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Dr. Mike Perraut

Healthcare Quality Improvement Is About Looking Back and Ahead

There’s an old joke told by PhDs: A doctor and a researcher are walking along a river when a drowning person floats by. The doctor jumps in and heroically saves him. A few minutes later the same thing happens again. And again. After the third rescue, the doctor looks up to see the researcher running […]

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When Are ER Docs Hunting the Snark?

The old saying about the doctor who tells a patient to “take two of these and call me in the morning” is losing its meaning in today’s modern healthcare system. Today, doctors are weary of sending their patients home without something more, usually an expensive test that either confirms or (less commonly) contradicts their diagnosis.  […]

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Discharging Low Risk Chest Pain: The Holy Grail

“Missed MI has the highest settlement amount of any malpractice case brought against ER physicians.” That, after where the bathrooms were, was probably the first thing I learned when I started my residency. Chest pain is both dangerous and common with many deadly and benign causes. Thanks to public health outreach efforts more patients present […]

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Pain Control and the Law of Unintended Consequences

While medicine can carry an aura of nearly miraculous treatments in the minds of many of our patients, we know that there is not much we can really do to alter the disease processes for many of our patients. Relieving patients from acute pain is one of the greatest gifts physicians and nurses can offer.  […]

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Reflections from a Year Anniversary as an Emergency Medicine Attending

Looking back over my first year of practice in emergency medicine, it’s hard to pick out one thing that stands out. It has really been a blur. Without reflection I might not be able to appreciate the tremendous change I’ve undergone as an attending emergency physician. Change is difficult. It’s stressful and chaotic. Even change for […]

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