An essay posted by Fareeha Kahn, MD (“A hospitalist’s struggle to find teamwork in academic medicine“), raises an important issue. The problem of lack of collaboration is not unique to academic medicine. The problem is the result of m…
Category: Hospital-Based Medicine
Why we should end gendered titles
The question of addressing physicians by name has been addressed again. Yet the question about names has not been addressed. Before addressing the name question, I will talk about how I have evolved with time. In India, I have been used to formally add…
Leaving The House of God
To paraphrase Fat Man’s Law Number Three, “At a code, the first pulse you take is your own.” Enduring advice, as true today as it was in the early ’70s when Roy G. Basch, MD, and his gang of hapless interns roamed the airless wa…
Institutional betrayal vs. courage
The pandemic has brutalized health care such that the term “institutional betrayal” (IB) is becoming part of the physician vernacular. This cringe-worthy term is being used to point a finger of shame at health care leaders and systems who p…
Caregiver? Learn how to support older relatives at doctor’s appointments.
As a caregiver or support person for an older parent, partner, or relative, you may be involved in helping that person with medical appointments, perhaps even helping them manage care from several different health care providers. There are a number of …
Breaking the cycle of violence in hospitals: the role of trauma-informed care
“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 …
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…
