My cup runneth over. No, really, my cup runneth over, and over, and over!
I spent a few hours sitting in on a meeting for the board of directors of a local home health company. I listened intently as the discussion turned to strategies for dealing with medicare's 2013 readmission rules. Most home care companies are positioning themselves to woo local hospitals with promises of tighter care and lower rehospitalization rates. The discussion ended with an invitation to Las Vegas. Vegas? Who has time for Vegas?
Next, a stop at the nursing home for a pow wow on our palliative care program. We have assembled a group of nurses, social workers, and recently added a psychologist. While the program is up and running and serving our patients, what we really need is to codify the data. What impact has the program had? Are pain scores better? Is satisfaction higher? And oh by the way, could I cover hospice consults at the local hospital next week?
After rounding on half a dozen patients and doing a few new palliative care consults, it was off to the post office to drop a copy of my book in the mail to someone who had bought it over the Internet. Then I had a few minutes to start to prepare for my upcoming grand rounds at the Carolinas Medical Center on social media in October.
Did I mention that I had a blog post that was itching to be written?
I spent the afternoon seeing patients in the office. It was a slow schedule-just a few late Friday stragglers. But I felt a certain joy in the process. I concentrated on each patient. I took the time to address every concern and fear. I made sure they walked out of the office satisfied.
What a great way to finish the week. This is why I went into medicine. The buzz of my pager reminded me that I had one more admit to see in dialysis,
before returning to my family and ushering in the long awaited weekend.
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