ignore the ads and any clinical studies that do not directly affect the work I am doing now, but I still...
View ArticleIf health care is a right, so should having legal insurance
The main justification for single payer seems to be that access to affordable quality health care is a right. Nowhere in our constitution does it say that anyone has a “right” to individual services or...
View ArticleIs assembly line surgery better for the patient?
A friend of mine recently underwent a total knee replacement. Although he did well and was pain-free, he did say that he felt he was on an assembly line. I asked him what he meant. As he was talking, I...
View ArticleDoes the medical profession need their version of the NRA?
Years ago, our government had a problem with health care. Medicare and other health care costs were spiraling out of control. It was clear that the problem was rapidly advancing technology and pressure...
View ArticleDoctors: It’s time to unionize
Whether by design or by necessity, it appears that single payer is inevitable. Economic reality demands it. Some external force needs to be applied to counter the cost of rapidly expanding medical...
View ArticleStructured settlements are ruining patients’ lives
There are a lot of TV commercials for structured settlement companies these days. You know, the companies that say if you are cash-strapped but have a structured settlement they will be happy to buy...
View ArticleA patient accused this doctor of sexual harassment
It was a typical weekend on call. The usual number of surgeries, ER calls and consults. I was called to consult on 47-year-old female who had been admitted with four days of left shoulder pain. She had...
View ArticleThis doctor stopped prescribing opioids. Other physicians should do the same.
Have you ever had a prescription altered? I have, several times — all opioids. Despite making copies of every prescription to prove what I actually wrote for, dealing with everything from patients who...
View ArticleHospital bylaws saved this doctor from EMR burnout
Physicians do not have a lot of power these days. But if you know when, where and how to look, we can, on occasion, score some victories. Case in point: hospital bylaws that every physician is required...
View ArticleThe consequences of taking patients at their word
A recent stir was created regarding a California pediatrician Dr. Bob Sears. Dr. Sears is sympathetic to parents who do not want their children vaccinated. Apparently, Dr. Sears got in trouble with the...
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