My first consulting assignment involved a surgeon on a small medical staff with chronic depression. He would experience meltdowns in the middle of the night when nurses attempted to rouse him from a fitful sleep. On two occasions he slammed down the phone after being asked to...
Last month, we discussed having a comprehensive communication plan that allows the medical staff to communicate with all of its members efficiently and effectively by color-coding correspondence. Although critical to the medical staff's relationship with its physicians, a...
How should medical staff members who take the time to prepare and present continuing medical education (CME) be rewarded? There are several options, says Thomas Huth, MD, MBA, FACP, vice president of medical affairs at Reid Hospital & Health Care Services in Richmond...
Aristotle spoke of practical wisdom in his classic book Nicomachean Ethics, as noted in the contemporary book by Barry Schwartz, PracticalWisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing (Riverbend Books, New York, 2010). "Ethics, said Aristotle, was not mainly...
Electronic medical records (EMR), smartphones, texting, e-mail, remote access-all of these innovations have hit the healthcare sector with force over the past 10 years. For some physicians, EMRs enable them to work more quickly and keep better notes; for other physicians, it...
Two patients arrive in the ED with influenza during an outbreak. One is a 75-year-old man with several other chronic conditions and the other is a 45-year-old woman with three children. Who gets the last ventilator? Is it the woman because she is younger and has three children...
