What's the cost of being a doctor in recovery?

--------------------------------------------------------------- Here are the stories you missed on KevinMD. Thank you for your continuing readership. --------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsors Nearly 30 percent of malpractice cases can be attributed to communication failures, resulting in nearly 2,000 patient deaths and $1.7B in costs. [This new guide]( will show you how to put patient safety at the forefront with better care team communications. [Read now](. 52% of all workplace violence [occurs in health care](. That's why it's vital for doctors, nurses, and all staff to learn [how to spot potentially violent patients](. The rise in consumerism and [value-based care]( is forcing physicians to change the way they do business. [Learn how]( you can continue to put patients first without jeopardizing revenue. [The Connected Clinician]( How to receive pages on your smartphone, PHI on your pager, and more. [Read the blog post now](. [Patient misidentification can lead to medical errors, patient harm, and costly inefficiencies]( for providers. Get the facts on patient misidentification, and [learn how to avoid it]( from organizations that use biometrics to do so. --------------------------------------------------------------- KevinMD Plus: Feb. 19, 2018 [What’s the cost of being a doctor in recovery?]( I am a physician in recovery and just celebrated my fifth-year anniversary on October 11, 2017. While in active addiction, my drugs of choice were benzodiazepines and opioids that I washed down with top-shelf alcohol. Near the end of my usage, I was diverting scheduled drugs in order to feed my addiction. After an unsuccessful […] [I’m speed dating my doctor]( I’ve been single for nearly a decade. A career-driven professional, juggling parenting, PTA, and post-graduate studies, my time is precious. But there’s something about this season — the heart-shaped Valentines and assorted chocolates — that has a way of evoking a longing for love. So this year, bowing to the goading of friends and against […] [What’s love got to do with it: lessons from a dying physician]( They came from all corners of the globe to bid him farewell. He looked cachetic, his frail form interrupted by swelling in his abdomen and legs, a result of end-stage pancreatic cancer. It was Dr. Yeat’s last week in the hospital before being transferred to a nearby hospice. He was now on morphine, and despite […] [How doctors should think: Heuristic thinking isn’t heretical]( Doctors are intelligent people, but are we good thinkers? And how should we think? There are two basic kinds of thinking: analytic and intuitive. (And maybe good and bad, so that’s four.) Within medicine, analytic thinking can perhaps be best exemplified in the evidence-based movement, which began in the early 1990’s. It was a gilded age, full […] [Why workplace wellness programs don’t work]( A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research reports on the results of a large randomized controlled trial of a large employer with over 12,000 employees. Program eligibility and financial incentives were randomized at the individual level. Over 56 percent of eligible treatment group employees participated. The study found that in the first year, the employees […] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Should I add obesity care services to my practice?]( Despite the opportunity to add $10,000 to $50,000+ per month in additional revenue, more than 80% of medical providers indicated that nobody in the practice was trained to deal with weight-related issues. [Take the survey.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Have you set up the safety nets in your life?]( We all know that life is unpredictable. In fact, the only thing that’s certain is that things will be uncertain. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, I think the majority of people are risk-averse. We’re concerned about future and its potential for unfortunate circumstances. If we weren’t, there would be no such thing as […] [An ultrasound posted on Instagram. Does a physician have a duty to warn?]( Early this month, Joanna Gaines, co-host of HGTV’s popular Fixer Upper, shared her pregnancy news with the world via a baby bump photo and an ultrasound, both posted to Instagram. The congratulations began pouring in from excited fans. But the conversation took a dark turn when a physician commented that the ultrasound appeared to show that […] [This physician sent his daughter to private school. But not for the reason you think.]( When my children each finished Montessori school, my wife and I researched a bit before choosing the local public option. My area has extraordinary private schools. Although high cost, many of these alternatives provide unique and worthwhile twists on traditional education. We talked extensively with the kids, and after much research, we came to the […] [Ending DACA is a travesty]( On September 5th, 2017, the Trump administration denounced the further implementation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and called for its revocation in 6 months. Opponents quickly voiced their concerns towards the unjust decree. Now, the deadline is near and a heightened urgency to act is imperative. To encourage advocacy and help legislators understand […] [Farewell pager, I’ll always cherish the memories]( This was a momentous week for me. After 14 years of carrying a hospital-grade old-school text pager to receive messages at work, I finally traded it in for a cell phone app. It should have been easy to get rid of my beeper. But instead, I felt waves of nostalgia when I turned it off […] [A kiss changed this doctor’s life]( As a boy growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania, I never gave much thought to the concept of a kiss. My family gave and received kisses without hesitation. I continue to give and receive kisses from my wife and kids in the same nonchalant manner. Until one night — on shift. I work […] [Don’t let burnout impact our ability to provide selfless love]( The ancient Greeks were one of the first groups of philosophers to recognize and describe the complexity of love. Eros: an intense, passionate form of love. Philia: a deep friendship or affection. Philautia: love for one’s self. Agape: an unconditional love for humanity. These same complexities in love forms described by the Greeks play an […] [The dark side of negativity bias in medical school]( As a third-year medical student, fresh and green on my clerkship rotations, I was determined to stand out on my general surgery team. I knew this was not going to be easy; I was often the last item on many surgeons’ minds as they rush through morning pre-rounds at the hospital, flying around corners, their […] [Turning doctors into technicians is a mistake]( During our lifetimes, the role of physician has been shrinking, from healer to technician. You’ve probably seen the famous painting, Doctor and the Doll, done by Norman Rockwell in 1929. It depicts an old country doc listening with his stethoscope to the heart of a doll held up to him by a worried little girl. […] [The challenge of the worried well]( A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. I recently saw a 35-year-old patient of mine who came into clinic requesting brain imaging. Although she had no specific symptoms, she had a friend who was diagnosed with a brain tumor several months ago and is concerned about the possibility that she […] [5 things America can do today to reduce gun deaths]( It’s February 15, and our country has had yet another school shooting. Seventeen more kids are dead, despite multiple warnings that the perpetrator was high risk. No one wanted this to happen. Across the political spectrum, Americans are appropriately asking what they can do to prevent another shooting. Yesterday many asked for a day to […] [3 bad financial habits for doctors]( As I work with people one-on-one as a high-performance coach, I have found that the most important aspect to their wealth accumulation, is their habits. Good habits create good results, and bad habits create bad results. The good news is, habits are learned. You were not born with any of your habits; you learned them […] [You don’t know what your patient’s end-of-life wishes are]( As I walked in the room, I noticed it immediately: Norman was worse. The recurrent invasive cancer in his neck was impairing the drainage of fluid from his face making it difficult for him to turn his head, and it had progressed overnight. Despite his alarming appearance, he seemed calm. There were no more cancer-specific […] [Why are there vending machines in hospitals?]( Why are there vending machines in hospitals? This seems like an odd question to ponder, and it certainly would seem to have nothing to do with the current state of medicine and health care in our country. But it is a question that I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around. Certainly, most […] [What’s our goal with opioid treatment?]( When I started treating opioid dependence, I began with high expectations. I was frustrated with what had become a mindless, ineffectual exercise in providing medication for chronic pain. I saw too many patients “circling the drain” on opioids. Most admitted they still had chronic pain despite their high consumption of opioids. Many patients needed their […] [Why is health care so expensive in the United States?]( CNN recently posted an article online, asking this very question. It was posed in the guise of our leading mega-billionaires, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, and Jamie Dimon, “fixing” our broken health care system. In actuality, these three industry giants announced plans to combine resources to create their own insurance system for their combined 850,000+ employees. […] [Poor communication between EHRs is unacceptable. Let’s fix it.]( The third year of medical school is when a student experiences the frustrations of medicine firsthand. Once, my team admitted a transfer patient from another hospital to treat a condition that was ravaging the patient’s lungs. But before we could act, we needed to rule out a dormant infection; if our patient was unknowingly infected […] [How to get back into the medical workforce if you’re a mom]( As women in the medical workforce increase, women physicians are faced with the unique position of training the hardest they ever had in their lifetime cutting into precious childbearing years. Many women physicians seek time off or engage in part-time jobs to address the dilemma of fulfilling the obligations of their careers while enjoying the […] [Why do medical students kill themselves?]( “I can’t do this anymore,” Mary* said to me after morning rounds. As third-year medical students, this could have been in reference to a number of things: 5 a.m. rounds, practice sutures, 14-hour days, the list goes on. Though I later learned Mary was simply referring to living. An article recently published by JAMA showed […] [MKSAP: 82-year-old woman with left-sided headaches]( Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. An 82-year-old woman is evaluated for a 2-week history of left-sided headaches with pain on chewing, accompanied by achiness in the shoulders and hips. She has no other pertinent personal or family history. She takes no medications. On physical examination, temperature […] [10 essential investments this physician makes]( I’m going to keep things broad here: no discussions of index funds, real estate, Roth IRAs or taxable accounts. This is more of a general discussion on what I feel is important to me, what I invest my money and maybe more important, time into. There are a few financial topics, but there are many […] [The devaluation of physicians’ time must end]( A few days ago, my Gmail app flashed an email across the screen of my phone. By mistake, I swiped in the wrong direction, and it opened up an invitation from a medical survey company. When I had first signed up with this company almost a decade ago, rates were much better (and admittedly, when […] [Will Buffet, Bezos, and Dimon be able to control health care costs?]( The recent announcement that Berkshire Hathaway, Amazon, and JPMorgan have joined forces to pare down health care costs has sent ripple effects across the health care space. The announcement sent stocks tumbling due to the uncertainty of what influence these companies will have on a deeply complex, unruly and wasteful health care system. Said Berkshire […] [After retirement: How should this physician handle money?]( My email box is an endless source of material for the blog and podcast. As always, details are changed to protect the innocent. Assume genders are swapped about half the time, specialties are changed, and identifying details are obscured. Today’s Q&A provides a great discussion of some things to think about as you approach retirement. […] --------------------------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the KevinMD e-newsletter. If a friend sent you this email and you want to subscribe, go to [KevinMD](. --------------------------------------------------------------- 173 Daniel Webster Highway Nashua, New Hampshire 03062 [Unsubscribe]( | [Change Subscriber Options](