Some things to bring back to Vermont:

1. Transparency, transparency, transparency. Shared decision making and informed consent are a patient’s right. This includes the physician’s qualifications and a thorough explanation of the risks and benefits of any procedure. Along with that, patients should be informed that 2nd opinions are readily available.
2. When walking through the shared decision process with patients, a recording of the conversation can really help the patient make an informed decision.
3. Remembering Aristotle’s Ethos, Logos, and Pathos will help us the negotiations we deal with daily. Also, knowing that their is a difference between someone’s position and interests.
4. Over 400,000 deaths occur yearly in the US due to medical error. This is a staggering number, and John Nance made a point to argue that if that was the number in any other industry, then that industry would be under much larger pressure to change.
5. Per John Nance,… Continue reading →

Some things to bring back to Vermont:

1. Both patients and those in the medical profession are lost in the hierarchy of medicine. Patients may not know who to contact when things get out of control. They may not understand the hierarchy of medicine and may not know who is actually treating them. In the same way, but on the opposite end of the spectrum, those in the medical profession are also lost in this hierarchy. They know this hierarchy and are a part of it, but choose to not speak up due to fear of repercussion.
2. Lewis Blackman was a victim of medical hierarchy nearly 15 years ago and his story was retold and relived here in Napa this week by his mother Helen. This was all in an effort to teach us in the medical profession a valuable lesson – that being lost in the hierarchy… Continue reading →