Texas Physicians For Patients PAC

07/01/2024

JULY 1.
Every physician probably gets a little emotional about July 1. Our history is of making major leaps in our lives on this day:
College Graduate to Medical Student.
Medical Student to Resident.
Resident to Fellow.
Fellow to Attending.

Whatever stage of transition you are in, remember that you have SO MUCH knowledge, blood/sweat/tears, sleepless nights, 6th sense and intuition, empathy, and experience.

New interns: We hope you’re all celebrating what you’ve accomplished so far. In achieving your doctorate degree in medicine (MD or DO), you have surpassed the rest and are already more well-trained than any other profession in healthcare with more than 5000 clinical hours under your belts, 4 super intense years of med school, and 3 licensing exams behind you.

And now you’ll be embarking on the journey that exemplifies the excellence that is the practice of medicine. You will spend more than 14-20 THOUSAND hours with your patients during these next years of residency.

There are no shortcuts to the practice of medicine; there is no substitute. It can be scary. It can be exhausting. Not every day is even gratifying. But, you’ll be okay. We’ve got your backs. We understand the calling to care.
We are lucky to have you as our colleagues, and are here for you as you enter the next phase of physician life. Welcome to the house of medicine! You got this!

We are proud of our newly-minted, superbly prepared, crazy smart, and especially amazing physicians. Welcome to the practice of medicine!

Published by LookforzebrasA medical intern is a physician in training. He/She has completed medical school or a medical degree but does not have the license to practice medicine unsupervised. An intern enters the Graduate Medical Education (G.M.E.) program. Medical education in all countries is a co...

05/19/2024

NPs: No big boost for primary care.

“Another argument often advanced for expanding nurse practitioners’ scope of practice is that doing so would help address primary care physician shortages, which are severe and expected to worsen dramatically as more Baby Boomer physicians retire and the U.S. population gets older and sicker.
Yet research shows that, in addition to setting up practice in the same geographic locations as physicians, many nurse practitioners also are opting to pursue non-primary care specialties.”

Years of research show the same story in state after state, regardless of their scope of practice laws. Dive deeper with the AMA.

05/01/2024

The medspa industry in Tx must be put back in the corral.

A KXAN investigation uncovers how anyone in Texas can become certified to inject Botox — and why a medical emergency led a small-town police department to push for change and more accountability st…

10/18/2023

During the last legislative session, non-physician medspa owners flooded
one legislator’s office with vitriol when he filed a bill that would strengthen physician supervision and delegation requirements in all medical practices to keep patients safe. He was right.
What happened at this medspa is the reason non-physicians are not (with very few, very specific exceptions) legally able to own medical practices and why physicians must properly supervise all of the non-physicians providing medical treatments to patients.
This is as true in the medspa as it is in the ER or in a surgeon’s office. Unfortunately for Jenifer, the bill that would have kept her out of harm’s way was not brought up for Public Health Committee hearing, but was instead tabled.

Cleveland, 47, of Fairfield, Texas, worked at the radio station KNES Texas 99.1.

10/14/2023

A HARD WARNING FOR PHYSICIANS CONSIDERING MEDSPA/ IV DRIP CLINIC/ KETAMINE CLINIC/ WEIGHT LOSS CLINIC/ LOW-T CLINIC, etc MEDICAL DIRECTORSHIPS:
The Texas Medical Board issued a press release that is a strong warning to physicians that are supervising IV hydration, aesthetics, ketamine clinics, etc.
Bottom-line: DON’T DO IT!
❌Except for a handful of exceptions, only a physician can legally own a medical practice in Texas.
❌You are putting your license on the line if you are hired by the practice to “supervise” non-physicians.
🆘Case in point: TMB just suspended the license of the physician who was responsible for overseeing the activities at the Wortham medspa, Luxe by Amber Johnson, where Jenifer Cleveland died suddenly in July.
🛑What do you do now if you are already in this situation? GET OUT. Call your healthcare attorney and extract yourself ASAP before it’s too late.

09/28/2023

Improved "title protection" legislation will simply empower patients at the right time and place with more information about their healthcare providers, enabling them to make informed decisions that meet their personal needs and protect their safety.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/106512 for the full story:

Stronger 'title protection' legislation can offer patients greater transparency

09/25/2023

Education-dedicated medical students are dispirited by seeing nonphysician providers with less training than they have already delivering care.
Learn more.

Medical students are dispirited by seeing nonphysician providers with less training than they have already delivering care. Learn more with the AMA.

09/22/2023

Clinical competence reduces healthcare spending much more than physician substitutes.

“ED physicians ordered the fewest number of CTA scans during the study period at 11%, followed by resident physicians 23% and nonphysician providers (67%).

“After adjusting for patient age and gender, exams ordered by physicians had 117% increased odds of having a high severity score with statistical significance.”

In other words, physicians are much more likely order tests when they are needed. Non-physicians order tests when are are not indicated, wasting scarce resources and the healthcare dollar. And residents-in-training are in between at 23%, but they eventually grow into the 11% category. Whereas, non-physician providers maintain the avg 67%. This study’s findings corroborate other studies that demonstrate the same.
Consider this: by ordering unnecessary tests, non-physician providers make hospital systems money at the expense of patients, a glaring conflict of financial interest.

Nonphysician practitioners and ED residents also ordered a significantly greater proportion of such exams, experts detailed in JACR.

07/16/2023

PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT vs PHYSICIAN ASSOCIATE. WHATEVER THE TITLE, THEY REQUIRE SUPERVISION AND TRANSPARENCY.
“If they're not properly supervised, if it's not clear what they're doing, and if they don't make it clear to the patient who they are, then there is an opportunity for things to go wrong."

The Brits are having the same issues with PAs (aka physician associates there) that we are.
This patient was diagnosed with an ankle sprain when she actually had a DVT. At a second appointment, she was given anxiety medication after reporting further symptoms of a swollen leg and shortness of breath.
She collapsed later that day and died in hospital from a pulmonary embolus three weeks after she first sought medical advice.

The British Medical Association (BMA) called for the role of PA to be renamed as "physician assistant" and for more efforts to ensure that “physician associates” were not confused with doctors.
Health minister Will Quince said that, regardless of the title, "we need to make sure they are properly introducing themselves and their role, and making that very clear to patients".

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-66211103?fbclid=IwAR3mMXjNkOfmwBDdpCezt-JSBdXVULmD4NKjBLfi9p0dEv2Rw5hCQuw3vVI_aem_AQIjyjJdpw7AjJikSSIZ2QcOcAJzhX-45tnxbVPDmXxyTEwEGxEt6tL4OjP7pvAl-yw&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

Emily Chesterton saw a physician associate twice before she died, thinking they were a GP.

07/04/2023

WELCOME TO THE HOUSE OF MEDICINE.
Tx400 welcomes and celebrates our new physician colleagues!

July 1 traditionally marks the start of residency for new physicians who have recently completed medical school and fellowship for physicians who have already completed residency.

Intern year is just the beginning of post medical school training. After those 4,000+ hours of patient care they already have under their belts, your average pediatrician, family medicine physician and internist (all primary care physicians) will complete an additional 7,000-8,000 hours of training before taking their respective board exams (an additional 8-10 hours of testing). Your average general surgeon will complete an additional 16,000 hours. Plastic surgery and cardiac surgery, 20,000+.

There are no shortcuts to the safe practice of medicine.

Patients first. Always.