Does your practice just take any patient that walks through the door? While you are professionally obligated to treat virtually any patient that walks into your practice, because ethically, physicians can not deny patients care based on race, income, or other descriminatory practices, you may have more control than you think about who you can […]

With the climate becoming harder and harder for small, independent medical practices to survive, marketing budgets are getting tighter and tighter –if not disappearing all together. Yet, ironically, good marketing is essential to keep these practices going and growing. So, what is a small practice to do?! The answer is social media. While social media […]

Great customer service can go a long way in a medical practice. It can keep your customers/patients returning, it can get you referrals, it can make for a more pleasant environment to work in, and it can reduce your likelihood of getting sued for medical malpractice. Today, let’s revisit the concept of good, old-fashioned customer […]

Today, let’s explore the top 5 reasons Internists are sued for medical malpractice. Knowing is half the battle, right? Our data today comes from a large-scale, recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, entitled, “Characteristics of Medical Professional Liability Claims Against Internists.” Of the 33,747 closed-claim medical malpractice cases that involved Internists, there were five […]

Many would agree that the execution of advance directives is a good thing, and that such documents can often clarify stressful, confusing situations. But, what happens when an advance directive is not interpreted correctly? And, how often does this happen? The answer is we don’t really know. What we do know is that the potential […]

When you went into medicine, did you ever think that you’d have to be prepared to fend off a shooter in your place of employment? It’s a sad fact that the phenomenon of disturbed individuals deciding to take out their anger/frustration/alienation on innocent individuals in public places isn’t going away. And, as a result, hospitals […]

The internet is great for a lot of things: finding recipes, reading the news, watching cat videos, etc. But, how about searching for medical information? How about for getting a diagnosis? How about for getting a diagnosis from lay people? How about for getting a rare diagnosis from lay people? Getting uncomfortable? I am. The […]

In honor of National Nurses Week, I thought I would take some time to reflect on my own personal experiences with nurses. If you follow this blog, you know that I have written extensively about the challenges we have faced with our son, Owen, who was born with a multicystic kidney and tracheal esophageal fistula […]

Even the best practices have conflicts among partners once-in-a-while. A recent article on PhysiciansPractice.com articulated the different kinds of relationships partners have (professional, personal and business), and how, often, it is the business relationship between partners that causes the most problems. (Most often, partners are drawn together due to friendship and mutual professional respect, right?) […]