I admit I’m increasingly frustrated with people who vilify physicians out of ignorance and misinformation. Case in point. A fictional patient with hypertension has a health insurance program that allows for a “free” annual physical exam. You know, one without a co-pay or deductible cost to the patient. He makes an appointment, sees his physician, […]
The Care of the Patient (Peabody)
I recently attended an excellent Grand Rounds on Palliative Medicine. The speaker quoted Dr. Francis Peabody’s “…for the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient” while apologizing for using a quote that “we’ve all heard over and over, I’m sure”. Well, I’m guess I’m one of those in medicine who […]
Life as a Typical ID/HIV Physician
Medscape conducted several anonymous online surveys of physicians and came up with a snapshot of the typical infectious diseases (ID)/HIV specialist. It’s pretty cool to see how those of my specialty compare to others. · 34% of ID/HIV specialists who responded to the surveys were women. · 58% of the ID/HIV specialists were born in the United States; an additional […]
Patient Satisfaction Linked with Higher Healthcare Costs and Mortality
The other day, a few physicians were discussing frequent fliers, patients who when discharged from the hospital find their way back to an inpatient status within days and sometimes within hours. Such patients are notorious for threatening to sign out of the hospital AMA (against medical advice) when refused pain medications for example, despite having […]
The Practice of Financial Medicine
What’s that you say? You didn’t know about the specialty of financial medicine? Well neither did I until recently. No, this is not about President Obama’s plan for public health insurance. Although I do side with the American Medical Association in being skeptical of it I’m annoyed that their main bone of contention seems to […]