Physicians are leaving medicine due to being physically and mentally exhausted. Most tragically, the United States loses one physician a day to suicide — an astronomical number. Physician burnout is a crisis that has been brewing in medicine for years….
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony.” – Mahatma Gandhi Burnout among physicians is at an epidemic proportion. National data suggests that more than 50 percent of our workforce is burned out, and this tre…
Recently the CEO of a large health care network stated: “Market forces don’t apply to health care.” Of course, economic and political forces apply to health care. Big Medicine’s most powerful entities (insurers, hospitals, medical schools, pharmaceuti…
My wife Uzma died peacefully at home. She didn’t take any painkillers for her last three days. Our kids, my parents, and I were next to her. In the weeks leading up to her death, many old friends visited her. Others sent her flowers, cards, and f…
Twenty years of defending doctors and hospitals in medical malpractice cases has made me into a nervous patient. When you see the worst, you look for it. At least I do. That’s why when I was scheduled for a minor elective procedure, I was nervous. I se…
As someone who has been in the medical field for nearly ten years, I have had the opportunity to follow many physicians. I started off shadowing physicians, standing behind them as they would speak to patients in their rooms. Now, as a resident physici…
Last month I saw Joan, a woman who has had low back pain for years. She’d been through the ringer like every other person in severe pain: countless procedures and medications. She continued to have daily pain that stopped her from staying focused at wo…
I love to travel. Last spring, I found myself on a plane headed for the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. I was on my way to attend a conference in beautiful Rockwall, Texas. After an uneventful flight, I took my bags, headed for the exit and as…
Last week I took the naloxone challenge. I walked up to a pharmacy window, waited in line, and requested naloxone from the pharmacist. She showed a supportive but knowing look, and I became acutely aware of the four people in line behind me. After givi…
“The patient-clinician relationship is dead.” Those of us in health care hear this refrain constantly these days, coming at us from all angles. We feel it in the wall that goes up when we turn from our patients to our computer screens. We infer it in a…
