Rookie Doctor Blog » Time Management

Interview: Physician Author Discusses Patient Stories, End of Life, and Time During Training

Dr. Tori — Tue, 01 May 2012 10:20:40 +0000

Where you can find more information about Last Wish and Dr. Van Scoy:

Last Wish: Stories to Inspire a Peaceful Passing – get the book here (& get it now )
KnowYourWishes.com
About Dr. Van Scoy
Follow Dr. Van Scoy on Twitter

Lauren Van Scoy, MD currently serves as the Chief Fellow for Pulmonary and Critical Care in Philadelphia. She wrote Last Wish: Stories to Inspire a Peaceful Passing independent of her work at Drexel University College of Medicine and Hahnemann University Hospital. The opinions expressed in her book are her own and not the opinions of her employer or her training institutions.

Lessons for Loved Ones

Dr. Tori — Sat, 02 May 2009 19:46:13 +0000

I was just in a semi-severe car accident on Friday. And if there’s one thing that’ll change your perspective on life, it’s a near-death experience. I will be making a video on my thoughts before, during, and after the crash… my thoughts as a husband, as a father, as a son… as a patient in a hospital, as a doctor, and as a human in general. Until, I finish that video, I found one that is a must-see.

If you’re a parent or if you have parents (which means you), you must watch this video. Although it is not in English, there are very few words… and it has subtitles. The lesson is priceless.

Because of the time constraints we face as physicians and healthcare workers, we run the risk of harming our loved ones. Don’t take them for granted… they may not understand the pressures of being post-call, preparing for presentations, applying for fellowship, etc, etc. They’ve supported you through the years… don’t go through your clinical years of medical school, your internship, and your residency assuming you will have time for family and friends when these milestones are passed. You may be harming them in the meantime.

Watch this video… it’s only a few minutes. Then take a few minutes more and ask yourself the following question: “What can I do today, right now, to improve a relationship with someone I care about?” (even if it is small)

Quick Video Tip – Information Overload

Dr. Tori — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:28:11 +0000

Information and data are increasing at alarming rates. On the one hand, this is great because we are witnessing some amazing advances in health care (and computer science, and communication, etc). However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate through this body of data to arrive at the most relevant, most up-to-date, most easy-to-apply information that is suited to your specific need and specific situation. This is true if you are a doctor, a computer programmer, a world leader, or a secretary.

Many have stopped calling this the Age of Information, and started calling it the Age of Distraction, or the Attention Age. It is not enough to know a lot. Instead, it becomes increasingly important to be able to:

Find the most up-to-date, relevant information,
Find it quickly,
Synthesize or process that information, and then
Apply that information.

The one who manages information well is the successful one.

For that reason, I thought you might find the following very short video to be a useful one. In it, Rich Schefren discusses the difference between “just enough” information and “just in time” information. This is a very important distinction to make. And once you grasp it, you may find your internship and residency less stressful. Check it out…

Time Management Tip for Residency and Length of Stay

Dr. Tori — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:12:37 +0000

You can save yourself and your patients a lot of time if you work on mastering the ability to “get the ball rolling”. Basically, it means anticipating what the next steps are, and facilitating them. Let me give you an example…

Let’s say you are calling a consult. You are post-call and overnight your patient began to experience a change in mental status. Now, you want to call a neuro consult.

Guess what? You will notice that there’s a pattern. When most neurologists come by, they order the same type of stuff when it comes to a change in mental status. They’ll say let’s check a TSH, a B12, a folate, an RPR and a sed rate. Maybe if there’s no recent head CT they’ll suggest that or an MRI. This isn’t a knock on neurologists… it just is what it is.

Anyway, you can get some of that ball rolling by ordering some of those same tests that you know they’re going to order. And this does a couple of things for you…

It saves you some of the time in having to track down the neuro recommendations later on in your post-call day. (It also saves you from signing out more stuff to your cross-cover resident or intern)
It shows the neurologist that you’re thinking about things and not just calling a consult out of reflex or out of playing defensive medicine. (These guys have a role in your residency evaluations)
It saves the patient from having multiple blood draws in the same day. (Which, by the way, will do wonders for your rapport with the patient – if you take 30 seconds to explain the plan for today and that you will be limiting their blood draws and giving consultants someting to work with.)
You can potentially shorten the length of stay by half a day or even more.
You can potentially identify something of huge clinical importance before the consultant even gets there… helping your patient with more rapid, more appropriate treatment, and making the consult more interesting to those on the neuro team.
Also, it sort of forces the consultant into action. They have the data they were going to request, so now, they have to act on it.

Don’t order unnecessary tests, but you get my point. If you know that something is going to happen, start it happening. Why does it have to wait for them? It doesn’t. Be proactive.