Thanks for all the support on my last post. It’s striking how sometimes pointing out the obvious gets a lot of attention. I have a quick follow-up post. The purpose is to show you a real-life and current example of how medical hubris might have killed thousands of patients. My friend and colleague, Dr. Wes […]
Category: Health Care Reform
Look at this sample question from the American College of Cardiology self-assessment. Tell me whether you see the problem. (It came in a mass advertisement-email, so I don’t think it is a secret.) Sample Question A 75-year-old woman is referred to you with a murmur. She has had the murmur for many years and has […]
Patient safety and hospital quality is a scary topic. I’ll go easy. I’m just a doctor. I don’t know much. Entire departments, filled with cubicles, computers and well-meaning people, now exist to keep hospitals tightly regulated and running perfectly. There is data to analyze, regulations to read, and oh so many meetings to attend. This […]
When an employee leaves a position, management might conduct an exit interview. The idea is obvious: one can learn a lot from those who are free to speak candidly. This is why I think it’s worth listening to doctors who no longer practice medicine. Enter Dr. Ed Marsh, a former pediatrician, who writes this poignant […]
My hospital has just weathered an impressive upswing in patient volume. The house was full for weeks. The experience highlights an important aspect about quality care–an obvious one that doesn’t always make headlines. What I notice when the hospital gets full is that patients are sent to units that they don’t normally go to. For […]
Categories
A good idea gone bad…
If it weren’t so important, I’d let it go. You know how I feel about inflammation. There is a great farce in the healthcare world that needs more exposure. It’s a terrible problem because it gets in the way of me taking care of you. It inhibits humanism in the practice of Medicine. It inflames […]
I tweeted yesterday that the US healthcare delivery system remains broken. With only 140 characters, there was little means to expand. Let me tell you a story and then you be the judge. The patient was elderly and had multiple chronic medical problems, including the chief complaint of debilitating orthopedic issues. I was asked to […]
The first order of business today is to point you to an updated version of yesterday’s guest post. Dr Schloss, the thinker that he is, emailed me an eighth tip for survival in the new healthcare climate. Don’t be surprised if this list grows. It’s worth quoting: 8. Take Refuge with your Patients: Even on […]
It is with great pleasure that I offer the following guest post from Edward J. Schloss, MD, (Twitter ID @EJSMD) the medical director of cardiac electrophysiology at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, OH. One of the many rewards of writing a blog is making friends. Jay Schloss started as a ‘social media’ friend but now that […]
Before I start, let’s do a disclaimer: I, myself, John Mandrola, having practiced for nearly 16 years, and having saved and lived frugally, am going to be okay. In the game of medical practice, I am in the sixth or seventh inning. I’m almost done. I write such healthcare essays then, not so much because […]
Healthcare looks much different than it did just a few years ago. When you let your mind wander about where we were, it’s shocking really. There’s cultural changes, including an explosion of complexity of care, an infusion of young doctors with different ideas about life, an evolving set of incentives, employment models and a heck […]