Killing Off Caring Docs That Matter
By permission from Shane A Avery, MD August 29, 2018 12:47 PM as posted in AAFP News I am a rural, solo, self-employed family physician who is practicing with his wife, an NP; in one of the poorest counties in Indiana. I was one of the physicians who reported the first cases of HIV during the historic outbreak in 2015. I lobbied at the state level for a needle exchange program when our governor and state health department said it should not be done. It is quite sobering to have the heads of the HIV division of the CDC sitting in your hospital boardroom. I had fought the opioid epidemic before it was recognized, when JCAHO was telling us to monitor pain as the 6th vital sign. I watched a rural community flounder under an epidemic of death, disease, and disability brought on by opioids with the blessing of the healthcare and pharmaceutic industry. But I am a family physician. I kept seeing patients in the office, providing complex care coordination. I did home visit...