The Hospitalist Shift From Hell, and How to Fix It

I came home from my last 12 hour hospitalist shift exhausted.  My eyes were bleary eyed from staring at the EMR , and I was in the state of beatendownness where you have been totally crushed by admissions, cross cover, your coworkers, staff and patients.  Owning a coffee shop was looking better and better, and [...]

How Doctors Think Outside of the Medical Box

It was a tough week in Pookieville.  I worked all week at one of my favorite hospitals.  I like working there because the specialists I work with are hypercompetent and always willing to help.  Furthermore, they like to chat. Well, they like to chat about interesting cases.
I was particularly challenged this week because I had to [...]

Play Nice in the ED: Why Hospitalists and ED Docs Should Be Friends

I do a lot of work as a hospitalist, and have noted a fair amount of antagonism amongst my colleagues towards the ED.  There seems to be a lot of bickering between ED docs and hospitalists as to WHO should take responsibility for patient care. More specifically, if a patient has been admitted to a [...]

Handoffs or Fumbles: Transferring Care Amongst Physicians

There are many patient hand offs during EVERY physician’s day.  Primary care physicians hand their patients off to ED docs, who in turn hand them off to hospitalists or specialists, who in turn (eventually) hand them back to their out patient physician.  Additionally, there are hospitalist to hospitalist hand offs and specialist to specialist hand offs.  [...]

How To Listen So Patients Will Talk

I wish that in medical school and residency we had spent more time learning how to communicate.  We finish training stuffed with knowledge (think a brat on a grill!) but are horrible at distilling that knowledge to help people.  As a hospitalist I have tried to hone my interviewing skills, but feel that I could [...]