“Thanks baby, I mean doctor … Doctor baby …” he finished uncertainly. I washed my hands, gave him a quick nod, and walked out of the emergency department exam room with my smirking attending following behind me. Speaking to a group of my female c…
Category: KevinMD
Lawmakers should stop trash-talking health care professionals
Washington state Sen. Maureen Walsh (R-Walla Walla) became a national headline for alleging that “[nurses] probably play cards for a considerable amount of the day” during debate on legislation mandating break periods. Many nurses have mailed dec…
How non-video telehealth can be a cure for overprescribing antibiotics
When Dr. Fleming found penicillin mold in his Petri dishes in 1928, he had no idea of the impact he — and it — would have on global health. Penicillin and the antibiotic revolution that it triggered have saved countless lives and change world history. …
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Narrative medicine: I have heard of that, but what is it? I often get asked this question. As a master’s student of narrative medicine, I am still trying to hone in on the best response to that question. For many, narrative medicine (NM) is not a…
Our broken health system is your fault
“I don’t know what happened” is probably one of the most common phrases any parent hears. Last weekend, while wrapping my son’s bleeding head in gauze from our first aid kit, this was the best explanation my daughter could muster as to why her two-year…
Fee for service is not the root of all evil
Some people think that the solution to better-supported primary care is in direct primary care/salaried physician payment models. I don’t think it is the best answer. I realize money is not the only motivator explaining why people perform work. Meaning…
You are the average of the 5 physicians you spend the most time with
”You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” You may have heard this quote, from famous motivational speaker Jim Rohn, many times before. Taken at face value, the quote relates to how we are influenced. But it’s also a sentime…
Electronic medical record interoperability is a total mess
Just the other day, while I was in the middle of seeing a morning schedule full of patients, I opened one patient’s chart and was thrilled to see a whole bunch of new icons in Chart Review in the electronic health record that I had never seen bef…
The benefits of compassion always outweigh its risks
It was an ordinary afternoon in my outpatient internal medicine rotation. I prepared to enter a room for a congestive heart failure hospital follow-up patient. I mentally prepared myself. I was going to ask for his hospital records (particularly lookin…
Treating a VIP benefactor of a hospital
My local hospital has been petitioning the local city zoning board for permission to build an on-site parking garage for years now. The city zoning board is very strict about the height of buildings and has turned the requests down repeatedly. This pa…
