COVID-19 Fake News Tsunami - what do you say to your patients?

Posted by Dike Drummond MD

Most physicians are scientists. We believe in evidence based recommendations and do our best to persuade by logic. Right?

Unfortunately, not all humans are scientists. Not all can be persuaded by our Public Health Jedi Mind Tricks. 
 
When fear, deliberate misinformation, conspiracy theories, fake news and partisan politics are pumped into everyone's cell phone at the speed of light --- things get strange quickly. 

Two signs this will not end well.

Tags: Physician Burnout, Pandemic

READ MORE NOW >>>

Physicians On Purpose Podcast 002 - Mark Jaben MD  - Vision Strategy Tactics

Posted by Dike Drummond MD

Physicians on Purpose Podcast 002
Dr. Mark Jaben and the Vision-Strategy-Tactics Word Stack

Whenever you want to make change in your life or your practice ...
OR
You are working with a group/team of people and you want to make sure they are pulling in the same direction ...

This Word Stack will Save Your Bacon

Tags: stop physician burnout, physicians on purpose, Podcast

READ MORE NOW >>>

Healthcare ROCKS THE VOTE to Push Back on Politics as Usual in the USA

Posted by Dike Drummond MD


August 2020 is Civic Health Month - Healthcare Supporting Voting and Voter Registration in 2020

There is a new movement at the intersection of Medicine and Politics here in 2020.

Tags: physician wellbeing

READ MORE NOW >>>

Physicians On Purpose Podcast 1 - Step out of the Whirlwind

Posted by Dike Drummond MD



Here's the first episode of our new Physicians On Purpose (POP) Podcast - a Lesson on How to Escape the Whirlwind of Your Practice.

Learn about our new Podcast from the Physicians on Purpose Community and I teach the #1 method to prevent physician burnout - a reliable way to escape the whirlwind of your practice.

Tags: stop physician burnout, physicians on purpose, Podcast

READ MORE NOW >>>

Stop Physician Burnout the Limits of Positive Psychology

Posted by Dike Drummond MD

Positive Psychology is not a Physician Wellness Strategy - it is a single useful tool, just like Lipstick on a Pig

Even if you put the most expensive lipstick on a cute little Hampshire pig, it is still a pig.
 
There are times when positive psychology is an extremely useful, powerful and effective body of knowledge, yet focusing only on the nature of my inner dialog won't fix a system where patient and information flow are fundamentally inefficient - or perhaps even FUBAR.
 
Telling your people Positive Psychology is all you need to turn this around - is wrong, cruel and can only make things worse for everyone - leaders, clinicians, staff and patients.  
 
============
Build a System-Wide Physician Wellness Strategy
Our Corporate Support Services are HERE
============

Tags: stop physician burnout

READ MORE NOW >>>

Stop Physician Burnout - this is not about Physician Resilience

Posted by Dike Drummond MD

We know physician burnout is not because physicians lack resilience.

You are way more resilient than the average bear. Here's how we know ...

You survived med school and residency!
You are Still Here !

I use the word "survive" in that sentence very deliberately. If you look at the experience of Medical School and Residency from a pure energy perspective - think "The Force" in the Star Wars movies - your medical education was an exercise in SURVIVAL at that level.

Sure you learned a whole new vocabulary, a problem focused diagnostic skill set and how to recognize and treat most of the diseases in your specialty ... but all of that was predicated on your survival.

Tags: stop physician burnout, physician resilience

READ MORE NOW >>>

The Only Question about Physician Wellness You Need to Ask

Posted by Dike Drummond MD

Even in a Year Like This ... Physician Wellness Leaders are More Important than Ever ... here's why ...

We are nowhere near the end of the human suffering and massive economic impact of the pandemic of 2020.

The Old Normal is gone. It is all hands on deck - as you treat COVID-19 patients directly or are working to ramp your practice back up again. 

The New Normal has yet to emerge from the whirlwind.

Tags: physician wellness, Physician Burnout, Physician Retreat

READ MORE NOW >>>

Practice Reset Online Workshop - Design and Build Your New Normal

Posted by Dike Drummond MD

[Next Workshop Starts February 1st, 2021]
 => Click Here for Full Details <=


As the layers of COVID-19 chaos and disruption march through your life and practice, you have a choice on where you focus your attention.

You could play defense -- cover your eyes, nose, ears and mouth and hang on - white knuckle your way to the light at the end of the tunnel or even pray for a rescue.

If that's what you choose, inevitably someone else will draw up your new job description in the wake of the pandemic and tell you what to do - once again. 

Or

WE INVITE YOU to our next Practice Reset Online Workshop. Whether you want to tweak, reset or even escape your current practice, the chaos of 2020 and COVID-19 means there has never been a better time to get started than right now.

Tags: Dike Drummond MD, Physician Burnout, Pandemic

READ MORE NOW >>>

Physician Burnout and COVID-19 - Let the Hamster Wheel Olympics Begin

Posted by Dike Drummond MD

And get ready to run like never before 

If you haven't heard yet, your organization just had its worst three months in history -- yet another COVID-19 driven contribution to physician burnout.

i) If you are a practice owner, this reality has been keeping you up at night for weeks.

ii) If you are an employee physician and you don't already know about the smoking crater that is your organization's financial statement, your leaders are hiding the financials from you in a fine example of #badleadership.

iii) And if your organization somehow managed to avoid a massive loss in the last 90 days - either you are a full risk/capitated provider (Kaiser Permanente) or you got very, very lucky.


For healthcare delivery organizations relying on fee-for-service payment contracts, things have never been this bad.

Their profit margin just went from single digit positive to a giant sucking sound. Even the Mayo Clinic is projecting a 3 BILLION dollar loss in 2020.

==========
This is Blog Post #335
Complete Blog Library  is Here
==========

Now we have some potential GOOD NEWS !

Now we are seeing a little flicker of light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel. 

Tags: Physician Burnout, Physician Leadership

READ MORE NOW >>>

The Outpatient Visit Volume Rebound Begins ... Will it be Enough to Save Small Private Practices?

Posted by Dike Drummond MD

As we begin to reopen society, data released this week shows physician visit volumes have rebounded slightly from the bottom out in the month of April.

The burning question is will the recovery happen quickly enough to avoid an extinction event in smaller private practices?

Fee for service private practice has been hammered by declines of visit volumes of 50 - 70%. No business can withstand an assault on its top line income of this magnitude for any significant period of time.

New research shows outpatient visits appear to have bottomed out in early April and are on the rebound. The curve is upward with volumes still 30-40% below baseline volumes from January and February of this year.

Given the US healthcare system's addiction to fee for service payments, the recovery in visit volumes and income must come quickly.

If the curve does not quickly assume a V or U shape, smaller physician owned groups who cannot survived a prolonged income drop will go out of business en masse before the end of the year. Unfortunately that does not look like a U or V to me. 

Here is the latest data on US Visit volumes from a unique source that tells the whole story.

Tags: Pandemic

READ MORE NOW >>>