Articles by Mark Plaster, MD Current Features by Mark Plaster, MD on January 11, 2012 Senator John Barrasso was “Doctor” Barrasso, an orthopedic surgeon from
Casper, Wyoming, long before he came to Washington. So, after the
passage of broadsweeping healthcare reform, it came very naturally for
him to offer a physician’s perspective on the floor of the Senate. Since
then, he’s given these “second opinions” about the unintended
consequences of healthcare reform nearly every week.
Read more Night Shift by Mark Plaster, MD on January 3, 2012 I don’t often get calls from thoracic surgeons asking for my help. But
this was a unique circumstance. His son, a first year student at the
U.S. Naval Academy (a plebe as we call them) was going through his first
baptism by fire. He was concerned that his son was hitting a breaking
point, so he reached out for my help.
Read more Night Shift by Mark Plaster, MD on December 5, 2011 It’s a simple question. Given a specific set of facts concerning the
presentation of a patient in the ED, what would the reasonably prudent
physician do? Or stated more specifically, was an emergency physician’s
actions in response to a given set of facts reasonable? This is the
“standard of care” against which the physician’s actions will be judged
in a case of alleged negligence.
Read more Current Features by Mark Plaster, MD on November 8, 2011 A response to the backlash following last month’s op/ed “Life Cycle of a Parasitic Specialist” Normally, we would allow an opinion piece to stand as just what it is,
an opinion. After all this is America and we still have free speech.
However, in this case, the vitriol and vulgarity of the responses to an
opinion piece demanded an explanation from the editors who published it.
Read more Night Shift by Mark Plaster, MD on October 28, 2011 As I arrived to work I saw that the parking lot and the waiting room were packed. This is not supposed to happen at this place. “I’m getting too old for this,” I mumbled to myself as I dropped
my 2am lunch in the frig and grabbed a handful of charts. I’d raced
through an hour of charts before it dawned on me that they were filling
the rack as fast as I could empty it.
Read more Current Features by Mark Plaster, MD on October 19, 2011 The CDC reports that 123.8 million patients visited an emergency
department last year. That’s 41.4 visits per 100 population. That number
has risen every year despite numerous, concerted efforts by the
government and the insurance industry to stem the rising tide. Could it
be that patients see what the politicians and planners seem to be
missing, that the model of emergency care by qualified specialists, when
and only when you need it, is a good model for health care delivery?
Read more Night Shift by Mark Plaster, MD on September 13, 2011 With less access to primary care and multiple gatekeepers adding to the expense of health care, perhaps EPs should be the final stop for many ED patients.
Read more Current Features by Mark Plaster, MD on September 2, 2011  Long after the elected legislators have cast their votes, the agency administrators write the rules and regulations that interpret the law and give it meaning. The Accountable Care Act is poised to fundamentally change how we practice emergency medicine, but the scope and impact of those changes will be determined by the rule writers.
Read more Current Features by Mark Plaster, MD on August 15, 2011 Mid-level providers, such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners, are gaining popularity – and authority – in the emergency department. To explore the issue of using mid-level providers to extend the reach of emergency physicians, we brought together four experts to take part in a dialogue, moderated by EPM executive editor Mark Plaster. Read the full transcript of the roundtable here.
Read more Night Shift by Mark Plaster, MD on August 9, 2011 Last spring a group of physicians and medical societies filed suit in
federal court to overturn a state law that bans healthcare professionals
from asking patients about whether they own a gun. On first blush, it
seems like the reasonable and responsible thing to do. The government
has no place in telling doctors what they may or may not ask a patient,
right? Maybe.
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