Let's Be Real Clear About This
Are doctors being overpaid and causing the catastrophic rise in American Healthcare costs?Let's look at internists:Well, yes but...Maybe it is that we American doctors are seeing our patients too often.Or could this be the problem? (Source: In My Humble Opinion)
Source: In My Humble Opinion - April 21, 2014 Category: Primary Care Authors: Jordan Grumet Source Type: blogs
It Takes Something Away From You
When someone asks me about what it is like to be a doctor, a funny thing happens. My eyes start to water and the words catch.It's rather comical how emotional I can be. I have been all my life. I sometimes feel the sadness flow through me. I am a sieve. Whether it be a touching book or a sappy TV commercial. I cry. Silently. Often missed by others in the room, the tear ducts in my eyes become overactive. And it eventually stops.I used to be embarrassed. I used to cover my eyes and wipe the tears dry before anyone could see. I don't anymore. As so often in li...
Source: In My Humble Opinion - April 20, 2014 Category: Primary Care Authors: Jordan Grumet Source Type: blogs
Attention Physicians, Your Government Just Flipped You The Bird
According to a 2012 study by Jackson Healthcare, the percentage rate of U.S. Physician compensation is among the lowest of western nations. In 2011 physician's salaries compromised 8.6 percent of the nations total health care costs. This is in comparison to 15 percent in Germany, 11 percent in France, and 11.6 percent in Australia. Detractors point to the fact that although the percentages speak for themselves, if you look at the total number of dollars (Per capita health spending in the U.S. is double that of the average for the twelve other OECD countries), physicians are still compensated quite well. &...
Source: In My Humble Opinion - April 13, 2014 Category: Primary Care Authors: Jordan Grumet Source Type: blogs
Why I don't Always Follow Guidelines, My Response To Barron Lerner
Barron Lerner thinks he understands doctor's motives. In his recent article in the Atlantic he laments that physicians act on tradition and emotion over adopting new science. In defense of his position, he sites the example of how cardiologists use angioplasty and coronary artery bypass to treat coronary disease. He states:cardiologists have been remarkably slow to abandon the old hypothesis, continuing to perform hundreds of thousands of bypass operations and angioplasties annually not only in the setting of heart attacks (when they are appropriate) but also to try to prevent them.He, of course, makes th...
Source: In My Humble Opinion - April 6, 2014 Category: Primary Care Authors: Jordan Grumet Source Type: blogs
I'm Sounding The Death Knell
It was a particularly challenging case. On the car ride into the hospital, I found myself doing something that I rarely do. I called a local allergist for an inpatient consult. Most allergy issues are not an emergency. So it is odd indeed to summon this particular kind of physician into the medical wards. His nurse took the message and promised that she would plug my mobile number into his pager.A few minutes later we were discussing the particulars of the case. He was excited by the details. This was something that he had only seen a few times in his career. He rattled off a...
Source: In My Humble Opinion - March 29, 2014 Category: Primary Care Authors: Jordan Grumet Source Type: blogs
Malcolm Gladwell Is Wrong, Tell Them That You Love Them
Malcolm Gladwell thinks we should tell people whats it's really like to be a doctor. And by God I have invested the last seven years in doing just that. I have written countless blogs, given lectures, and traveled to Ireland. I have coined the term Caring 2.0 to describe the bidirectional flow of empathy. Patients will tell us what it is like to suffer with disease, and we will tell them of our own battles. Forged somewhere in the molten lava of truth and disclosure, a deeper relationship will arise. We will heal not only with our hands, but with our hearts. In the process, the ooz...
Source: In My Humble Opinion - March 20, 2014 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Jordan Grumet Source Type: blogs
A Review Of The White Coat Investor
In conclusion, for the medical student, struggling resident, or new attending with little financial knowledge, I believe this book is a must read that will save a small fortune both in terms of monetary well being as well as frustration. For the more advanced investor like myself, these chapters form a stellar check list for us to rate ourselves against. After reading this book, I clearly understand the strength and weakness of my own financial plan.I've made a few changes already! (Source: In My Humble Opinion)
Source: In My Humble Opinion - March 11, 2014 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Jordan Grumet Source Type: blogs
Proof Of Life
It's not that I was stressed out about being alone with the kids. My wife had gone out of town before. It was the darn mornings. I'm used to racing out of the house at the crack of dawn, when the rest of my family is still asleep. My most productive hours of the day are before most people even wake up. With my wife gone, the mornings with the kids were all mine. Accordingly, I lounged in bed an extra few minutes before dragging myself into the shower. Unlike most mornings, there was really no rush. The kids wouldn't be up for another half hour, at least. When they did awake, I wou...
Source: In My Humble Opinion - March 1, 2014 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Jordan Grumet Source Type: blogs
Are You A Physician Or A Secretary?
I'm no economist. In fact I have never taken any business or accounting classes in my life. But it doesn't take a formal education to get this. We are speeding down the wrong path.The call at three in the morning woke me from a deep sleep. I fumbled and strained to hear the whispered voice of the apologetic nurse. Apparently Mrs. Thompson had scraped her arm against the wheel chair, and suffered a minor abrasion. No harm, no foul. Except that ever since the state had come in and eviscerated the nursing home protocols, extra precautions were being taken. Some things just...
Source: In My Humble Opinion - February 23, 2014 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Jordan Grumet Source Type: blogs
Ribs
The drink you spilt all over me"Lover's Spit" left on repeatMy mom and dad let me stay homeIt drives you crazy getting oldSometimes I pretend, in the moments before waking, that I am a child once again. That instead of this old hapless body, I am unencumbered by the chains of longevity. In these unconscious waves of semi reality I am unaware of the degraded muscle and brittle bone. I jump up and down on the bed and than race out the door through the endless fields of corn. My father, the stocky build of a farmer, runs after me. Before his skin became old and sallow. &n...
Source: In My Humble Opinion - February 16, 2014 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Jordan Grumet Source Type: blogs
Motion
The first thing I become cognizant of is motion: the beating of the heart, the contraction of the muscles as I place the phone back onto the base or into my pocket, the shallow breaths that willow past the lips. Only then do I contemplate notifying the family and giving my condolences. Death has followed me from childhood. Not as a specter lurking in the darkened corners but more like a willing companion in a yet undisclosed game of strategy. And as far as professions go, there is a false intimacy in doing what I do. To experience the aftertaste of mortality on such a regular basis without partaking...
Source: In My Humble Opinion - February 8, 2014 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Jordan Grumet Source Type: blogs
I Did All This
Home visits are hard, there is no doubt about it.I felt like I had been driving for hours. The thirty minute travel time showing on my GPS was woefully understated due to the arctic temperatures and colossal snowfall. My jacket and clothes felt caked with dried salt rubbed off from the car or somehow accumulated from the ether. I pulled the key out of the ignition and braced for the subzero temperatures. My bag, recovering on the passenger seat, was bulging with equipment: stethoscope, blood pressure cough, prescription pad. The edges of the satchel were frayed from being inebriated with...
Source: In My Humble Opinion - February 2, 2014 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Jordan Grumet Source Type: blogs
When Medical Care Hurts
When I was seventeen, I developed a medical problem due to no fault of my own. It was painful, it was embarrassing, and when it became uncomfortable enough to disrupt my life, I went to see a well known surgeon downtown. The specialist, tucked away in the hallow halls of academia, stared down at me past a pair of spectacles perched at the end of his ever-protruding nose. When he examined the area, he spoke in a measured and controlled manner.It's really kind of disgusting, actually.These were not the words a self-conscious, suffering teenager wanted to hear. He then proceeded to do an uncomfortable, totally unn...
Source: In My Humble Opinion - January 26, 2014 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Jordan Grumet Source Type: blogs
It's Time For Hospice and Palliative Care To Pivot
Movements come and movements go. To be memorable, to last, depends on continuously refining the message. The brand, by necessity blindingly clear in the beginning, must be anything but static. Ideas mature, knowledge grows, and movements pivot. They must pivot. The meteoric rise of hospice and palliative care has had untoward affects. Specifically, the treatment of pain and suffering has dislodged itself from the moors of clinical medicine. A new generation of caregivers rightfully have focused on symptomatology, but have unwittingly separated the body from the soul. To deny that t...
Source: In My Humble Opinion - January 23, 2014 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Jordan Grumet Source Type: blogs
It's The End Of The World As We Know It
Amongst the deluge of social media offerings of late, a small quack filled the airwaves for but a brief moment, a few weeks ago. While some say that the death of the medical blogosphere is greatly exaggerated, others lament the dearth of new and unique voices filling the vacuum. Indeed so many good writers have come and gone. Are we becoming extinct, or is this a short lived blip, a hiccup? Does anyone really care about creating content anymore, or are we just a lousy group of aggregators prone to navel gazing and self promotion?And more importantly, does it matter? Anyone who has written pub...
Source: In My Humble Opinion - January 19, 2014 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Jordan Grumet Source Type: blogs
