I have a secret. It’s one I think many physicians and nurses share. Sometimes, when I’m stretched too thin — overbooked, hungry, tired, fielding yet another appeal to an insurance company in the middle of a clinic day — I find myself momentarily resenting the patients on my schedule. As soon as this happens, I…
Comments closed(Warning: This blog post contains minor spoilers for the Disney movie Encanto ) There I was. In a movie theater for the first time in almost 2 years. The occasion: to celebrate my youngest child attaining full vaccine immunity (2 weeks out from the second Pfizer vaccine). We wore our N95 masks and skipped the popcorn. One…
1 CommentOn my way to work, I drive by an abundance of water — a bay that changes with the seasons’ moods. Some mornings, the wind whips up tall waves, and I grip my steering wheel against the gusts that shake my car. Other mornings, the wind is absent, and the water placid and smooth. On…
Comments closed(I recently posted a Twitter thread that seemed to resonate with people, so thought I’d turn it into a blog post here as well): What is happening in the airline industry is happening in healthcare, too, only, unfortunately (for reasons that go back hundreds of years and are complex), physicians don’t have unions. Imagine if…
1 CommentSafety in aviation has been compared with safety in healthcare. As the only physician in a family of career pilots, I think about this often. While the aviation industry has been used as a safety model at the systems level for healthcare, I have not seen any data comparing burnout between the two industries. I…
1 CommentTL;DR: Vulnerability as a Superpower Last year, I had to renew my state medical license, a routine task. I completed the requisite online forms, paid the fees, clicked “submit,” and didn’t think about it again. Until the renewal didn’t come. As the deadline loomed nearer, and after several unreturned emails and phone calls, I finally…
Comments closedA curated list of top 5 articles on physician burnout for the week of October 1, 2019, with a theme: the EHR.
Comments closedThere are small moments of reflection that pop up in any given day that can affect how we approach our practice of medicine. Something at home affecting us at work, or vice versa. Like a Venn diagram, the two circles overlapping by just that slight amount at the center. One such recent intersection for me…
Comments closedWhen I first turned to writing as a method to cope with the stresses of my practice, I had no knowledge of the field of narrative medicine. In fact, I had been through 4 years of medical school, 3 years of residency, 3 years of subspecialty fellowship, and over a decade in the practice of…
Comments closedIs the duty of the physician to capture the patient stories, or capture a billing code? In July 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed revamping Medicare payments for office visits. CMS plans to collapse Medicare fees for levels 2 through 5 office visits into a single price beginning in 2019, as…
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