MD Whistleblower

 A few days prior to penning this post, I had an unexpected but valuable educational lesson.  The experience was brief but its effects are still lingering with me. Not surprisingly, when a physician becomes a patient, he or she views the medical profession through a different lens. For instance, much of the medical advice that we doctors blithely dispense to patients, feels a little less casual when we doctors are on the receiving end.   Consider the following example. Physician Dispensing Medical Advice:   So, it’s time for your yearly labs.   I see that you are due for your colonoscopy, so I’ll arrange this. And, are you ready to get that hernia fixed? Physician Receiving Medical Advice: So, it’s time for your yearly labs.   I see that you are due for your colonoscopy, so I’ll arrange this. And, are you ready to get that hernia fixed? I’ll let my discerning readers decide which of the above scenarios is easier on the doctor.   Time for your...

On a regular basis, physicians receive calls or communications from patients who want to schedule their own scope examinations of their colon or stomach regions.  These requests are solely from patients without any input from medical professionals.  A few days before writing this, a patient contacted our office to ask if we would perform an scope exam (EGD) of the esophagus and stomach regions at the same time as his previously scheduled colonoscopy to evaluate his cough.  This was his idea.  No physician or medical professional was involved. We summarily decline these requests.   If one of my own patients is making a scope exam request, I may acquiesce but only after having a dialog on the issue.   I do not extend this leniency to patients I do not know and aim for access onto my scope schedule. I believe that patients should not be permitted to order diagnostic tests and procedures.   While this may seem self-evident to readers, I surmise that ma...

While folks across the country will gather around their holiday tables, I suspect that conversations won't be focused on the First Thanksgiving when the Pilgrims broke bread with the Wampanoag Native Americans over a 3 day feast in 1621.  There was no pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce served then, and it was more likely that venison was on the table than turkey.  Sometimes, myths are more fun than facts. The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth The space for thankfulness has narrowed, but it is still there and we must do our best to seek it out. This task, of course, does not need to be restricted to only one day each year. It seems more challenging than ever for us to carve away chaos, polarization and discord so that we can focus more clearly on what we should be thankful for.   Yes, there is beauty in the world which we must seek out and celebrate.   Yes, there is kindness and generosity in our midst which we must champion and emulate. Yes, there is dialogue and ...

I think that I’m now practicing the best medicine of my  career.  What’s the explanation for this?  Am I smarter now?  Have I simply aged well like fine wine?  Am I delusional?   Have I lowered my professional standards? Consider this traditional Jewish fable, which will help me to explain my newfound enhanced professional performance. A man complains to his rabbi that he is overwhelmed in his small apartment filled with children, his wife and his in-laws.   The walls are closing in on him and he is desperate for relief. The rabbi counsels the man to bring a goat into the apartment.   The man is perplexed and believes this will only worsen his dilemma. The rabbi persists and the man complies Months later, the man returns and wails that the situation is worse than ever.  The goat has made the situation intolerable.   The rabbi directs him to remove the goat as soon as he returns home. Days later the man return and than...

Many referrals to gastroenterologists like me originate from emergency rooms.  Patients seen there with all manners of abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, bowel disturbances and rectal bleeding are typical examples of this.  Chest pain is another common issue that emergency rooms and primary care specialists send to gastroenterologists, which we often find to be vexing to explain.  I have been through this exercise for a few decades now.  Here’s how it goes down. A patient experiences chest pain and seeks care in an emergency room fearful that his heart is the culprit.   Emergency room personnel take a careful medical history, examine him and do all of the necessary testing and confidently conclude that the heart is well.   No explanation for the pain is determined.   Here’s what this patient should be told. ‘Your heart is fine.   We’re not sure what’s causing your chest pain.   Please arrange to follow up with your primary care physic...

So often, our views on an issue change when we are personally affected or exposed.  When this occurs, I believe it reveals hypocrisy on our part.  Shouldn’t our points of view be the same whether we are affected or not?  Of course, it should be but we all know that this is not the case. Here’s a stark example illustrating my point.   Many of us support a policy prohibiting paying ransom for hostages.   Doing so, we argue, only encourages the taking of future hostages.   However, might our intellectual view on this issue be different if one of our loved ones was taken hostage?   I suspect that it would be.   I could have cited ransomware as another example.   It’s easier to advise a business not to pay the criminals to restore its data and functionality from a safe perch.   There are still millions of people here in America without health insurance.   I suspect that most folks out there with medical insurance who are busy with ...