What I've learned from 547 doctor suicides

--------------------------------------------------------------- Here are the stories you missed on KevinMD. Thank you for your continuing readership. --------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsors [eBrief: How to move the needle on patient satisfaction and other measures that matter](. Consumers value hospital safety ratings over cost 97% of the time. Your communication infrastructure can have a direct effect on these measures and others that impact hospital reimbursements. [Learn more](. Malpractice claims involving EHRs have been [on the rise continuously for the past decade]( a new study shows. A top risk? [Copy and paste errors -- appearing in 14% of all claims](. [Is your hospital communication system trapped in the dark ages?]( Just like a medieval page boy, pagers are annoying and inefficient. This leads to delayed patient care, frustrated providers, and potential HIPAA breaches. Learn why you need to ditch your [Page Boy]( today. [Case study video]( Technology that’s there for you -- and your patients. [Watch now](. --------------------------------------------------------------- KevinMD Plus: Nov. 2, 2017 [This patient didn’t want my care because of how I looked]( Brooklyn, New York, Spring of 1992. As I looked out of the New York City taxi window on Avenue T, I saw the building. It had always appeared to me as the most magnificent building I had ever seen that housed people in need of rehabilitative care. I was happy; I was ready, I was […] [What I’ve learned from 547 doctor suicides]( Five years ago today I was at a memorial. Another suicide. Our third doctor in 18 months. Everyone kept whispering, “Why?” I was determined to find out. So I started counting dead doctors. I left the service with a list of 10. Now I have 547. Immediately, I began writing and speaking about suicide. So many distressed doctors (and […] [We are all just one diagnosis away from a different reality]( “How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.” —George Washington Carver Earlier this week, I walked into the exam room and introduced […] --------------------------------------------------------------- [An inspiring KevinMD keynote]( will make your event memorable. "Kevin's keynote presentation was perfect. Extremely rich in content, and a delivery that is world class." [Visit Kevin's speaking page]( to find out more. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Women doctors: Speak up, because #MeToo]( “Aren’t you cute,” he said as he smiled and squeezed her cheeks. On the start of a new rotation, a medical student walked into clinic and introduced herself to the attending physician. With all of the news surrounding the Weinstein debacle, Alyssa Milano has urged women to share their stories of sexual harassment or abuse […] [The opioid epidemic: What we can learn from history]( It’s no secret that the United States is in the midst of an opiate epidemic. Almost 60,000 people died last year from overdoses, and overdose deaths are now the most common killer of Americans under the age of 50. Physicians and our patients have finally started the difficult conversation about what it will take to […] [Don’t be so rigid in your thinking]( “She doesn’t look like a person with an addiction problem to me,” replied the physician to the psychiatrist, referring to a patient who was admitted to the hospital for confusion. She was found at home amidst an array of bottles containing various controlled substances, and a toxicology screen positive for cannabis. She was in a […] [Is rising maternal mortality just hype? Nope, here’s why.]( The statistics are staggering. The high maternal mortality rate in the U.S. has been a matter of great interest and debate, spurring a reflective look into our health care system to determine why our country is on the wrong end of this statistic. The reasons and numbers vary across the country and notably in the […] [Barriers and hope for diversity when it comes to clinical trials]( The diversity of patients seen in any oncologist’s clinic is a microcosm of what makes America so unique. From one room to the next, I am amazed by the various ethnicities, economic backgrounds, and religious faiths that I encounter. Each of these patients forms a composite of beliefs regarding their cancer; just as every tumor […] [Resist! The invasion of computers in health care]( I walked into the ICU amidst a chaos of harried residents, chirping alarms, and the whir of the portable X-ray machine. Aromas ranging from old coffee down to vomit and stool mixed together in the usual fashion. In other words, it was a typical morning. I watched as my team gathered into a semicircle around […] [The key to health care is to have a great team]( I was a chubby kid, but my parents still introduced me to lots of sports. Soccer, swimming, tennis, basketball; so many sports, when all I wanted to do was read and eat Doritos. I wasn’t particularly good at any of them, but some of my teams were better than good. We were champs. My swim […] [Empathy is better felt than defined]( Empathy is a cryptic term. Those in the health care profession can certainly spout off a variety of phrases and metaphors that are typically used to describe the concept of empathy in the educational setting. Throughout my medical education thus far it has been described as “putting yourself in another’s shoes” or “sharing in another’s […] [Fix the system to address physician burnout]( The prevalence of burnout among physicians is estimated to be more than 50 percent and has grown in recent years. This alarming trend is largely due to changing patient demographics, increasing cost constraints, new federal and state regulations, and other external factors that have reshaped the daily work experience of physicians. Too often today, physicians spend more time on data entry […] [We figured this could boost your productivity]( They come in all shapes and sizes. They are health care customers. The conveyor belt works relentlessly, and takes them to caring providers eagerly waiting for them. What is on the menu? Healing, understanding, human touch, reassurance, medical advice. All of that in a time efficient manner, in accordance with the sacred laws of productivity. […] [Physicians die from a death by a thousand messages]( There are a couple of times a year when there are no house staff to be found anywhere in the hospital or the outpatient practices. These include the holiday and end-of-year parties, resident retreats, and the annual house staff picnic. The house staff picnic is a particular favorite among the interns and residents, a full […] [A resident’s dream turns into cold reality]( It’s every emergency resident’s dream to be part of a big procedure: The rush of a heart-pounding, adrenaline-filled moment of slamming in a chest tube, “criching” someone or being part of the big show — a thoracotomy. The holy grail. Cracking a chest, performing intracardiac massage, cross-clamping the aorta. A last-ditch effort to pull a […] [It’s time to speak with a collective voice: Why doctors should unionize]( Since the birth of our nation, labor unions have existed in one form or another in the United States. Unions are a force to protect the “working population” from inequality, gaps in wages and a political system failing to represent specific industry groups. Historically, unions organize skilled workers in a specific corporation, such as a […] [A patient called me callous. She was right.]( Many years ago, on a busy day in my obstetrics and gynecology office, one of my partner’s patients came in for “bleeding, early pregnancy.” Since my partner wasn’t in that day, I saw the woman, whose name was Sarah. After we’d talked a bit, I examined her and did an ultrasound. As I’d expected, she […] --------------------------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the KevinMD e-newsletter. If a friend sent you this email and you want to subscribe, go to [KevinMD](. --------------------------------------------------------------- 173 Daniel Webster Highway Nashua, New Hampshire 03062 [Unsubscribe]( | [Change Subscriber Options](