Five physician leaders joined Becker's to discuss the biggest lesson they learned in 2024.
Editor's note: Responses were edited lightly for clarity and length.
Joseph Anderson, MD. Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Dartmouth School of Medicine (Hanover, N.H.): Artificial intelligence is taking a strong foothold in everyday life and physicians need to be leading the effort to integrate AI into their practice or risk being replaced by AI.
Quentin Durward, MD. Neurosurgeon at the Center for Neurosciences, Orthopaedics, & Spine (Dakota Dunes, S.D.): The biggest lesson I learnt in 2024 is that the 3 hospitals I work at in SD, IA and NE are all under huge financial pressure and looking to cut any service that’s not at least breaking even financially. Our Level 2 trauma center is at risk of being downgraded to Level 3 because it loses money. Our on-site neurology service was stopped because a talking- head-in-a-box neurologist was cheaper ( no accounting for drastic reduction in quality). Medical transcription services are gone, replaced by the cheaper but imbecilic “Dragon”, allowing medical charts to be full of nonsense verbiage, spelling and grammatical errors, with the ever present disclaimer touting no fault for inaccuracies.
In short, the concept of “quality care” has been largely forgotten ( despite the money-wasting toothless quality departments in every hospital ), replaced by number-crunching administrative budgeteers who never have to face a desperate patient in dire straits.
Cory Koenig, MD. Anesthesiologist at Providence Anesthesiology Associates - Charlotte (N.C.): We continue to be reminded just how vulnerable the anesthesia market can be. We have shortages on all sides in the form of anesthesia staffing to drugs and supplies. The latest of these being the IV fluid shortages after the Hurricane disaster here in North Carolina. We also learned how a cyber security hack can dramatically affect healthcare organizations. All of these things can ultimately have a devastating impact on a private practice anesthesia group in an already vulnerable market.
James Leavitt, MD. Director of Clinical Quality and Outcomes of Gastro Health (Miami): The lesson I gleaned in 2024 is to concentrate on the things that I can control. Use technology to become more efficient, to do more with less or more with the same resources. Concentrate on our controllable objectives. Look to provide great care and an exceptional experience for our patients. If we can do that we will feel the pride of accomplishment and service. Satisfaction and contentment hopefully will follow for us and our patients.
Sean Overton, MD. Associate Professor of Anesthesia and Critical Care at the University of Utah School of Medicine (Salt Lake City): For me, one of the most important lessons from 2024 is that our physician workforce is more fragile than ever. It’s becoming increasingly clear that relying on provider resilience, dedication and altruism is not an adequate plan for dealing with physician shortages and increasing workloads. Our patients deserve 24/7 excellence, and our providers deserve to be recognized for the burden they bear. Realistic workloads, schedules that accommodate work-life balance, and a halt to reimbursement reductions would be excellent places to start.