I’ve written before about medical malpractice and the rising costs for physicians of all specialties. One of the things we as physicians really fear is malpractice lawsuits by patients. We are taught in medical school and in training that the number one way to prevent a lawsuit is to talk to the... Read more →

In this era of declining reimbursements, I’ve been thinking a lot about socialized medicine and how physicians can stop the bleeding. It’s clear that reimbursements cannot go lower for many physicians. If they go lower lots of docs simply won’t be able to run their offices anymore. While... Read more →

I recently read an interesting editorial from the NY Times regarding the professions of law and medicine and how they continue to lack the luster that they used to have. It’s sad but true. Medicine just is not what it used to be. Although the profession is not hurting for aspiring young physicians,... Read more →

As reimbursements continue to decrease every year, physicians must be extremely financial savvy in order to survive. Some areas of the United States can’t seem to find enough doctors (think middle of the country), whereas others have a glut of doctors (think West and East Coasts). Coupled with... Read more →

One of the inherent problems with the field of Surgery is that aside from emergency surgery, surgical indications can be somewhat nebulous. If you are a victim of trauma and in a life and death situation, a surgeon can do surgery on you in order to save your life if you are not able to make medical decisions.... Read more →

Some people have questioned why I blog as a physician and why I blog anonymously. For those of you who haven’t kept up with the medical news, there have been a handful of lawsuits recently where physicians blogged about their patients anonymously. In one case, a physician was being sued for malpractice... Read more →

Recently I heard about a patient who was involved in a motor vehicle accident. He suffered a major pelvic injury and required surgery to fix his pelvis. His only other medical history was that he suffered from significant anxiety and panic disorder. A few days after his surgery he became very agitated... Read more →

In my last post, I talked about the motivations behind the way many physicians practice medicine and the importance as a patient to understand the economic dynamics behind your doctor’s practice. In essence, your physician needs to make a living while helping people get better. He really is not... Read more →

I’m am more than occasionally approached by a friend or associate with complaints about how their doctor does not give the medical care they feel they deserve. The most common complaints are that the doctor does not spend enough time with the patient during office visits, does not address all of... Read more →

Medicare recently came out with its “Never Pay” guidelines. The presumed motivation is the exponentially rising cost of medical care over the years that payers cannot sustain. The largest payer in the world is the U.S. Government in the form of Medicare payments. In an effort to reduce costs,... Read more →

Legislation in Massachusetts has been proposed this year that would require licensed hospitals to make video and audio recordings of all surgeries. If you were a patient having surgery, would you want your surgery to be videotaped? As you can imagine, this piece of legislation has met strong opposition... Read more →