It wasn’t until I first had to manage the aftermath of a sexual assault on a psychiatric unit one night during my residency that I realized psychiatry might have a problem with sexual safety. My fellow residents and I had never been informed of a…
Category: KevinMD
The robot will see you now
The year is 2050. You enter the room, ready to speak with your next patient, a 60-year-old white male with recent episodes of chest pain when he climbs the stairs to his office. Before sitting down to speak with him, a monitor in the room pulls up his …
The pain score must go. Here’s why.
One of the most important purposes of a physician is to alleviate pain and suffering. Pain is the most common symptom prompting an emergency department (ED) visit. Emergency physicians are responsible for managing both acute pain and acute exacerbation…
How ocean plastic picking made me a better pediatrician
It has been over a month since I started this new hobby. I told my middle-school-aged daughter tonight, “I am going to write a post about how ocean plastic picking has made me a better pediatrician.” She replied, “You mean better than other pediatricia…
Physician burnout as a consequence of systematic design, not an individual issue
Burnout in health care is an epidemic across the nation, contributing to a lack of empathy for patients, poor care, providers electing to leave the workforce, substance abuse, depression, and even provider suicide. In a recently published case study in…
A doctor dies twice
I have had the opportunity to consult with several physicians who needed to abruptly and permanently give up the practice of their chosen career without their consent. Causes of this involuntary termination included illness, burnout, and loss of licens…
Physicians have been given weed killer. Administrators have been given Miracle-Gro.
Since I last published a blog post dedicated entirely to the above graph a couple of years ago, very little has changed. In fact, I’m sure the divergence of the curves has only grown bigger, as more and more administrators are added to the ranks of hea…
Would you buy a smartphone if it had this warning label?
Imagine if every “device” (smartphone, tablet, laptop, etc.) had the following warning label: This device is not intended for any individuals under the age of 16. Purchasers of this device frequently cite their child’s “safety” as a r…
The brother I never knew. The mother I never had.
The brother I never knew. He was buried in an unmarked grave with other dead babies. 1960. I am now the age my mother died. She was 64 years old: colon cancer. She was a vacant, negligent mother. During one of my psychology classes in nursing school, w…
A psychiatrist can’t help patients anymore
I bid farewell to four people this month who I’ve been caring for in my outpatient psychiatry practice — all under sensitive circumstances but ultimately moving in positive directions. As I write formal discharge letters, the unique role psychiat…
