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The Kindly Country Quack

Blogs

  • 6/3/2013

    My best and worst vacations ever

    My wife was a former flight attendant so we have travelled the world a lot. Once, we even went to Germany for a weekend.
  • 5/23/2013

    How I use my smart phone to manage my practice (and my life)

    I have an iPhone (a BlackBerry will do nicely, too). My family wants to do an intervention because I am addicted to it.
  • 5/16/2013

    An emergency department fast track that really works

    I recently spoke to Dr. Aaron Smith, an emergency physician at Guelph General Hospital and the regional lead for emergency health services for the Waterloo Wellington area. Guelph General, like most hospitals in Canada, had long waits in its busy ER (50,000 visits per year), especially for the 80% of visits that are non-emergencies. A few years ago some Guelph emergency doctors and nurses sat down and figured out a plan called “See and Treat.”
  • 5/6/2013

    Diet myths from my patients

    I am constantly amazed at how our patients try to kid themselves about weight loss.
  • 4/29/2013

    How to manage hospital patient flow

    Surgeons get grumpy when they have their scheduled surgery cancelled, as do patients and their families. It seems unfair that when the volume of hospital patients inevitably backs up into the ER and surgical beds, that one way of coping is to cancel elective procedures. The trick to avoid this is to manage every patient in the hospital every day.
  • 4/19/2013

    The worst ways to jump the queue in the emergency department

    It was 3:14 a.m., years ago when I was an emergency room physician. The department was empty and I, for some reason long forgotten, was sitting at the clerk's intake desk reading the newspaper when blood started dripping on it. I looked up and there stood a 16-year-old boy with his throat slashed wide open.
  • 4/12/2013

    How to write a medical-legal letter

    I have been an expert participant in more than 200 malpractice and physician complaint cases. Here are some tips if you have to write a medical-legal opinion letter.
  • 3/28/2013

    Geriatric pearls from someone who learned the hard way

    Just like children are not little adults, seniors are different than middle-age and younger patients. Geriatrics is its own specialty. Here are some tips on dealing with senior patients from an old doc learned the hard way, so you don't have to.
  • 3/20/2013

    Why you should take on a medical student, and how to do it

    Having a medical student work with you in your practice is fun and fulfilling. You learn as much from them as they do from you. Their enthusiasm is contagious and they really get you to think about your job and your philosophy of medicine as you see it through their eyes. You learn what is new in medicine and they help sharpen your computer, iPhone and iPad skills.
  • 3/12/2013

    I need your advice with this donor dilemma

  • 3/5/2013

    From rotary phones to the Internet, and other big changes I've seen in medicine

    During my career of 40 years, I would say the biggest changes in medicine have been increasing specialization, the Internet and new technology.
  • 2/22/2013

    ‘Young doctors are lazy’

    That's what I heard an old GP say about my generation 40 years ago. And in his own myopic view, he was right.
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