Recently a very popular colleague of mine was hospitalized. He happened to be hospitalized at the facility where he works and thus you can imagine he was inundated with visitors and friends wanting to wish him well. Unfortunately, the terms of his hospitalization were emergent and thus he did not have a choice in where he went for treatment. His frequent visitors coming into the room began to hamper his recover and his family was forced to try and enforce privacy rules and HIPAA. Read more →

I read with a smile the post by Dr. Sajid Surve about the lighter side of medicine. It reminded me of some funny things that happened to me as a student and resident. I thought I would share these silly stories in the hopes of bringing someone a chuckle:

1. On one of my surgery rotations with an orthopedic surgeon specializing in shoulder surgery, I was scrubbed in as the first assist. Read more →

Our series on Medicine and Law is starting to wind down. We’ve covered lots of topics including contract and consent, malpractice, causation, informed consent, and abandonment. Now we will talk about third-party liability.

Third party liability means exactly what it says — that a different party other than the physician or the patient hold liability for an outcome. The most common form of third party liability in the medical profession is when a patient is denied coverage by the insurance company for a recommended procedure. I’m sure many of you have seen the Matt Damon movie where he plays a lawyer and represents a patient with cancer whose insurance company repeatedly denied a bone marrow transplant. That movie summarizes the main issues with third party liability. Read more →

There is a culture to medicine that I alluded to in my previous post about how everyone in the hospital is your boss. In essence, medicine is a profession like no other where “scutwork,” “malignancy” and “bad-mouthing” colleagues is standard practice. In the academic world this continues on in full force even after becoming an attending. In the private medical world it still exists. There is always a “Chief” or “Chair” of the department or division in which you practice. Most professions have hierarchy or levels of the ladder on which people sit. In medicine, I submit that the personalities are very strong due to the history of malignant medicine. Read more →

I previously posted a few times about conflicts of interest within the medical profession. A friend of a friend who reads my posts posed the simple question to me:

Isn’t the entire medical profession in conflict because it is profit driven?

This is an interesting question. After all, doctors make their living either seeing patients or doing procedures. No office visits, consultations, or surgeries then no income is generated. Thus wouldn’t doctors all benefit from making sure that patients keep coming back and that more procedures are done? Unfortunately this is true. Read more →

It is that time of the year again when medical students start appearing on the wards. If you are a third year student you are now likely starting your clinical rotations. If you are a fourth year student you are probably embarking on away rotations to the specialty of your choice. Every physician has fond memories of being a medical student — the torture from residents and attendings, the constant pimping, the feeling of being a useless fly on the wall, the awkwardness of trying to fit in. Read more →