doctor-patient relationship
St. Vincent’s Hospital (1849-2010)
Locking the entrance to the emergency room: there could not have been a more potent image to the final day of St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City. After 160 years, St. Vincent’s closed because of financial problems. It was the only hospital serving Greenwich Village and the last Catholic hospital in Manhattan. The closing … More
Humanizing Medicine: The Small Details
by Danielle Ofri Huffington Post “Angelina Gomez,†the medical assistant hollers out to the crowded waiting room. As always, I cringe when I hear this. It sounds so harsh, so cattle-like. I know that the assistant is actually a gentle and caring person, and I understand that he uses a loud voice so that he … More
As I Live and Breathe: Notes of a Patient-Doctor
All medical students are required to write “history and physicals†(“H&Psâ€) about their patients. I ask my students to write one H&P in a narrative format — that is, to have the patient describe for the student what it is like to have a particular disease and what advice he or she might provide to a doctor in training. “As I Live and Breathe” is a lucidly woven answer to such questions. More
