Healthcare Musings Blog

Vaccine skepticism is growing in our country, and with the new nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., I fear this will only worsen with time. This is not because I believe we need to be vaccinated against every s…

Cardiac arrest is one of the most feared clinical situations both in and out of the hospital. When a patient suffers cardiac arrest, it is of the utmost importance to get access into the veins so that medications can be injected to try to help t…

Insurance companies frequently deny medical claims submitted by hospitals. One type of denial payers will use is the "DRG Denial." Here, the insurance company - frequently through a third party service - will go through a chart after the claim h…

Of all the things about which I am called as a critical care specialist, I think I am called/notified about serum potassium levels the absolute most. For some reason, if the serum potassium level is below 4.0, I am expected to do something about…

Sepsis is a life-threatening bodily reaction to an infection. It is the most common diagnosis we see in the ICU.   The definition of sepsis (previously known as septicemia) has gone through many iterations throughout the years. In…

There are times when a patient cannot maintain an adequate oxygen or carbon dioxide level, and they need a mechanical ventilator. The procedure to place a patient on invasive mechanical ventilation is intubation, which means placing a plastic tu…

It is quite typical that we critical care physicians place patients who are on invasive mechanical ventilation on acid suppression to prevent stress ulcer bleeding. It is usual practice. This is because critically ill patients are at risk for bl…

As a Critical Care Medicine specialist, I have two main fights against critical illness. The first, and main fight, is to try and treat the critical illness that brings the patient to the ICU. This is why I am there in the ICU. This is why I bec…

In a previous article, I discussed how, as a critical care specialist, I wage multiple battles in the ICU. Along with the primary battle against critical illness itself, one of the most important battles is the one against an ignoble death. This…

In my conversation with Dr. Greg Johnson, Chief Physician Executive of Unity Point Health and former CEO of Hospital Medicine for Sound Physicians, we touched upon health equity, and he quoted a maxim that I took to heart: "There is no quality w…