“We use a punishment mindset that exacerbates the trauma (people have already suffered). We have to change that.” – Bryan Stevenson, Director of the Equal Justice Initiative In the months preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, our quality …
Category: Hospital-Based Medicine
There is no cure for your disease
I shall translate. This is her big day! She is meeting with her specialist for the first time, excited to finally hear that she will be cured from her annoying disease. I am there to interpret back and forth between her and her doctor to eliminate the …
The merry-go-round of rounding
You start off your morning by receiving the patient handoff, then you “pre-round” on the EHR (furiously scribbling down information), then you physically pre-round on patients (or at least the “sick” ones), then you move onto so…
A hospitalist’s struggle to find teamwork in academic medicine
After a couple of hours of back and forth, I can finally complete an oxygen assessment on a patient ready to be discharged home. The conversation had concluded on a somewhat sarcastic note. I was left feeling guilty of having almost coerced someone to …
Leading an organizational culture change? Consider an apology first.
Leading an organization from a culture of bullying or blaming to a culture of safety is a daunting initiative. Unhealthy alignments are deeply embedded in toxic cultures, and informal power dynamics may influence how people behave. Instead of respectfu…
Habits of highly effective interns [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! “The clocks have flash forwarded, and here I am supervising incoming interns on the 1st of July (which for the past two years has fallen on a weekend). As a frenetic day has finally c…
On my hard days, my patients are my heroes
I was standing outside the patient room, feeling slightly restless that day. A few days ago, I had just received some news from my doctor that I was not expecting. My mind sifted through the various possibilities and directions this could take me. When…
How AI-based technology can help improve hospital capacity management [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! “Health system leaders can master this ‘chess game’ by anticipating the next several moves well in advance with the assistance of AI-based predictive analytic tools. This …
We need to talk about the bullying in health care
As we continue our third year of the pandemic, there have been reports of hostile treatment directed at public health officials and medical personnel. This is escalating a crisis of burnout among health professionals, but there is an insidious, chronic…
What hospitals can learn from the RaDonda Vaught case
In response to a medication administration error that led to the death of a 75-year-old patient, RaDonda Vaught, a registered nurse working in Tennessee, was recently found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and gross negligence of an impaired adu…
