Monday 13 May 2013

May 9, 2013 - Lessons with Dr. J

These days either I'm forgetful or there has not been any new significant 'lessons' for me to post in this blog.
Perhaps, it could be that I have been preoccupied.






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Dr.J makes a very careful approach in treating his patients.
He is polite but says things that are appropriate in bull's eye manner. I would think it would take me forever to say things in that kind of manner or comes up with the vocabulary that can adequately leaves both the patient and myself perfectly content in communicating the patient's problem. Not exaggerating, but also not undermining - making my observation know if the patient shows discontent know when to move on or 'release the patient'.


The tone, the hand gesture, body language and words he choose seems to be all carefully planned.
I wonder how long and how many times you have to say it that way consciously in order to make it completely yours, which is more automatic, second-nature in a sense. Having the 'right' manner seems to be so difficult.




I have been told I think too much and over-analyze. I do, especially when it concerns what I say or do to people around me. I try to analyze how this person might have perceived me, did I creep that person out? I wonder what our next encounter will be alike? I hope this person doesn't talk about me... along that line almost obsessively. It goes both ways actually. Certain vocabs, words or things that a person says I take it as a hint.




Anyway, back to the lesson. On Thursday -  my late night, we had  one patient over who used own grocery store in a small town. The grocery store has been in family for 3 generations and he has sold it because such good offer came through. However, due to the effect of giant corporation, a la costco, a la walmart, a la target and etc, the new owners also had 2 other grocery stores but had to close those stores and was struggling with the store this patient sold to them.
Dr.J was more lively when he was talking to the patient during the surgery.
I was thinking that they must have lot of common because Dr.J and patient seemed to find each other pretty engaging when it came to certain topic.




However at the end of the day, Dr.J told me the reason why he kept the conversation going. The patient was on anxiety pill and that the local-anesthetic was not only the mixture of xylocaine and marcaine (6:4) but also the conversation.






I kept thinking I wonder how much Dr.J knows about me, how much he has analyzed me and etc.


Wednesday 1 May 2013

Conversation in OR - May 1 2013

Gag order.




Whenever I see this word, I think about media - when socially outrageous, high-profile case takes place in a court house, judge typically "gag order" which  bans journalists, juries or anyone associated with the case to not to speak a word of it outside the court.

Would you believe it if there is a similar thing in a contract that your physician signs when they sign with a big hospital ( such as hospital privileges)?
I didn't know about this until today and I also learned that you are not to divulge anything that will harm the hospital's image or which taints the institution, or it's leader's competence or reputation.
You are not allow to criticize for some of the obvious dumb things that executives do and you are not to voice any opinion if something is not working out (ie.// new policy, hospital culture) or mistakes made (non-negligence or honest mistakes due to communication error) or...
The list would be endless because you are simply not allowed to discuss anything.

This seemed counter-intuitive to me, especially because hospital is publicly-funded and thus it should be more transparent than private.
It should be more progressive because it is publicly-funded.

And then, I thought about common sense (who can criticize the system best other than ones who are directly involved with it - on front-line) and I also thought about big-brother, an Orwellian society.





I live in Canada and Canada treasures its 'Charter of Right and Freedom'. It's a fundamental rights and freedom and we as a Canadian have, respect and extend to others.

So, why is it that freedom of speech should be banned when you are a consultant working for the hospital or directly involved with the care for patients, who are Canadians, who pays tax which pays for the service?

If there is inefficiency in the system, it should be voiced and fixed.
If something should be reported, it should be made known to all and fixed.
Why can't we think about fundamentals? Why does the hospital exist in the first place? Who actually does the work at the hospital? Why can we think about the common sense?









There is a really easy-going doctor from South Africa.
He is a practicing physician here and he once said, "South Africa is a 3rd world country with 1st class medical care and Canada is a first class country with 3rd world medical care."








To make things more grim, apparently when you go to a meeting at the teaching hospital, the most discussed subject is Research. That's good... step for innovation and all... and second, which is very, seldom, discussed is teaching....ok....hmmm...skepticism here. Then, what's the third and last thing that is NEVER discussed during these meetings? patient.









I just can't understand the logic...
it seems so blatantly obvious to me that people at that stage should be able to differentiate priorities and discuss about it.
You should save, be efficient and innovate like a private company. There is an absence of any 'push' to get things done in a public system, because after all there's no fiscal year report that sets out the profits or loss, you will forever be paid the salary which increase with every year you are with the government and get pensions and health care. You don't work on holidays, oh wait bank holidays and holidays that are not quite 'red colour' yet. Sounds like a dream job, but at the same time, a leech.

Best of all, the people who are at the management level at the hospital has nothing to do with health or medicine. They have not been fully exposed to front-line work.
They are oblivious about what works and what does not  and what leads to inefficiency, and they are controlled by politicians who are then controlled by big companies, who are subsidized by the governments.
This is a loop but for some reason majority of number lose out, sort of like a lottery.



I end my thoughts and discovery I made with this video.




And then just because of the way I am (...) and because I just found this...critique of the above video

... but I realized about half in, he was nit-picky about things that were not so critical and completely missed the point... saying that even if we seize all assets of top 1% it will still not be enough to cover the deficit and so on when Anne was clearly talking about principle, how the subsidy has contributed to the deficit.
Thus, I decided to unpost the critique video because it did not have a nutritious value in my opinion.