“There’s a new best practice emerging, one that lets you deliver a high standard of care today but that well-prepares you for a shift to value. We’ve been talking about it throughout this article series in terms of doing more with less and making…
Category: primary care
When primary care helps a psychiatrist
“Do you plan to cut down on your hours?” This was what my primary care doctor asked me after she found me complaining about multiple somatic symptoms. As a psychiatrist, I always took pride in how I prioritized my family’s needs and f…
Break the rules of health care with technology
In the 21st century, all but one U.S. industry has used information technology (IT) to cut costs, increase access to products and services, and improve quality. Health care is the lone exception. For decades, medical costs have risen faster than inflat…
Keep healthy boundaries and not define yourself by your profession
The COVID-19 pandemic helped bring out people’s true colors. After two years of the unrelenting pressures of the pandemic, people’s true colors came out, and I will have a frank about this truth. As physicians, we often put our patient̵…
Changing how we think about difficult patients
An excerpt from Changing How We Think About Difficult Patients: A Guide for Physicians and Healthcare Professionals. After I finished my residency in EM and started working as an attending physician, I realized I had a problem. I believe a lot of you h…
A shout out to small hospitals [PODCAST]
“I’m a small-time doc in a small town, and I work at a small hospital in the Midwest, and I’m proud of it. The huge university hospitals (like Cleveland Clinic) get all the glory (especially in society and in the press), but small hospitals like …
Metric fever will decimate our primary care workforce
Primary care doctors have had enough. I’m sick of it as a family physician, and I know you are too. In our never-ending battle with insurance companies and CMS bureaucrats over how to do our job, the new turf is value-based care (VBC), and the la…
Danielle Ofri, MD on sharing stories and the emotional epidemiology of disease [PODCAST]
This episode is sponsored by Athelas, the number one provider of remote patient monitoring. “This last mile of the COVID pandemic—Omicron or not—is a painstaking one-on-one endeavor. As is most of primary care. Sadly, we now have to deal with pol…
Failing the boards doesn’t make you a bad doctor
As a small town-trained osteopathic hospitalist, I have seen that some people may mistakenly believe that boards scores are important. But in reality, bedside manner is a lot more important. I’ve seen cases where nurse practitioners and physician assis…
A love letter from your doctor
You know who you are. I’m writing to tell you no matter how wrenching our time was together, or messy, or scary, or short were the hours, I love you. I cherish you. And no matter how hard I tried, it was you who gave more. Because you let me in when I …
