by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 11, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight
My Father’s 2 year old baby brother died of tetanus in about 1929 after a minor cut to his foot. I’ve read about tetanus but thanks to modern vaccines, I’ve never seen a case. (If you want to read a chilling description of a death from tetanus, read about the death of...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 10, 2021 | Healthcare Payment Policy, Tales of the Medicare Disadvantaged, The Patient's Voice
Why my patient with Medicare Advantage does not have any wound dressings, even though he has had “skilled home health” for 3 weeks. And to make this more fun, my hospital says we are spending too much staff time on each patient so we need to see them faster. This...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 6, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight, Miscellaneous Musings
I love practicing medicine because every day there is a mystery to ponder and I also hear great patient stories! The daughter of one of my patients is a remarkable woman whose amazing dog has been trained for search and rescue and as a “cadaver dog.” These are tough...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 5, 2021 | COVID-19, COVID-19 Diaries
I’m sorry to say that the courageous author of “COVID Diaries” is back working in the ICU, preparing for another wave of critically sick COVID patients. In my own suburban hospital, there are 75 COVID patients hospitalized right now, 72 of whom are unvaccinated...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 2, 2021 | Miscellaneous Musings
A lot of hyperbaric medicine physicians got into the field because they loved scuba diving. But, when the pressures of life and work take over, we often stop doing the things we love and then wonder why the joy has gone out of life. I recently met Joe Poe, an...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jul 21, 2021 | Healthcare Payment Policy
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has just released the proposed rule for Calendar Year (CY) 2022 on the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Centers (APCs). If you are currently working in a hospital-based outpatient...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jul 20, 2021 | Health Information Technology and Wound Care
Beginning on July 28, HMP Communications and Today’s Wound Clinic will be offering a series of five FREE Wound Clinic Business Webinars in which where Kathy Schaum and Jolayne Devers will share their insights on “2021 Mid-Year Reimbursement Reports.” The free sessions...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jul 19, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight, Miscellaneous Musings
As a medical student, I remember being counseled by a very wise (and very brilliant) physician mentor about “therapeutic touch.” It might just be a pat on the arm – but he made a point to touch every patient he saw (naturally, in a socially appropriate way) even when...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jul 16, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight
It happened again. L-arginine made me look foolish. I told the patient’s husband I didn’t think we could get this bone deep pressure injury to close without surgery. I kept doing office debridements, we used negative pressure wound therapy and an anti-biofilm agent....
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jul 15, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight
68-year-old with ulcers on the left medial ankle, which began after sclerotherapy with some sort of glue 10 weeks earlier. He has had multiple venous ablation procedures for recurrent venous leg ulcers over the past 15 years. I screened him for arterial disease with...
