A few of my interesting and not uncommon conversations...

By John Eberly, MD, Family Medicine

Dr. John Eberly, a family physician from Greenville, writes with humor about some of the common burdens of bureaucracy affecting family practice physicians in their daily practice.

I was reading my trustee’s report this evening (Rob Morgan, MD. Greenville) on the SCMA website and I decided to click on to our organization’s new “blog-site.” It was great to see familiar names contributing to various areas of interest in the name of South Carolina happenings in medicine. Though I am not a blogger, or even a writer, I have noticed a trend in on-line media over the past several years. It seems that anyone can contribute to a blog, or even have their own “expert” page or column. This is sometimes good and sometimes bad. Right now it’s good, because as a real novice, and down-right amateur scribe, I can feel “free” to pen anything in 2013 that my high school and college teachers may have cringed to read. There are no red pens awaiting these blogs; or at least I hope there are not. This is my chance. No shame. Probably no one watching (reading) either. So as a family physician, I wanted to post a few of my interesting and not uncommon conversations I had today with patients in my office.

I have a typical family practice. Plenty of acute problems mixed in with some chronic conditions plus a few visits I am not sure how to characterize. Some of today’s more interesting conversations with patients included a new onset diabetic, age 39. I knew he was coming in today because a cardiologist called me yesterday to let me know his random glucose was 424 yesterday after a cath; thankfully a normal cath. Anyway, there was nothing interesting regarding the workup, other than I thought that it was amusing that he felt like he could “beat this” disease if he gave up his 12-14 soft drinks a day that he had been consuming “for the past 15 years.” Wow. Then he informed me that he would be willing to speak with the dietician as long as she would work with him because he was “a vegetarian.” Another geriatric couple came in together to complete their “annual medicare wellness exam.” It was one of my favorite moments of the day because we all got some solid, belly-aching laughter out of the visit. They both couldn't figure out if I was serious or not while asking them the appointed questions that the CMS elitists say I must ask during this “free” Medicare benefit. It doesn't matter that I’ve known them for 21 years. I just want to make sure I performed the measure so that I don't become an outlier. And oh yeah, did I mention that it was “free” to them? I enjoyed praying with a college student who asked that I do so (because that’s still legal I think) because she was struggling with an eating disorder. Speaking of legalities, I enjoyed a brief breakfast of yogurt and coffee provided by an (evil) pharmaceutical rep.

I learned about a novel insulin delivery system and its nuances, efficacy etc. The yogurt was especially tasty as I knew it would be the last before the Sunshine Act kicked in next month. From August 1st until I die, someone up in D.C. will be publishing online all of the meals and trinkets I receive from Big Pharma and other medical suppliers. This is scary, because up until now, I have been able to deceive my patients into thinking I actually care about them and am not influenced by pens and chicken fingers. But soon I suspect my cover will be blown, thanks to those pesky busy-body congressmen. If only us physicians could be as ethical and selfless as they are!

Finally, I was able to make quite a few people feel better today who were either in need of an antibiotic or reassurance about a test or procedure. It was a fairly typical day for a Family Physician or Internist.

I can now say that I have “blogged.” Thanks for the platform SCMA.