Do Surgeons Swear When Operating?

Surgeons, whether deserved or not, have a reputation of being mean-spirited and foul-mouthed as a group overall. It does not help that TV sh...

Forbes Critical of Patient Satisfaction Ratings of Physicians

Forbes on January 2, 2013 published a story critical of Press Gainey and other companies that obtain patient satisfaction scores. Please no...

Is Social Media Bad for Doctors?

I was recently asked to participate as a speaker in a panel discussion on social media next year in Canada and while preparing my thoughts o...

What do Earthquakes Have to do with Thyroid Masses?

I'm not sure what is going on within the Italian Court system, but in October 2012, the Italian Court convicted 7 scientists to jail te...

After Surgery, Do Patients Have Out-of-Pocket Costs for Follow-Up Visits?

Assuming a patient has insurance, the answer is generally no for a certain period of time... For a period of time after surgery, insurance s...

Same Doctor Visit, Double The Cost

On August 26, 2012, the Wall Street Journal published a story describing a situation whereby a patient who sees a physician employed by a h...

100% Patient Satisfaction Scores

What if I told you this 100% patient satisfaction score was due to a survey of only two people... that I personally picked? Welcome to the b...

Hospital-Based Practice Versus Physician Private Practice

The other day, an astute patient of mine asked what the difference is between a physician who works for a hospital (hospital-based practice)...

What Makes a Successful Hospital - Where Are the Tweakers???

First off, I don't have a business degree (in fact, I'm a MBA drop-out) nor a degree in hospital administration (does chairing a hos...

Dr. House of TV Fame Would Never Survive in Real World

Would YOU as the patient see a doctor who is a well-known jerk, abuses drugs, gives the wrong diagnosis more often than not, and is known to...

The Four Types of Patients Seen in a Surgeon's Clinic

Over the years, I have found that patients can be loosely grouped into 4 different types. Nothing particularly wrong with any type, but it d...

YouTube Ranks Fauquier ENT as Most Viewed for Medical Videos

I was informed that our practice's  YouTube channel  has been ranked as one of the most viewed channels related to medicine  in the worl...

HIPAA Allows for Regular Email Communication Between Patients and Physicians

There is a widespread mistaken belief that HIPAA prohibits physicians from communicating with patients using regular un-encrypted email as ...

United Kingdom Ends $17 Billion Electronic Medical Records Initiative

The Wall Street Journal on Sept 23, 2011 reported that the United Kingdom will scrap the entire electronic medical records (EMR) initiative...

How To Approach Social Media as a Physician

Last year, I expressed why I bother blogging as a busy surgeon... but this article is more about how to approach social media as a physicia...

Sermo iPhone App Review

Sermo is an online physician-only forum where doctors ask other doctors for advice. It's where we post particularly thorny/difficult me...

ENT Practices and Physicians Who Twitter...

Did you know Fauquier ENT maintains one of the most comprehensive list of ENT physicians who twitter and are otherwise involved with socia...

Video of Monkey Behaving Like a ENT Doctor

All I can say is look at time 0:41 - 1:25 in the video clip below. If you can't see the video below, click here . Coming soon to an otol...