After COVID-19 is gone, what do you want your medical practice to look and feel like?

As I type this blog post it is 2/21/2021. For the first time in months, the infection, hospitalization and death rates of the coronavirus are in a free fall. We are vaccinating 1.6M people a day in the USA. Barring a variant wave in the next eight weeks, many of us can see an end to all of this, perhaps even before we wrap up the calendar year.

Now is the time to start planting the seeds of your post-pandemic medical practice. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rebalance and de-stress your practice. There is a potential window of flexibility opening now that will last only a matter of months. How do you bridge the gap between what you have and what you really want?

The key is asking different questions and the time to get started is now.

Will the 2021 revised E & M codes restore some value to the intellectual side of patient management?

That question is open for now.

What does need to happen immediately is a change in your old coding habits. 

When you stop the old cut and paste of physical exam findings and learn how to use Risk and Decision Making properly - a Level IV visit will most likely become your new normal and Level V much simpler to justify. 

Learn Much More in our latest Physicians on Purpose Podcast:

POP Podcast 13:
2021 Evaluation and Management (E&M) Codes with Paul DeChant MD

Do not let down your guard or relax coronavirus precautions now: Two Additional Reasons Why.

There is a glimmer of relaxing and relief going on these days. I had a few happy tears with my first shot of the Moderna vaccine. It would not surprise me if you did too. 

You may feel like you can see a light at the end of the tunnel, that we are finally nearing the end of the pandemic. 

I don't want to harsh your mellow or be a fear monger here ... AND this appears to be a logistically clear time to keep your guard up. 

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A Sneaker Wave

Medscape's annual Physician Burnout Study is out

As usual it has a number of interesting findings and a number of things you will notice don't change from year to year ... like burnout rates from 40 - 50% unfortunately.

Let me give you the highlights and my comments in this blog post.

The full survey is behind a login at Medscape at this URL

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Survey Methodology:

• Surveys filled out between August - November, 2020.
  So note the title of the Study Report is misleading. This is a 2020 survey report.
  
  
• Total of 12,339 practicing US physicians
  
  
• 10 minute online survey
  From the looks of the results it appears to have been selections from response options provided by the survey rather than typing in your answers.

Survey Highlights and Commentary:

The Quadruple Aim Physician Leadership Retreat

SAVE $500 with Early Bird Registration THIS WEEKEND

The Complete Retreat Overview Brochure is at THIS LINK

Here is the host of the White Coat Investor, Emergency Department physician Jim Dahle MD,  and I in a wide ranging PodCast conversation:

Physician leaders understand COVID-19 is a unique type of disaster.

Instead of a POINT crisis and a recovery; like a 

• Tornado / Hurricane
• Flood
• Terrorist attack

... where you get a KaBoom, an acute crisis and a recovery over days to weeks. You know, the kinds of disasters we have drills for, the ones we have code names for.

This pandemic is a series of slow tidal waves, overwhelming everything and everyone for weeks at a time as the wave hits, only to return months later and do it again. 

Sheer fatigue, exhaustion, even a sense of helplessness and hopelessness are common for you and your care team. 

All of us can rally and unite in response to an acute crisis. All hands on deck!

But how do you continue to lead and remain a high performance team for weeks and months on end when the tide of illness refuses to recede?

That magical time of the year, when we all make resolutions we know we won't keep.

Here's the rub:

• Everyone wants to change something
• Very few go further than the magical thinking exercise of the "New Year's Resolution". 

You are probably in that frame of mind right now.

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The 2021 Breakthrough Worksheet is Here 
Our 6th Year - 558 downloads in last two weeks
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Here's the truth

A Resolution without an Action Plan is a Pipe Dream, Wishful Thinking, a Fib and a Fable.

Physicians on Purpose Podcast 003
What Is "Physician Burnout"

• The 3 Cardinal Signs of Physician Burnout
• The words that Little Voice in your head will whisper to you when you are in the downward spiral.
• Gender Differences in Burnout
• How to reach out to a Colleague in Distress

You must be able to recognize the beast BEFORE you can smell his breath.

The primary risk to all Lightworkers is built into our first Prime Directive.

Healthcare's Prime Directive #1:

The patient comes first

In this blog post:

• Let me show you the nature of this fundamental risk
• The toll it takes on all healthcare workers
• An image that captures this dynamic in a way you won't forget
• And a tool to recharge we have proven effective in our physician coaching practice.