“Fifteen minutes for a checkup or urgent problem, thirty minutes for a physical. In the tiny gasps of time in between: Refilling scripts, checking labs, and signing medical supply orders and insurance authorization requests. Maybe lunch. Maybe a …
Category: primary care
5 myths about compassion and patient rapport building in health care
This episode is sponsored by the Rush University Series at The Podcast by KevinMD. As we enter a year and a half into a worldwide pandemic, many of us working in health care are fatigued, over-worked, and burned out on compassion. Burnout has been so w…
5 myths about compassion and patient rapport building in health care
This episode is sponsored by the Rush University Series at The Podcast by KevinMD. As we enter a year and a half into a worldwide pandemic, many of us working in health care are fatigued, over-worked, and burned out on compassion. Burnout has been so w…
Don’t shut the phones down in the middle of the day
I work in a fantastic place. About 14 years ago, I transferred away from primary care to dermatology and have never looked back. I’m now seeing more patients per day than I’ve ever done, and I no longer stay hours behind after the office is close…
Eradicate the disability tax, before it’s too late [PODCAST]
“Some may say that we all come into this world with our own luck, and if we end up having to endure a disability, then other people in society should not be held financially responsible. To that I say, do we not have a moral imperative to ensure …
As doctor burnout climbs, can we save primary care?
It should come as no surprise that primary care physicians are looking for careers outside of medicine. That 40 percent of primary care clinicians are concerned their field won’t exist and that 21 percent plan to leave primary care in three years. Doct…
Should you stay or leave medicine?
I left my primary care practice earlier this year to focus on life coaching. Why did I leave? Because I wanted to do more and make a bigger impact. I remember how eager I was to complete medical training as I approached the light at the end of the tunn…
The art of diagnosis
Wood art The taxing journey of going through an illness often has the turning point of hearing a “diagnosis.” Diagnosis locks a person inside a sick body. Diagnosis is a label that dictates certain behavior in an individual and the whole ci…
Terror in the family medicine office
An excerpt from The Real Drama—Incredible Medicine. It was an ordinary day in my family medicine practice many years ago. A variety of patients, many longstanding and from various generations of whole families, were filling the waiting room. Back then,…
My journey to the root of empathy and why we must try to teach it
“Are there specific ways empathy will be tested in the standardized patient exam?” a medical school classmate of mine earnestly asked following a lecture years ago. I laughed, thinking that teaching empathy was impossible. As an optimistic and naive me…
