Instead of driving on the highway, let’s imagine you drove upwards from wherever you are. You’ll reach space in about an hour. On your way up, you’ll begin to see everything differently. Cities, roads, and trees slowly blur out to make way for a new ki…
As I walk into the well-upholstered elevator lobby of the hospital and make my way toward the stairs for another night of covering the ICU, I am again inundated with plaques, advertisements and a six-foot-tall cardboard cutout depicting an executive in…
Patients first Patient care brings me enormous satisfaction. Nearly 40 years ago, when I chose medicine as a career, this was a driving force. Within moments of patients coming into my office, they often share aspects of their life history known only t…
Patients first Patient care brings me enormous satisfaction. Nearly 40 years ago, when I chose medicine as a career, this was a driving force. Within moments of patients coming into my office, they often share aspects of their life history known only t…
Years ago, I was contacted by a health plan about an elderly nursing home patient who had not been screened for osteoporosis. While brittle bones are a big problem in skilled nursing settings, the real problem for this health plan was its low HEDIS sco…
Just like you, I’m trying to make sense of the world around me. But there are no templates for the bridge that health care’s building for its future. All we can do is listen to weak signals and amplify them. Recently (and finally), CVS boug…
Just like you, I’m trying to make sense of the world around me. But there are no templates for the bridge that health care’s building for its future. All we can do is listen to weak signals and amplify them. Recently (and finally), CVS boug…
Sustainability is a bit of a buzz word these days. To be sustainable means that you only use what you need, leaving the rest to be used by you or others in the future. Sustainability is a popular topic in environmental sciences and refers to renewable …
Sometimes it is hard for hospitals to provide expensive care to poor patients. When a low-income patient needs $20,000 of chemotherapy, a hospital loses money if that patient cannot pay for the medicine, or pays through Medicaid, with its relatively st…
President Trump wants $5 billion for his border wall — right now — and another $7 billion (or maybe $13 billion) later on to finish the project. What else could we do with that kind of money? Here’s an idea: with $12 billion we could cover ALL 3….
