As my sons sit at the dinner table texting on their phones, it got me thinking about how we physicians communicate, and how that has changed over the years. When I started in residency, fax machines, phones, and regular email were the choices for communication – in addition to face-to-face, of course. There are a…
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Let’s be Clear About How Much Health Care Costs?
There are a lot of calls for transparency in health care pricing. Before we can even discuss it, we need to clarify the terms that we use. These terms need to be defined each and every time someone writes about it if necessary. Cost is a term commonly tossed around, but cost relates to someone,…
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Why Physicians Need An Online Presence
“He made me wait way too long, and then I felt rushed.” I discovered this negative review, now several years old, when I recently Googled myself. No glowing comments about the time I paid a late-night visit to an inpatient who had taken a turn for the worse. Nothing about the patient I asked to…
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The Unintended Consequences of Today’s Health Delivery Model
Efforts in the name of efficiency and cost reduction have unintended consequences. When I was in practice, I admitted, or at least followed, all my patients in the hospital. There were no issues of aftercare, because I discharged them with appointments to see me within a day or two (rarely more). I knew what medications…
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