In 1994 when I was a first year gastroenterology fellow cell phones were expensive and scarce. When I was on call I stayed close to the house and my personal land line phone. If I was paged out at dinner I used a pay phone or begged the hostess to borrow the house phone. So we petitioned our division chief to buy a cell phone for fellow use during weekend call. It ... Continue Reading about Who Owns a Physician’s Smartphone?
Provider is as Provider Does
Some doctors don't like being referred to as a provider. I’m not crazy about it myself but I can’t help but think that the doctors spawned the term. Take anesthesiologists, for example. Some got in the game of outnumbering themselves with nurse anesthetists. Neonatologists learned that nurse practitioners could do their bread and butter. And it’s all fun and ... Continue Reading about Provider is as Provider Does
CYA
CYA is one of the most dangerous acronyms found in a hospital. It’s not in my vocabulary. I don’t copy everyone in my organization on email responses. My notes lack pages of boilerplate language. I responsibly cover what I do without the assumption that something sinister is on the horizon from my patients or peers. And ugly things have happened. I’ve been ... Continue Reading about CYA
Are Hospitals Responsible for What Doctors Say?
The question’s important because it wasn’t long ago that doctors couldn’t say much. They could publish only in filtered places where the barrier to publication was high. Now publication is a button (credit Clay Shirky). You can’t control what someone publishes any more than you can control what they say. And with the immediacy and availability of modern ... Continue Reading about Are Hospitals Responsible for What Doctors Say?
5 Reasons Hospital Administrators Should be Visible on Social Media
I caught this picture in my Twitter stream not long ago. It shows some of the leadership of the Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus in Katy, Texas donning flag capes in preparation for an late shift employee town hall. When was the last time your hospital leadership raised their game in the spirit of Captain America...then published it? This is remarkable ... Continue Reading about 5 Reasons Hospital Administrators Should be Visible on Social Media
Seven Things to do with Patient Experience Data
One of the most remarkable outcomes of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been the move to patient-centeredness. So attention to patient experience is on the rise. As we collect numbers on providers, hospitals are taking a more granular look at ways to use experience data to move the chains. With some time at the airport recently (and an empty cocktail napkin) I ... Continue Reading about Seven Things to do with Patient Experience Data