Posted by Courtney Rice on Mon, Nov 30, 2009 @ 05:54 PM
By Mark Spiro, M.D.
As an MD who has practiced emergency medicine for a number of years, I've noticed a definite trend regarding many of the younger ED physicians I come across. Many of them can teach us "more seasoned" ED docs a thing or two about life balance.
I'm not just talking about exercising more and getting enough sleep. I'm talking about younger docs who possess a desire to work less and have more variety in life than just moving forward professionally. Their identity is not simply tied to being an emergency physician - I see them take a greater interest in family, physical health and free time than my brethren from an earlier generation.
Us more mature docs initially looked down and viewed it as a weak work ethic. "What could be more important than healing others?" we would say as we pulled another long shift. But eventually a bell went off and we saw their performance and learned from them. At least I have. I truly feel that I can be a better, more caring physician if the "non-working" part of my life is not neglected. We all get strength from outside activities, whether they involve family, religion, recreational activities, hobbies, and travel. All of these activities promote individual wellness which leads to happier more satisfied physicians and more compassionate care for our patients. I know, because I feel it.
But there's still one area in which younger MDs continue to seek my guidance - and that's financial well being. I tell them when they get into their mid 50's they should be working as an ED doc because they want to - because it's a calling, and not because they have a huge house payment every month. I leave them with three rules that I believe in that will enable them to reach this very reasonable goal:
Spend less than you earn
Diversify your investments
Don't get divorced
Seems simple enough - almost too simple. But the key for me has been to dedicate myself to staying within my means. And not forgetting about my health and wellbeing while I'm worrying about everything else. If you're an MD - emergency or not - I'd love to hear how you feel about this topic.
Posted by Courtney Rice on Mon, Nov 30, 2009 @ 05:48 PM
By Wesley A. Curry, M.D.
As of this writing, the CDC reported 10,053 cases of documented H1N1 infections and 17 deaths likely related to this virus in the United States. As we all know, the emergence of the swine flu as an imminent pandemic has generated global concerns and issues which have brought the status of our preparation and ability to respond to mass casualties and bioterrorism into question.
Hospital emergency rooms are a key to our ability to respond, evaluate, and treat potentially millions of patients in a mass casualty event. The recent swine flu outbreak has been a test - a "dress rehearsal" - for how our emergency rooms will be able to cope with a sudden increase in patient volume. It's been reported that in many emergency rooms, patients are subjected to long waiting times and length of stays.
So what would happen in a scenario where the daily patient volume in our emergency rooms increased up to 60% or more in a major bioterrorism event?
The CDC designation of an imminent swine flu pandemic has recently increased emergency room visits to significant levels beyond the daily historical baseline with the worried well. Recently some CEP America sites topped over 500 patients per day in daily patient volumes. What is impressive was not how many patients arrived daily, but how few patients left without being seen, and how these sites were able to keep the time to provider close to historical levels.
We continue to study the impact of this recent surge in patients on our multiple emergency room practices. What is clear already is that rapid medical evaluation implementation (our version of provider at triage) has worked during this period because it's flexible enough to be modified to respond to surges in patient volume - even by 60% or more.
While this surge in patients did not result in many admissions or critical patients, it has given our hospitals a real time example from which to learn how best to cope with mass casualty or bioterrorism events in the future.
By instituting our provider triage system years ago, we've not only been preparing ourselves for every day patient care, but for situations like the recent events. In the end, preparation is what is needed to ensure a proper response in extreme times of need. But our emergency rooms can't wait until a catastrophe happens.