Independent physicians are at the beginning of a challenging movement as we fight to stay relevant and solvent during the transition of health care from independence to “regulation without representation”. In 1773, (continue reading →)
Baseball is one of the greatest sports of all time. In this country, people have attended games, played games of catch outside with their children, and coached little league teams for generations (continue reading →)
Recently I wrote about empowerment and the importance of letting patients make their own health care decisions. Our job is to make sure patients are given information and then allowed to choose (continue reading →)
Over the last century, health care has morphed from a system valuing individual responsibility to one grounded in physician dependency. Patients are viewed as clients who ravenously consume scarce resources, while physicians dispense answers and guidance for a price deemed too high by bureaucrats to be sustainable. Knowing how invested patients are in understanding their conditions and their willingness to take responsibility for their good or bad choices are metrics worth tracking. It is important to remember physicians make recommendations, educate their patients, and would do best by engaging in shared decision making with those patients. That entire process saves money and improves how patients view their quality of care.
Children with foreign bodies requiring extraction are usually between the ages of 2-7 and I suspect they are curious as to whether or not the item will fit in the space; they never think about the inevitable removal process. They probably swallow coins or marbles for the same reasons; not thinking about the potential consequences. Sometimes, the foreign object ends up in its unexpected location completely by accident.
Unbeknownst to me, he arrived at the wrong school that morning and knew it when they pulled up to the front of Brownsville Elementary School in Bremerton, WA. He let Glenda, the bus driver; know he was supposed to be at a different location. She radioed for permission to take him to his proper elementary school in Silverdale, which is the one he intended to reach that day.
I Wish My Patients Knew… I would not change anything about my career choice. Being a physician was my calling from the time I first entered a hospital nursery with my father at 5 years of age. I knew it then as sure as I know it now. Primary care comes with an unbelievable amount of responsibility, stress, exhaustion, and frustration; but there is also overwhelming joy, fulfillment, gratitude, freedom, and love. I could not be more proud to be a physician and there is no other profession in the world that is more rewarding than mine.
I Wish My Doctor Knew… I am scared of being deported. A few weeks ago, a child said they were worried about who was going to be elected, because they were afraid of being sent back to El Salvador. I asked if he was born in the US and he replied he was but his parents were not and he was afraid they would be sent away. He is just seven years old. I honestly did not know what to say.
This is the fourth and final installment of Spanking and Science, if you missed the others or would like the hyperlinks for studies, please look back to parts 1, 2, and 3. (continue reading →)
“To say the things he truly feels; and not the words of one who kneels. The record shows I took the blows – and did it my way.” My way would involve fewer bureaucrats making significant healthcare decisions that impact the entire country and its population at large. Both patients and physicians are taking blows from those in charge of the system who know nothing about the world of primary care.
