Career

Everyone has an opinion and nowhere is that more evident than Practice Notes, our section where your peers and our experts team up to give you advice, news, and other information from the frontlines. From inside the ER to the halls of Washington, D.C., we bring you news and commentary to make you think and sometimes make you laugh. Here are our top 10 stories on career issues this year, according to our readers.

A new study says married couples consisting of a physician and a surgeon are perhaps not as cohesive as you may think and the strain of marital bliss comes under even greater pressure when both partners are surgeons.

The pros and cons of the meaningful use incentive program are not really the problem. The problem is that, once again, we physicians are subject to a mandate over which we have little control and no choice whether to comply.

Have you managed to achieve that coveted work-life balance? We want to hear about it. For this month’s Physician Writer Search, we are calling for essays about finding balance.

In addition to working as an emergency room physician in Alaska, internist Stephanie A. Jaeger found time to become fluent in two languages and work as a translator in Magadan, Russia.

Most organizations do not provide incentives to standardize data management tasks in a way that takes advantage of existing data sources, avoids duplicating data elements, and organizes data in ways that facilitate exchange with other facilities and organizations.

Practices might not be forced to sell out to hospitals, but they will need an alignment strategy, argues expert Marc Halley, MBA, because physician-hospital alignment is here to stay. Here's advice on picking the right partner.

It may sound like a great idea, but there are lots of financial questions to consider first. Do your homework on cashing in before you cash out.

The first step toward standardization is to develop the belief that data is community property, not personal property. This step is hampered when people zealously believe that their approach to the data is the correct one and everyone else should convert to their religion.

Internist Beverly J. Lessane, MD, is a busy doc by day, aspiring country music diva by night.

>Malpractice insurance is not just a major expense for medical practices, it is a requirement. Selecting malpractice insurance can be a complex endeavor. There’s no one-size-fits-all policy, and physicians must be well educated on their malpractice options. What do you need to know to make sure you have the best coverage with the best carrier for your needs? This white paper will provide background and guidance on a topic that is key to maintaining an optimally functioning practice.

You are already dealing with a potential Medicare reimbursement drop, pondering your relationship with an EHR, and managing the day-to-day operations of your practice. But what about issues outside of your work life? Well, it seems to come down to dollars, D.C., and danger.

How three humbling weeks in Senegal changed my perspective

Physicians in The Sunshine State and The Pine Tree State are engaged in an interesting back-and-forth over the American Medical Association and national healthcare reform. You may remember back in August that the Florida Medical Association (FMA) avoided a vote to end its relationship with the AMA over the national body's perceived inaction when it came to the Affordable Care Act.

Happy but worried, American physicians are sorting through the many changes their profession is seeing.

One of the thorniest coding questions is: Can a physician bill for family meetings when the patient is not present? If so, who gets the bill ?

Our July/August story titled “Is Board Certification Overrated?” generated a lot of great letters to the Physicians Practice office, some of which you can read in our September issue. But with too many letters to print and not enough space, we wanted to expand the conversation.

Disaster relief worker, community health promoter, patient advocate? Being a doctor affords you the opportunity to make a difference in your patients’ lives in a number of other ways.

Perhaps Florida surgeon Michael Wasylik summed up the feelings of a lot of physicians nationwide when it comes to the AMA when he recently said, “doctors are so angry they can’t see straight.”

One of the activities during a recent session on work-life balance was to use the Steven Covey grid that breaks down tasks on your to-do list into one of four categories: urgent/important, not urgent/important, urgent/not important, and not urgent/not important.

I think the modern workplace requires a sensitivity to both mothers and fathers and the very admirable roles they wish to play in their children's lives. However, how to maintain professionalism while acknowledging the personal can be a tricky balance.

Opening a new practice? Here are some of the things you will need to get done before the doors open.

The truth is that no matter where we are along the life path, we all struggle. I have come to the realization that women who finally appear to achieve some semblance of balance just happen to come across this great knowledge and ability around the time their children are grown.

The AMA and several state medical associations say cost profiles of physicians by the nation’s biggest insurers is “unreliable” at best and steering consumers in the wrong direction.

It’s expensive, time-consuming, and practically a prerequisite for practicing medicine today. But does board certification make you a better physician? You might be surprised by the answer.

A couple of years ago, there was a survey of medical residents (or was it surgical residents?), 17 percent of whom admitted to laughing at or making fun of patients behind their backs. The other 83 percent are liars.

We are looking for physician writers for our September Physician Writer Search.

Is board certification overrated? And are the boards' processes for certifying physicians in need of reform?

My father is a retired OB/GYN from a small Virginia town. Dad’s professional legacy is broad. It includes not only the thousands of babies he delivered and women he cared for, but also a practice he founded that continues to this day.

A group of my old Navy buddies are making plans to get together at the American College of Emergency Physicians annual Scientific Seminar in the fall. A bunch of salty old Navy ER docs at a convention in Las Vegas - I can see the headlines now.