challenges to physicians – those with specific business interests as well as those whose sole focus is patient care. Understanding the law and knowing which, if any, of the many Stark exceptions apply to your arrangement is essential. Part I of this series explained the purpose of the Stark statute, how it differs from the anti-kickback statute and how you can determine whether it applies to ...

BACKGROUND Physician associates are new to English general practice and set to expand in numbers. OBJECTIVE To investigate the patients' perspective on consulting with physician associates in general practice. DESIGN A qualitative study, using semi-structured interviews, with thematic analysis. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS Thirty volunteer patients of 430 who had consulted physician associate...

in any clinical encounter, an effective physician-patient relationship is necessary for achieving the desired outcome. this outcome is successful treatment, and therefore, the relationship should be a healing one. in addition, in the islamic view, the physician is a manifestation of god’s healing attribute, which is usually undermined in everyday therapeutic communications. yet there are few em...

In previous research, no uniform picture emerged of the role of relatives in the meeting between an elderly patient and a physician. Knowledge about relatives' experiences of the meeting between an elderly patient and a physician will help healthcare practitioners better understand the role of relatives during the meeting and how practitioners can assist relatives in assuming their supporting r...

results we performed rush on 77 patients. kappa index was 0.71 (p value = 0.000), reflecting acceptable general agreement between initial impression and final diagnosis. for hypovolemic, cardiogenic and obstructive shock, the protocol had an npv above 97% yet it had a lower ppv. for shock with distributive or mixed etiology, rush showed a ppv of 100% but it had low sensitivity. subgroup analysi...

The importance of a person's spirit and eternal destiny are eclipsed in American medi- cine. The most alarming effect of this eclipse is that the prevalence of burnout among physicians is high (about 46 percent) and growing.' It is alarming because trends that deplete the physician's spirit tragically impair the physician's capacity as a healer and as one who renews the spirit.