Family Medicine: Odds and Ends

Caretaker stress.  We see so many people who are caring for an aging parent and get trapped with a variety of symptoms and sicknesses.  Once the aging parent gets relief, the caretaker starts to recover- usually.

A physician calls looking for a job.  Was working in campus health center, but cut-backs eliminated his position.  He'll do part time or full time.  Oops, he's not board certified, didn't finish his Family Medicine residency program.  Sorry, we aren't able to help him since we have to be board certified to get hospital privileges.  We're only admitting newborns at present, but may occasionally provide medical management on our patients when the new hospital opens next door to our office.  We'll see what happens.  Sorry, Doctor, we're unable to help you with your job needs.  We're committed to remaining board certified in Family Medicine.  It's still part of our identity.

Marcus Welby, MD season 1 on DVD.  Makes me very thankful that the GP's invented Family Medicine education via residency training, including behavioral skills.  We had a 3 year training program instead of their internship plus, in many cases, some time in the military.  Each training program must include a behavioral science faculty.  Stress, family issues, end of life issues, cultural issues, time management, career planning, interpersonal skills, mental health problems, etc. were all part of our training.  Poor Marcus Welby, MD and Steve Kiley, MD, his young associate- trial and error was their teacher. America watched as they learned together, or from Dr. Welby's vast experience and fatherly countenance.

A new hospital opens in one week next door to my office.  My office staff and I went to the open house tonight.  We got tours and munchies and brochures, not to mention coffee cups and thermos bottles with the hospital name and system logo.  They say they're having a safer strategy for medical radiation exposure.  A new approach to patient radiation safety should make them popular.

New pain law.  We have to look up patient controlled substance history on our state network.  It takes 30 days or so to get approved for access to the network.  Lots of physicians are discouraged by the pain law mandates that impact patients via physicians bailing out.