My blog represents my personal experiences and perspectives. This includes many anecdotes from my medical practice. I have been scrupulous to anonymize these anecdotes and to avoid ever belittling or making fun of patients. (I often make fun of and criticize myself, my colleagues, and the institutions where I have worked.)
Chart review is one of my occasional clinical responsibilities. The charts I see overwhelmingly document good quality medical care. Last week I saw a chart that gave me pause.
You can’t make this stuff up. I pulled into our local BJ’s gas station on a recent rainy morning. It was quite busy and I looked around for the shortest line to join, Seeing a woman in her early 20s who appeared to be finished fueling as she re-holstered the nozzle in the pump and returned to her car, I pulled in behind her, expecting to promptly be able to pull up and buy gas. A car pulled in behind me, so I was now committed.
A friend recently explained why he retired from a long and rewarding career in medicine and medical education, despite still loving his one-on-one interactions with patients.
Words of wisdom for those who wish to innovate.
Workplace wellness and chronic disease management programs (now encouraged by the ACA) are quite common, but being a $6 billion dollar industry doesn't make them useful. Recent personal experience with one such program has led me to look more closely at the topic.
Was the surgeon a princess, complaining about a pea under her mattress? Or am I a sheeple, accepting a woefully inadequate system? What do you think?
Why does the ‘chief complaint’ make me think about pancakes and fig newtons? The chief complaint may just be an admission ticket.
Patient satisfaction has become a prominent goal in health care. Is this a good thing?
Life is stranger than fiction. There is an entity known as the ‘ice-pick headache’ but this was different.
I am often asked by friends and colleagues why I did not become a pediatrician.