Category: Policy

Physicians should never leave the lane of gun violence

Anyone following the debate around gun regulation knows it is a hotly charged issue. On November 7th, doctors got dragged front and center after the NRA issued the statement: “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane. H…

Gun control is our lane: Physician opinions on guns matter

We’re very fortunate in anesthesiology. We’re seldom the physicians who have to face families with the terrible news that a patient has died from a gunshot wound. But all too often we’re right there in the operating room for the frantic attempts to rep…

A call for accountability in health care

In Dr. Suneel Dhand’s article, “We can do a better job with hospital discharge paperwork,” he advocates for physicians to do a better job at creating discharge instructions that are more appealing and easier for patients to understand. After all, coher…

The many benefits of strengthening the primary care workforce

The United States spends more on health care per capita than any other country in the world — yet health outcomes continue to fall short. In order to close the spending gap with other countries, United States health care policy must focus on reducing c…

What administrators don’t understand about urgent care centers

Several years ago, a group of us concerned about health care costs and outcomes met with some local HR benefit managers. One was the head HR person of a city. In part of the conversation, she raved about a local chain of urgent care centers. She loved …

It is time for stewardship of our health insurance system

The bloated nature of health insurance in the United States has been a much-discussed topic in recent years. Particularly with the advent of the Affordable Health Care Act as well in response to physicians’ frustrations and increasing burnout from deal…

How to deal with politics in the workplace

This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com. Daily headlines in newspapers and on websites across the nation and around the Internet seem to inspire and anger, and it’s only natural that politics is a topic on everyone’s mind. We&#8…

The conservative appeal of Medicare for all

Everyone thinks of “Medicare for all” as a liberal idea, an extremely liberal one embraced by the socialist wing of the Democratic Party. It’s an idea Democrats were hesitant to embrace in the Obama era, for being too far out of mains…

Help hospitalized patients vote by requesting emergency ballots

Two years ago, when I was still in residency I happened to be on overnight call the day prior to election day. An associate program director of my residency program asked me if I wouldn’t mind being a doctor of record who evaluates whether I agre…

It’s time we start voting at our local hospitals

Early voting began recently in Texas with unprecedented excitement, as a record 15 million registered voters made their way to the polls. Reports say polls are looking more like Black Friday shopping lines than early voting locations. Although we canno…