Category: KevinMD

Medical error disclosure programs: Old habits die hard

A radical change is emerging from within our health care system: Rather than deny or defend medical errors, some hospitals are acknowledging them upfront. This enlightened response has been gaining ground since 2001 when the University of Michigan Hosp…

Start a hospitalist program with these 6 steps

Just to give you my background, I manage a large hospitalist program for a busy downtown community hospital that is part of a large health system consisting of a total of 29 acute care hospitals in the same geographical area. One of the reasons why our…

Can a rehabilitated sex-offender make positive change?

Ed is not from Kentucky. I believe he told me he is from West Virginia and from a very low-income family. At about 15, he was hit by a car and paralyzed from the waist down. He’s now about 30. But for a guy in a wheelchair, he is nothing short of…

Gun violence requires medical intervention

109. This is the number of people who died each day from firearms in the U.S. in 2017, the most recent year for which the CDC has published data. It is a staggering number, one that deeply damages the fabric of communities and tears families apart. Wha…

What’s the future of the physician assistant?

Currently, in America, there are only three legal groups of prescribers, the physicians (which include MDs, DOs, DPMs), the nurse practitioner (NPs), and the physician assistant (PAs). The first class of physician assistants, in 1965, was also the year…

MKSAP: 36-year-old man with abdominal cramping, diarrhea, malaise, and nausea

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 36-year-old man is evaluated for a 10-day history of abdominal cramping, diarrhea, malaise, and nausea. Diarrhea is watery without mucus or…

A dam about the burst: The job of “doctor” places too much stress on one person

“I wish this were not the case, but I am concerned that your disease is getting worse, and your time may be very short.” “I know you are angry and upset at how you were treated — I will do my best to make sure that does not happen again.” “I am s…

Is the conference cancelled? How coronavirus is upending the conference industry.

Nearly 100,000 pop culture fans flocked to Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle last year, including many dressed as superheroes, aliens, and robots. But something scarier than a comic book villain is roiling the conference this year — the spread of the c…

Resident adds Rorschach reads to radiology reports

In the dark radiology reading rooms, only the gentle hum of the computers and the quiet chatter of residents dictating radiology reads break the silence. Among the computers sits Dr. Exner, a senior radiology resident at Hospital Woeisme. He has recent…

COVID-19 showcases the bravery of first responders

When first responders answered roughly ten calls from a long-term care center in Kirkland, Washington, over the course of a week, they did not expect to become patients themselves. Entering the Life Care Center of Kirkland last month exposed them to th…