Am I a doctor or a mother first?

--------------------------------------------------------------- Here are the stories you missed on KevinMD. Thank you for your continuing readership. --------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsors [eBrief]( How to move the needle on patient satisfaction and other measures that matter. Consumers have a choice -- are they choosing your hospital? [Get the eBrief now](. The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) is a marathon, not a sprint. [Here are some tips]( to stay in the race and [here are 5 best practices]( to meet MACRA/MIPS requirements. A typical provider spends close to $4,000 on paper and fax supplies each year and loses another $41,000 to patient no-shows. Sound high? [Calculate your spend](. [Infographic]( 7 questions that will help prepare your hospital for the unexpected. [Learn more](. [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: Jun 25, 2018 [Am I a doctor or a mother first?]( It is a little after 9 a.m. I am about to start the second of a long list of endoscopy cases when my phone rings. I glance briefly at the caller ID to confirm it isn’t my office or the hospital calling about another patient, and am quickly overcome with dread as I see the […] [This is what dying poor in America looks like]( Signing the divorce papers was probably Charlie’s lowest point. His wife sitting by his side, occasionally she would swat at the air at some invisible fly buzzing around the room. There was no fly. Just the acrid smell of the nursing home, a horrifying mix of sweat, shit, and desperation. He tried to focus his aged eyes […] [How our health system is like the Marvel supervillain Thanos]( You are a child of Thanos. “Hear me and rejoice!” “You have had the privilege of being saved by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. (Yeah, I know we said the same thing when we prescribed low-fat diets to decrease the risk of heart disease, but you gotta give us a […] [Is the stethoscope a vestigial organ?]( In the context of human evolution, a vestigial organ is defined as one that has lost all or most of its original function through evolution. Charles Darwin provided a list of vestigial human organs in “The Descent of Man,” including the muscles of the ear, wisdom teeth, the appendix, the coccyx, body hair and the […] [Welcome to your intern year breakdown]( Summer is upon us, and with it comes the end of the academic year, graduations and the arrival of the newest crop of interns. Soon these fresh-faced physicians will enter into one of the most remarkable educational experiences of their medical careers: residency. Many of these soon-to-be-interns are looking to attendings now for advice on […] [After Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, it’s time to shift on suicide]( Surviving suicide loss is difficult. And in some sense, the resulting grief is open-ended. I am a mother and doctor whose two sons died by suicide associated with psychotic bipolar disorder. My ever-present sensitivity to the fierce loss of death by suicide is again touched when I hear of death by suicide. The suicides of […] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Conference planners!]( Find vetted, handpicked physician speakers that shine on stage. [Physician Speaking by KevinMD: Your audience deserves the best](. --------------------------------------------------------------- [A bipartisan solution for Medicaid work requirements]( When I hear pundits going on about the Medicaid work requirements, I think of my father. He has worked in the United States for twenty-four years, taking on the role of a handyman, migrant farmer, truck driver, construction roofer, dialysis patient transporter, and elder transporter. His limited English and third-grade education land him in low-paying […] [Life as a doctor is selfless and selfish at the same time]( It was 5:45 in the morning on a Monday after a full weekend of call. Thoroughly exhausted, I shuffled into the elevator and was met by the stench of stale clothing mixed with cigarette smoke. A painfully thin teenager exited, looking lost. I allowed him to wander out, grateful to be spared his odor. I […] [Health misinformation in the news: Where does it start?]( A new study confirms something we here at HealthNewsReview.org have been emphasizing for many years: Health news stories often overstate the evidence from a new study, inaccurately claiming that one thing causes another — as in drinking alcohol might help you live longer, facial exercises may keep your cheeks perky, and that diet soda might be a direct line to dementia. The researchers […] [A physician battles Frozen Car Disease]( Those who follow my blog know I write about science and medicine and their complexities and challenges. Sometimes, I write about anesthesiology and what it’s like to be in the operating room. I write about gender issues and things I’ve noticed as a woman leader in medicine. I write about my children, being a mother, […] [A hospice doctor gives investing advice]( I used to have a patient who was an undertaker. We had many conversations about philosophy and practicality, and it didn’t take long to realize the profound insights one must learn when engaged in such a unique business. As I was often fond of saying, when the undertaker speaks, you should really listen. This belief that [… [Your greatest financial asset? Your spouse.]( Often a stay at home mom, like we have in our house, is not thought of as a contributor to wealth. Too often, only the person who “really” works and brings home an income is considered to be generating wealth. This is a case of incorrect thinking. The non-working spouse is a very big factor […] [Family therapy via medical missionary work]( The initial doubts first surfaced mid-way through our flight bound for Montego Bay, Jamaica. In fact, we were not entirely sure that this trip was such a good idea after all. Our eldest son, 13 and in eighth grade, was already complaining about how much school he was missing and how much homework he had […] [You are never just a primary care physician]( I am frequently asked what I do at social gatherings. My response, naturally, is that I am a physician. The individual then asks what your specialty is and I respond that I am a board-certified family physician. Then, I hear, “Oh, you are a GP.” Really! After all these 35 years, I am perceived as […] [Why this mother is still a surgeon]( Why does she work? It’s a question that she must answer, for it begs itself every time she picks him up from daycare. She always finds him happy there. And yet that — selfishly? — is part of what tears at her. Shouldn’t she be the one making him happy at 11 months? It’s more […] [What happens to the health of children taken from their parents at the border?]( It’s a Sunday evening in a local South Texas emergency room with the expected ER traffic for a weekend evening. Lots of simple traumas: ankle sprains, abrasions, lacerations, falls, common URI symptoms, and fevers. The EMS radios in with a call of a five-year-old male who has altered mental status. The patient is brought in […] [Is altruism killing medicine?]( Altruism is killing us. Take a second to let that sink in. Truly think about it. Resist your conditioning to refute this claim and try to apply it to your life. Still having trouble? Let me try to explain. In order to understand the truly destructive force of altruism on medicine, one must first define […] [MKSAP: 30-year-old woman with systemic lupus erythematosus]( Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 30-year-old woman is evaluated during a follow-up visit for systemic lupus erythematosus. She was diagnosed 3 months ago after presenting with pericarditis and arthritis. She was initially treated with prednisone, 40 mg/d, with improvement of her presenting symptoms. The prednisone […] [How every female physician can be a somebody]( We live in incredible times. A time when a millennial with a YouTube account clears six-figures a year (sometimes, seven figures!) with just a computer and a webcam. A time when a small-town girl with a love of fashion and an Instagram account can go from Nowheresville, America to front row at New York Fashion […] [Health care is making the classic mistake that many startups make]( Before managed care became the dominant force that it is, patients and doctors had the opportunity to get to know each other well. Doctors treated multiple generations within families. This helped establish a strong bond among patients and their doctors. While it might have intended to mean preventing expensive care, managed care began to mean […] [How to fix bullying in health care]( When we think of bullying, we’re usually worrying about our school-age kids or remembering bad experiences from high school. We learn quickly in the health care field that bullies don’t change once they enter the clinical world. Health care, with its incredible differential in knowledge, authority and pay creates large power differentials and easily generates […] [How to create an app as a physician]( “There’s an app for that.” The phrase became so popular with the advent of smartphones that Apple even trademarked it. There are currently 3.8 million apps available on Android devices and over 2 million available to Apple iPhone users. Does that mean that we’ve reached a limit on new and useful apps that can be […] --------------------------------------------------------------- If a friend sent you this email and you want to subscribe, go to [KevinMD](. --------------------------------------------------------------- 345 Hudson Street New York NY 10014 USA [Unsubscribe]( | [Change Subscriber Options](