Pinworm Panic
Worms part 2… and yet another med school lecture I must have missed. A few nights ago at 2am a patient came to the ER with her freaked out mom…
Read More Prescription drugs
Price Transparency & Paper Prescriptions
In two of the three hospitals where I work patients are asked for their “preferred pharmacy” at the time of triage. That seems helpful and proactive, but for patients who…
Read More 
Take the Full Course or Else! Or Else What?
Ever since med school I’ve been struck by how much medicine is more art than science. Dosing and treatment durations have always seemed so surprisingly variable and squishy between doctors……
Read More 
The Golden Rule as Legal Loophole?
A few nights ago I got a late call from a patient with a clear cut UTI. Pharmacies close early here, especially on weekends. So choices were for me to…
Read More 
Healthcare Reform Reform…
The future of Trumpcare really had us wondering last week. For some reason the Marx Brothers came to mind: Groucho: Well, if you look at it, it’s a barn. If…
Read More 
Narcan in the Water
Moving on to a bigger problem than CHS, narcotic overdose deaths now exceed traffic and homicide deaths. Toward the end of my residency and in the early 2000s, we were…
Read More 
Worried Well
A surgeon friend sent me a book called “The Social Transformation of American Medicine.” Good stuff, but I wish there was a parallel read called “Transformation of the American Patient.”…
Read More 
Removal of meds can come with far more stress for doctors and patients
Photo by pina messina on Unsplash You may not be aware that it’s far easier to start patients on new medications than to take them off. If I prescribe a medicine, patients take…
Read More 
