The PMD Critical List: Customer Service Pays

This week's list of must-read news stories for physicians includes a look at how so-called “concierge doctors” can earn a hefty paycheck, along with the story of a teenager who somehow convinced hospital staff that he was a doctor.

• Concierge Medicine Practice = Millionaire Physicians (Forbes)

Here’s a timely report that highlights “a number of key success factors” in becoming a “wealthy” concierge doctor.” Including: a client-centered mind set, more efficient operations, appropriate financing, and targeted business development.

• NYC Physician Touched by Political Scandal Still Admired (New York Daily News)

Oncologist Dr. Robert Taub, “a giant in his field,” is embroiled in the NY Assembly Speaker corruption case. Yet he remains much respected by patients and colleagues “A menschy kind of doctor”?

• 6 Questions Every Doctor Should Be Asking Patients (HealthLeadersMedia)

Discussions about end-of-life care aren’t easy or optional, says a Harvard Medical School professor. A palliative care Q&A is “so important for families and patients” and should be done when “the patient is feeling great.”

• Demanding Respect from Doctors May Save Your Life (Consumer Reports and Forbes)

A report from the top consumer advocacy journal that encourages “patients to speak up when they feel that their wishes are not being heard.” Helpful tips: Have your doc sit when they talk to you, write things down, and seek “plain English” answers.

• 4 Choices for Physicians When Integrating with Hospitals (Healthcare Finance News)

This process is changing and becoming more complicated. Thus, “successful hospital-physician integration—one that creates value—depends on physicians choosing the right reasons, sequence, model and customer.”

• Fake Physician: Catch Me If You Can (Fox 4 News)

A 17-year-old Florida youth posing as an OB/GYN was able to deceive hospital staff for about a month. He made it as far as an exam room with a patient before he was found out.

• Never Forget: People Are Not Diseases (MedCity News)

An enlightening essay from a physician who says “we are losing the fight against chronic disease.” A better alternative is “a minimally disruptive approach to healthcare” which lets “patients improve their ability to function—or enjoy life.”

• New Model for Ranking Medical Schools? (Medical News Today)

The USN&WR rankings of medical colleges, “the unofficial default tool for these types of comparisons,” may be in for some changes. Some academics want to see more focus on “subjective criteria” verses “objective criteria.”

• Why Doctors May Start Talking More About Pizza (ThinkProgress.com)

A new study in a leading physician journal Pediatrics finds that pizza “consumption should be curbed and its nutrient content improved.” Because on days the average teen eats pizza, “they consumed 230 extra calories.” Americans spend $37 billion a year on pizza.