Blog

In today’s electronic medical records, non-physician providers have to complete multiple assessment templates as a means of documenting the care and condition of patients.  So basically patients are broken down into small snippets of information as determined by each template.   Typically these templates are made of check off boxes or simple drop down boxes toRead more

Dr Jessica Zitter authored an important opinion piece published in the June 30th NY Times.  Entitled:  The Lifelong Mistreatment of Black Patients she delves into this uncomfortable and important topic by describing her patient with end stage lung disease, who was now ventilator dependent.  He and his family were facing a heartbreaking decision:  proceed to tracheostomyRead more

Executive Order on Improving Price and Quality Transparency in American Healthcare to Put Patients First was signed on June 24, 2019 with great fanfare. a few more comments… A noteworthy sentence from the executive order states: “Shoppable services make up a significant share of the healthcare market”. is this truly the case? The executive orderRead more

Executive Order on Improving Price and Quality Transparency in American Healthcare to Put Patients First was signed on June 24, 2019 with great fanfare. Its proponents tout this as the latest of many reforms by the current US administration “to transform our healthcare system into one that delivers affordable and accessible healthcare, and puts AmericanRead more

Last year in my post The Power of the Personal (Aug 2018) , I discussed how personal photos or other home memorabilia can provide comfort to hospitalized patients and also remind providers that there is so much more to their patient than their current illness.  My belief is that this promotes empathy and understanding, beneficial toRead more

This article from NPR caught my attention: Does taking time for compassion make doctors better at their jobs? This is something I feel strongly about, and is really the impetus for this blog.  My gut feeling is that helping providers improve their communications skills so they can really connect with patients helps BOTH patients andRead more

Armed with the belief that as our population ages there will be a continued and growing need for palliative medicine physicians, there is concern that fellowship programs will not be able to keep up.  An article in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management (one of the main palliative medicine journals)  tries to quantify theRead more

I have long thought that a future economist will look back and conclude that one of the principal drivers of the explosion in US health care expenditures was the misguided decision to dramatically cut provider reimbursements for office visits.  The result was greater remuneration for physicians who performed procedures and operations.  This shift really impactedRead more

To follow along with the theme of my last post, the current opioid crisis- where today 10’s of 1000’s of people are dying each year from opioid related drug overdoses is another example.  Regulations meant to ‘mean well’ have gone horribly awry.  And now, legislators are at it again. a little background history In theRead more

The most recent kerfuffle surrounding abortion rights illustrates the dangers of trying to legislate complex medical issues.  And is particularly distressing. Virginia House Delegate Kathy Tran introduced a bill to remove unnecessary and burdensome requirements surrounding abortion services in her state.  This video, now shown over and over and over again, shows her responding toRead more