How to Pick the Right Emergency Department

Regardless of age or gender, all patients will inevitably need emergency care at one point in their life or another.  I am often asked by friends and family members how to pick an Emergency Department (ED).  I usually give them my response and they sometimes will say:  “the wait time is too long”… “the ED physician did not give [a relative] enough attention last time”…  “the seats at [local hospital] are so uncomfortable”… “can you believe that [so and so] was sent home without pain medication?”… etc.  Although these explanations are certainly valid, this article is meant to point out that there is more strategy to an ED visit than a wait time, an uncomfortable chair, and sedative medications. 

Life's Second Childhood

Life can start as a whirlwind and end up a boomerang.  

You get your big break in life as an infant/toddler under the tutelage of your parent(s) who coddle you and raise you in their shadow.  All of your needs are filled and all of your decisions are quietly watched and judged.  You have little to worry about because they make most of the important decisions and allow you to drift happily through life while feeding and growing like the plant outside your bedroom window.  In the boomerang analogy, this is the initial flight just after leaving the hands of the thrower.  

Reading a Patient's Poker Face- the Complex Psychology Behind Every Patient-Doctor Interaction

Patient-doctor communication often has many facets, wrinkles, and twists.  Medical school prepares a doctor minimally for the ups and downs of these patient interactions.

  There is no mannequin who can train each medical student how to deal with every personality, response, or even outburst by each patient.  On the job training is sine qua non.  

During and after medical school, it took me several years of practice to hone my skills as a communicator.  I learned some lessons the hard way.

How to Pick a New Primary Care Provider (PCP)

I want you to think about your choice of Primary Care Physician (PCP) as one that is vital to your health and happiness- similar to your choice of church or school and just short of your choice of spouse.
Your choice of PCP can determine life or death because the PCP is your gateway to healthcare. Primary care physicians are on the front line and treat disorders varying from depression and anxiety to high blood pressure and cholesterol. They are usually the first to suspect stroke and heart disease and often will be the ones who discover cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

The Steady Domination/Destruction of Medicine

Doctors (and nurses for that matter) can be as tough as the nail that holds up the shingle hanging over the office door.  

Up all night with no sleep… “No problem”  

No help from partners or other doctors..“I’ll just have to work harder”  

No weekends off for [insert a number] months… “It builds character”

Haven’t seen my spouse or kids in a couple of days… “I’ll try to see them this weekend”

Let’s face it.  By most accounts, the healthcare lifestyle is not ideal for a social life nor for a family life.  Spouses and significant others tend to run in packs due to lack of maintenance and kids don’t always recognize the doctor parent for lack of attentiveness.  Although not all practice situations are the same, the average physician is overworked by the American standard.  Days and on-call nights are long, weeks and months can grind on in perpetuity, and it takes a toll on the body/mind/soul.  Yet medical and nursing schools are still seeing adequate applications and residency programs are still cranking out hard-working men and women after their apprenticeships.  

What Do Dr. McDreamy, The One-Eyed Guy Behind the Curtain, and George Clooney Have in Common?

What is a doctor rating and why are doctor ratings sites important for doctors and for patients?  Before Al Gore and the invention of the internet

(I know…I know…the two have nothing to do with each other except that one opened his mouth while the other was spawned), there were no doctor ratings. 

Humpty Dumpty Medicine

As a little kid, I used to love the bedtime poem about Humpty Dumpty and his fall from the wall. 
“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.  All the king's horses and all the king's men Couldn't put Humpty together again.”  Until recently, I never thought about this story as a logical and sad analogy to the state of American healthcare. 

So you are wondering what this is all about…I practice adult cardiology in the salt, tobacoo, fried food, and obesity belt that is the US South.