End of Life Care

This article is part of a series in The Hospital Leader written by members of the Division of Hospital Medicine at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas in Austin, exploring lessons learned from the coronavirus pandemic and outlining an approach for creating COVID-19 Centers of Excellence. During the early months of the COVID-19 […]

This article is part of a series in The Hospital Leader written by members of the Division of Hospital Medicine at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas in Austin, exploring lessons learned from the coronavirus pandemic and outlining an approach for creating COVID-19 Centers of Excellence. Patients dying without their loved ones, families […]

If you are not doing Schwartz Rounds, get them started. ASAP. I recently completed a 4-year tenure as physician moderator for our hospital’s Schwartz Rounds. An amazing team at my hospital helped pull the bi-monthly sessions together. These compassionate care rounds are a national initiative to help foster empathy and compassion in the healthcare setting. […]

Last week I was in Dunkin’ Donuts and noticed something odd—although the oddness did not strike me immediately.  The woman who was serving me could have been my grandmother. Ditto that when I was at Home Depot in the lighting aisle yesterday.  And ditto it again in Walmart this morning. I would never dream of […]

There have been recent discussions in the lay media about a growing trend of litigation cases focused not on the “right to live”, but rather on the “right to die”. These cases have involved patients who received aggressive treatment, despite having documentation of their wishes not to receive such aggressive treatment. Although unsettling, it is […]

How often do we get complacent with knowledge?  We hear the same thing over and over, and the message becomes lore.  Drink eight ounces of water per day or turkey makes you drowsy—not only do we as docs believe it but we tell family members and patients the same. I came across a new study […]