I love my patients. And I love surprises. Most patients fear unexpected medical events, but medical surprises don’t always have to be bad news.
I’m a neighborhood family doc. My patients are friends. They celebrate my milestones and I celebrate theirs. A few like to surprise me for my birthday.
…
Another indication that health care is sick—doctors are being told to stop asking patients open-ended questions like:
“How are you feeling?”
“What worries you?”
“What’s on your mind?”
Today a physician just e-mailed me:
“I am really,
…
If you’re a doctor, I bet you speak doctorly. You act doctorly. And dress doctorly. And spend your days in clinic with other doctorly doctors.
But life is what happens while you’re busy staring at computerized flow sheets, algorithms, and billing codes.
Real life happens outside of man-made medical institutions.
…
I’ve never been a small-talk doc. My therapist calls me “the Dr. Kevorkian of medical taboos.” I’m most comfortable discussing the uncomfortable—topics that scare most physicians. In my TED talk, I bust through three taboos: human sexuality, physician-patient intimacy, and doctor suicides.
Taboo #1: Sexuality. Americans are oversexualized and sexually repressed.
…
Health insurance is complex. Eating out is easy—unless you were to involve your health insurance company.
If you hired a third party to pay your restaurant bill, you’d pay twice as much, wait 2 weeks for a table, and have 7 minutes to eat.
…
Dear Pamela:
I can’t tell if I’m burned out or just don’t like being a doctor. My own medical school experience was so abusive. I wonder how other students like me fare when they enter abusive residency programs. I supposedly work at a place that values patients above all else,
…
I love caring for patients—young and old. And though I may not accept your insurance, I will always accept you. I’m still happy to care for Medicare patients even though I opted out of Medicare on Independence Day 2006. Why don’t I accept Medicare?
…
Just for the record: I am happy to see you—irrespective of your insurance.
I accept most insurance plans. And if I don’t accept your insurance, I have a very good reason.
I will not sign a contract with a health insurer that:
Abuses and bullies me and/or my patients.
…
Doctors spend their 20s and 30s studying while most of their friends are at parties and enjoying their youth.
Doctors may amass up to 500K debt for the honor of one day caring for you and your family.
Doctors delay childbearing and starting their own families so they can care for your family.
…
I started kissing patients in med school. And I haven’t stopped.
During my third-year pediatric rotation, I would stay up late at night in the hospital, holding sick and dying children. I’d lift them from their cribs, kiss them, and sing to them, rocking them back and forth until they fell asleep.
…
Your doctor has more control over your life than anyone—other than you.
Your doctor may be the first face you see as you’re born and the last one you see as you die. Doctors look deep inside you, in places nobody has been before. Doctors prescribe drugs that can kill you or save your life.
…
TRANSCRIPTION OF DR. WIBLE’S PRESENTATION
PART ONE (video):
INTRODUCTION: Dr. Pamela Wible is a family physician born into a family of physicians. Her parents warned her not to pursue medicine,
…
Johnny’s disabled. He can’t get to my office anymore. So I drive 100 miles up the Oregon coast to check in on him. I get lost, but finally discover his little white house on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
“Last time a doctor come to my house,
…
Doctor revived after suicide. Here's what he says.
