I came across an article from ASA Monitor: August 2021: Volume 85, Issue 8 from anesthesiologist Steve Shafer. I really resonated with what he said.

‘Hello. I Am Steve Shafer, Your Anesthesiologist’

Key points:

Everyone has a role within their expertise. We can all work together as a team.
“Doctor” should be reserved for physicians who have earned that title and clinically trained as one.
Health care providers have a duty to honestly represent their roles to patients. Because “doctor” unambiguously means “physician” to patients, only physicians should introduce themselves to patients as “doctor.” Because “anesthesiologist” implies “physician,” only residency-trained physicians should adopt the term “anesthesiologist.”

Dealing with difficult colleagues

We’ve all been there. It starts early and young…. bullies. And then there’s arrogance and difficult attitudes and just overall uncompromising a$$holes. Life throws the full gambit of challenging personalities at us. After awhile, I learned that these people are everywhere. No matter where you go, you can never hide from them.

But what do you do when you come across a confronting/difficult/antagonistic/arrogant/etc colleague at work?

Business Insider, June 2011: 9 Useful Strategies to Dealing with Difficult People at Work

Be calm.
Understand the person’s intentions.
Get some perspective from others.
Let the person know where you are coming from.
Build a rapport.
Treat the person with respect.
Focus on what can be actioned upon.
Ignore.
Escalate to a higher authority for resolution.

Worth Losing Friends Over — Doctor Enough

Today, I hurt. I’ve been talking about this pandemic for well over a month. My friend list is dwindling, and there are several people I don’t plan on catching up with when this pandemic is over—and now entire communities. America’s privilege is showing, in a terrible way. Rural areas that have been luckily unaffected are […]

via Worth Losing Friends Over — Doctor Enough

The Bad Guys in Healthcare Aren’t Who You Think They Are — Doctor Enough

I’m going to take a stand on something that really gets my blood boiling… health insurance companies. People want to blame physicians for bad outcomes (I’m looking at you NRA supporters that are claiming we, as physicians, need to fix our own lane first). They want to blame hospitals for long wait times, they want […]

via The Bad Guys in Healthcare Aren’t Who You Think They Are — Doctor Enough

Leadership

From HBR:
People never forget how managers treated them when they were facing loss. And we will remember how our institutions, managers, and peers, held us through this crisis — or failed to. We also see the consequences of past failures of holding, in those institutions struggling to mobilize an already depleted pool of resources. It is tempting to resort to command and control in a crisis, but it is leaders who hold instead that help us work through it. And it is to those leaders, I believe, that we’ll turn to when time comes to articulate a vision for the future.
When I ask managers to reflect a bit more on the leaders whose visions they find most compelling and enduring, they usually realize that none of those leaders started from a vision or stopped there. Instead the leader started with a sincere concern for a group of people, and as they held those people and their concerns, a vision emerged. They then held people through the change it took to realize that vision, together. Their vision may be how we remember leaders because it can hold us captive. But it is their hold that truly sets us free.

Responsibility for your own health

I was shocked to see that the NHS could ban surgery for the obese and smokers. That’s socialized medicine. You take a conglomerate group of people (the UK) on a limited budget for healthcare… and basically find the cheapest most cost-effective way to deliver healthcare. But in a way, it’s empowering patients to take responsibility for their own health. Smoking, for sure — I agree 100% that surgery should be banned for this population. Obesity is a bit trickier — there’s genetics and environmental factors at play in this one. I don’t think anyone chooses to be obese. But, people do have the power to change their eating and exercise habits. Despite these efforts, there are some people who are still obese…. and these people should not be faulted.

Why single out the obese and smokers?

obesity-and-cv-disease-1ppt-44-728 — From SlideShare

obesity-and-cv-disease-1ppt-43-728 — From SlideShare

tobacco-health-statistics — From TobaccoFreeLife.org

Smokers and the obese have elevated surgical risk and mortality, which means more cost to treat and hospitalize and provide ongoing care.

I think the NHS is on to something here. They’re opening doors to moving the liability and responsibility away from physicians and towards patients. This is a plus. Outsiders may see it as separatism and elitist to only provide care for people who are healthy. But look at the facts and the data…. obesity has a lot of co-morbidities associated. Smoking has a lot of co-morbidities associated as well. Why should physicians be penalized for re-admissions, poor wound healing, longer hospitalizations when the underlying conditions themselves are already challenging enough? In fact, I would urge insurance companies to provide incentives to patients/the insured with discounted rates for good and maintained health and wellness. With all the technologies, medications, and information out there, it’s time patients take responsibility for their own health. I take responsibility for mine — watching my diet, exercising, working on getting enough rest, maintaining activities to keep my mind and body engaged, meditating for rest and relaxation. It’s not easy, but my health is 100% my responsibility. I refuse to pass the buck to my husband, my family, my physician, etc. I do what I can to optimize my health and future — and if that doesn’t work… I call for backup.

Patients need to change their mindset re: health. It is not your spouse’s responsibility to track your meds. It is your responsibility to know your medical conditions and surgical history. The single most important (and thoughtful) thing a patient can do is keep an up-to-date list of medications, past/current medical history, surgical history, and allergies to bring to every doctor’s appointment and surgery. This helps streamline and bring to the forefront your conditions and how these will interplay with your medical and surgical plan and postoperative care. Please do not forget recreational drugs, smoking habit, and drinking habit in this list. It is very important to know all of these things. Also, your emotional history is very important. Depression, anxiety, failure to cope, etc. This all helps tie in your current living situation with stressors and your medical history.

Links for educating yourself in taking responsibility for your health:

The physician anesthesiologist vs. CRNA debate

Why is this even a debate?

It seems to me that the CRNA-led debate is financial… once you tease through all the fluff.

So here’s some literature I found:

Evidence-based review did NOT find nurse anesthetists’ care equal to that of physician anesthesiologists
Unsupervised anesthesia care by a nurse anesthetist is a threat to patient safety
Anesthesiologist Direction and Patient Outcomes
Is Physician Anesthesia Cost-Effective?
I chose not to include biased studies where sick patients were not compared as well as morbidity and mortality.

As an anesthesiologist, I work in an MD-only anesthesia group. This is by choice: I prefer doing my own cases and being responsible for my own liabilities. The times I have required an anesthetic, I have requested a physician anesthesiologist. As a resident, I had very good insurance coverage, so I wanted a physician for my surgery. At that time, I was ok with having a resident anesthesiologist paired with an attending anesthesiologist for my case. My second surgery was done at my current hospital, and we only have MD anesthesiologists. Perhaps I’m biased? I know and I understand the path/journey/training it takes to get to become a physician anesthesiologist. I want someone who is well-trained, independently thinks, vigilant, and knowledgeable.

I’m sure there are great CRNAs out there… but when I was a resident… we used to supervise CRNAs in our final training year…. and it was scary some of things they would do. Who extubates from a trach R&R on 30% FiO2? Yeah, that particular CRNA told me they had 30 years experience. 30 years experience of doing something wrong doesn’t equate to 30 years of knowledgeable experience. And let’s not forget that CRNAs need a 15 minute morning break, 30 minute lunch break, and 15 minute afternoon break and they go home when their “shift” ends (even if it’s in the middle of a complex case). I take a break when I can… I eat lunch and take a bathroom break when I can…. and I choose to stay and finish complex cases for better continuity of care.

Would you want a nurse practitioner or physician assistant solely performing your surgery without a surgeon? I know I would NOT. I think there’s plenty of room for teamwork in healthcare. This is how to improve hospital efficiency and patient care. My fear is if CRNAs gain independence for purely financial reasons. But then, they will have to carry their own liability, cover their own breaks, take night call and discover that they had it so good in a healthcare team.

Opinions from other physician anesthesiologists:

Bottom line in my opinion:

Physicians endure years of grueling medical education that starts with the why, how, and treatment of disease. This is followed with years of residency training specifically in anesthesia. There’s also further training in the form of a fellowship for specialized fields.
Getting into medical school is an extremely competitive process. You take the top 1% of college graduates and high MCAT scores to get into medical school. The board certification for becoming certified in anesthesiology is quite complex and difficult in both the written and oral board exams.
I will continue to be FOR team-based physician-led anesthesia care.

The healthcare debate

Here it is. I didn’t want to opine, but it’s here and I can’t get away from the topic. I see it at work. I watch it at home. It comes up in discussions… so in order to make it stop, I’m going to give you an idea of what I see and what I think about Obamacare and whatever else is out there.

April 2015

Public Integrity: Insurers backed Obamacare, then undermined it. Now they’re profiting from it.

February 2016

Talking Points Memo: The real reason insurance companies are complaining about Obamacare

August 2016

CNN: Will Obamacare survive as insurers pull out?

October 2016

Salon: Making a killing under Obamacare: The ACA get blamed for rising premiums, while insurance companies are reaping massive profits

November 2016

Portland Press Herald: Maine Voices — The problem isn’t Obamacare; it’s the insurance companies

December 2016

NYT: Health insurers list demands if affordable care act is killed

The Huffington Post: The Obamacare paradox — The real reason health insurance companies don’t like the ACA

January 2017

Market Watch: I’m a former health insurance CEO and this is what Obamacare repeal will do.

Great Z’s: Liberals are out of touch

March 2017

LA Times: Here’s the secret payoff to health insurance CEOs buried in the GOP Obamacare repeal bill

Common Dreams: Why big insurance adores the American Healthcare Act

What I see:

When Obamacare was initiated, I recall seeing a patient who had broken her foot while hiking locally. She had a surgeon who was covered under Obamacare, as well as an anesthesiologist. However, the hospital chose not to accept Obamacare and she had to pay out of pocket for her overnight stay.

It seems that we’re seeing more and more insurance companies pulling out of the system because it doesn’t seem to be profitable for them. Insurance companies are a business; they’re not looking after the wellbeing of the patient. Physicians, nurses, caretakers, the care team look after the wellbeing of the patient.

How many people do you know are satisfied with their insurance coverage?

I’m covered by Anthem on a PPO plan with about 240 physicians. My insurance rate is lousy for the coverage I receive — a high deductible plan. I’m young and healthy and take responsibility for my health — why am I paying $620/mo for barely there medical coverage as a physician? Well, the answer is that our company makeup is a majority of older partners who skew the coverage toward a higher premium — basically a mini-Obamacare environment. I’m subsidizing their health coverage… and someday, hopefully I will still be healthy bc I’m responsible for my health (keypoint right there folks) and doing everything I can now to give my body the best fighting chance to survive into “old” age.

My question:

Anyone think to make insurance companies accountable with transparency re: ACA? Start there. Does anyone else think it’s odd that the people who are helping shape the bill don’t actually participate in the care/exchanges like the public? All the while, government and insurance companies dictate coverage and force physicians into tougher situations to deliver care. Is this what you (the public) want? When was the last time you saw the fine print of the bills being passed? Don’t just follow the masses, look for the details and truth for yourself.

</off soapbox>

What government officials have for insurance:

Category: Rants

Compensation for Services

Watch “An example of why the US healthcare system is economically broken | Peter Attia” on YouTube

Everyone is a “doctor” these days