Recently, I had the opportunity to decamp from the the friendly confines of GlassHospital and trek a few miles to the north. GlassHospital has brokered a teaching and patient-sharing agreement with a nearby religiously-affiliated community hospital I’ll call Our Lady of Blessed Proximity. Our Lady has a residency training program, just like ours, with the major difference [...]
21Jul10
United Nations of Medicine
4 Comments
Posted in hospital care, medical education
Tagged community hospitals, international medical graduates, peace
Tagged community hospitals, international medical graduates, peace
20Jun10
Finding Empathy
Most people enter the healing arts with a genuine desire to serve others. The long educational journey and the realities of both the workaday world and the various business models of health care often strain our abilities to act in an empathic manner. We have to pay the bills, after all. “No money, no mission,” [...]
5 Comments
Posted in hospital care, medical education, patient experience
Tagged empathy, finding meaning in medicine, values
Tagged empathy, finding meaning in medicine, values
13Jun10
Black & White
Imagine if I told you that because of the color of your skin, you wouldn’t be allowed access to certain health care services. Pretty outrageous, right? After all, discrimination based on skin color or ethnicity is beyond the pale in 21st century America. What if the color of your skin made you four times more likely [...]
5 Comments
Posted in health disparities, hospital care, patient experience
Tagged chronic kidney disease, dialysis unit
Tagged chronic kidney disease, dialysis unit
27May10
Road Trip!
GlassHospital is on the road. [And I'm not at Disney World, as the photo suggests.] This week I’m participating in the first ever Patient Experience Summit hosted by the Cleveland Clinic. The Clinic has emerged as the national leader in thinking about and developing a positive experience for patients “from the time they call to [...]
2May10
Eating
One thing I try to teach medical students and residents is how to answer the following question: “When can a patient can be discharged from the hospital?” Ideally, a patient should be able to do anything upon leaving that they could do upon entering: Can the patient walk? Can he poop? Can he eat? This [...]
