Healthcare costs in the US are the highest – Why?

Why are US healthcare costs higher than the price paid for the same procedures, tests and drugs ANYWHERE else on the planet?

Physician Burnout is CRAZY sometimes

Here’s a common definition of crazy behavior:

Crazy is …

Doing the same thing over and over again
and expecting a different result.

Medical Malpractice Myths … another one bites the dust.

Apparently there is a widely held belief amongst physicians of a connection between income and malpractice risk.

Turns out the idea that poor patients are more likely to sue their doctors is nothing more than a myth, according to report published in the Friday online edition of Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research.

Here is an excerpt from the Abstract

Doctors and Nurses form a TEAM in healthcare

Often that team is quite dysfunctional because of a basic cross wiring in the command and control of the team.

A doctors and nurses post on KevinMD.com last week hit a nerve. It was titled “Listening to Nurses is a Key to Being a Good Doctor”.

I couldn’t agree more.

I just ran into this tremendous resource today and have to share. It is a 4 day Yoga and Medicine Conference with up to 16 hours of CME running in conjunction with the Copper Mountain 28th Annual Genuine Jazz and Wine Festival.

Worst Medical Technology Dangers – Here’s Your Dirty Dozen

Medscape Today has published its list of the “12 Worst Medical Technology Dangers”. Looking at the list … it would be more accurately described as a list of error prone systems within healthcare. Each of these technologies work magnificently, until we throw humans into the mix … or fail to put systems into place to address the known medical error risks.

The lists are based on interviews with 27,157 adults as part of the annual National Health Interview Survey, conducted by a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sleepy’s says its rankings were based on two variables:
1) average hours of sleep that respondents said they got in a 24-hour period, and
2) respondents’ occupations, as they would be classified by the Department of Labor.

The jobs with the most sleep-deprived work forces are below, starting with the most sleep-deprived at the top:

Physician Burnout – Gender Differences in Burnout Symptoms.

Numerous studies have shown that an average of 1 in 3 practicing physicians are suffering from symptomatic physician burnout on any given office day … worldwide, regardless of specialty.

The three classic signs and symptoms of physician burnout are measured by a standardized evaluation; the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). They are:

1) Emotional Exhaustion

The doctor is tapped out after the office day, hospital rounds or being on call and is unable to recover with time off. Over time their energy level begins to follow a downward spiral.

2) “Depersonalization”

This shows up as cynicism or a negative, callous, excessively detached response to their job duties. Often burned out doctors will begin to blame and complain about their patients and their problems.

3) “Reduced Accomplishment”

Here physician burnout has the doctor start to question whether they are offering quality care and whether what they do really matters at all.

As more female doctors move into the workforce, researchers are beginning to notice differences in the way physician burnout presents in men and women.

If you think for a moment about the three scales of the MBI, you will probably be able to imagine the differences. Here is what groundbreaking physician burnout research published in 2011 is showing.