GPO Cartels
​Risking Innovation, Inflating Cost, Killing Patients
"...GPOs are buying exclusivity at the risk of innovation, at the risk of cost, at the risk of lives of patients,”
Makan Delrahim, JD
Former Assistant US Attorney General
Vertical Divider
Group Purchasing Oligopoly
​The Fleecing of US Healthcare
We have a symbiosis of sleazy Group Purchasing Organizations sharks masquerading a step-above the law, touting “value” and “savings”, while all the while contributing to the fleecing of America through an organized pay-to-play racket.
Drug Purchasing Cartels
GPOs Fighting The Import of Cheaper Drugs
PhRMA, the pharmaceutical industry trade group, showed its might on Capitol Hill helping to quash Trump’s drug-pricing bill, which was one of the administration’s top priorities.
Vertical Divider
Doctors & Big Pharma
Opposing Viewpoints
Doctors often recommend members of the pharmaceutical industry, and vice versa, as beacons of scientific sincerity determined to improve patient outcomes. There is no “sexy” puppeteer manipulating their engagements.
Occupational Hazard COVID
​True Toll Of COVID-19 On Health Care Workers
 ​“It’s an insult that we can’t even honor or respect these colleagues in a respectful way. We have nurses in Manhattan in garbage bags and goggles, and we have no way to track our fallen clinicians. We cannot even grieve properly: We can’t even honor them because we may not even know who we’ve lost.”
Vertical Divider
​ ​Cheaper Drug Imports
​“Gimmick” or “Open For Business”?
​ The 2003 Medicare Modernization Act allows states to import cheaper drugs from Canada, but only if the HHS secretary verifies their safety.
Physician Burnout
A Synopsis
​Burnout can especially be a problem in high-achievers and professionals who want to be highly productive and want to excel at their careers.
Vertical Divider
Healthcare Marketplace Competition
Problem or Solution?
From a simple economic perspective, a competitive marketplace would deliver the best possible result for buyers and sellers.
  
Empowering Greed
The Demise of Empower HMS Hospital Chain
He promised them salvation. All they got was missing paychecks, lost jobs, big tax debt, and shuttered hospitals.  
Vertical Divider
​ ​Ineffective Leadership
Scrutiny of Hospital Governance
Hospitals, once seen as representing “health care,” are now recognized as dangerous places, particularly where the most vulnerable, such as children and older people, are exposed to the risk and actual adverse clinical events.
Aligning Healthcare Incentives
​Preventing Adverse Hospital Events
At Baylor Medical Center in Texas, reporting of adverse events and near misses has increased tenfold by encouraging staff to "plant a flag" when coming across a safety "pothole in the road".
Vertical Divider
​Doctors and Big Pharma
Sponsored Training
The media prefer to publish stories about unsafe drugs, doctors who succumb to financial incentives, and sensational accounts of drug companies suppressing unfavorable trial data. 
Free Pizza
Big Pharma and Doctors
Drug company largesse still lubricates the lifestyles of many physicians, funding the fancy meals and the 5-star hotel rooms.
Vertical Divider
Hospital Accreditation
Recommendations for the Agencies
Accrediting companies need to become more aware (and liable) of the costs and effects of their actions.
Why I Left Medicine
A Burnt-Out Doctor’s Decision to Quit
​ When I introduce myself as a physician who left clinical practice, non-physicians ask me why I left. They’re generally intrigued that someone who sacrificed many years and many dollars for medical training would then change her mind.  
Vertical Divider
Three Energetic Bank Accounts
Basics of Physician Burnout
​​​Physician Burnout begins when you are drained and not able to recover between your shifts.  Extra stresses, here are just a few ... billing, coding, your EMR, malpractice risk, clinic culture and political uncertainty.
Physician Burnout
Can We Make a Difference Together?
Burnout is characterized by three components: (1) emotional exhaustion or loss of passion for one’s work, (2) depersonalization or treating patients as objects, and (3) the sense that your work is no longer meaningful.
Vertical Divider
The Inevitability of Physician Burnout
The Evidence
Unfortunately, medical school training is heavily skewed towards the technical skills associated with being a doctor rather than the interpersonal skills associated with being an active member of an organization.
​The Epidemic of Physician Burnout
Devouring the Soul of Medicine
​Physicians feel trapped by tedious bureaucratic tasks and constant bombardment of new regulations.
Vertical Divider
​How To Save A Doctor
It Could Be Your Own Physician
​​​Today, somewhere in these United States, a doctor will commit suicide. Another tomorrow, and another the next day.
Primum Non Nocere
First Do No Harm
While the exact origin of the Latin term “Primum Non Nocere” is somewhat uncertain, although it is said to have been introduced to British and American medicine by the author Worthington Hooker in his 1847 book “Physician and Patient”- it has become sacrosanct in medicine.
Vertical Divider
Do The Math
Adverse Events increased last 25 Years
The public is left with only highly speculative needless patient deaths “estimates” as the current healthcare system can only provide semi-precise numbers.