When your "regular doctor" could be anybody

Fortunately, researchers are studying how patients do well in these types of competing systems. The 2016 FIRST trial, which drew a lot of attention, concluded that patient safety was not compromised when trainees were working longer.

But even if the data show that the limitation of working hours leads to care as good or better, do not just play "doctor", in which a doctor or clinic simply designates a new provider to "take in charge 'treatment. It is not because a doctor takes care of someone during his shift that the responsibility stops there.

It may be useful to think of medical specialties that have long been badociated with limited continuity, such as urgency or intensification. care medicine. In both places, patients enter and exit treatment quickly and follow-up can be difficult. But it is not impossible.

In her new book, "You Can Stop Droning Now," Dr. Daniela Lamas, an ICU Specialist, tells of the visits she made to patients after they left her clinic. unit. In one case, she attends a party started by a man whose severe infection with West Nile virus initially made it unlikely that he would ever come home. But now he was eating, chatting, "working the crowd" and reminding his son to film the event.

Dr. Lamas did it during his free time. But she found it extremely rewarding. "We rarely have the opportunity," she writes, to follow patients "across acute care hospitals, infections, delusions, readmissions and perhaps, if they have lucky to return home. "The patient and his wife seemed delighted that she came – not like her current doctor but as her former doctor who still cared.

And what about my patients I made the decision not to try to imitate my father, as much as I admired the type of doctor he was. But the patients deserve to have one. " doctor ", despite the warning of my new patient.Moreover, I found that most doctors, in the end, are control maniacs, wanting to be in charge of their own patients. [19659002] I try to keep in touch, by phone, computer or other messaging strategies Patient portals, implemented in many hospitals, now allow patients to leave messages to their doctors in a secure way and without confidentiality, and I "sneak in" patients who have urgent problems when I am not not at the clinic, but there are open rooms, such as early in the morning or during lunch. Generous staff members at my clinic contribute to this outcome by registering these patients and obtaining their vital signs. My clinic is also pursuing strategies for to increase the chances that patients will see their usual doctors.