My lede:

Nurse practitioners and physician assistants account for at least 10% of outpatient visits and increasingly are being used to handle patient care in emergency departments, according to previous research.

But a new survey said 80% of patients expect to see a physician when they come to the ED. Fewer than half would be willing to see an NP or PA for an ankle injury — they would rather wait two more hours to be cared for by a physician.

The whole shebang.

Five years after the hurricane devastated New Orleans’ health system, the city’s medical landscape has been transformed.

Read the whole shebang.

My lede:

A federal jury has found Randeep Mann, MD, guilty on all but one count related to the February 2009 bombing of Arkansas State Medical Board Chair Trent P. Pierce, MD, who nearly died in the blast.

Among other charges, jurors found Dr. Mann, an internist from London, Ark., guilty of using a “weapon of mass destruction” in the bombing that targeted Dr. Pierce. That count alone carries a potential life sentence, said Cherith Beck, public information officer for the Eastern District of Arkansas U.S. Attorney’s Office, which brought the case against Dr. Mann. The verdict was delivered Aug. 9.

The whole shebang.

My lede:

One in three doctors who personally knew of an incompetent or impaired physician colleague failed to report the doctor to a hospital, clinic, professional society or other authority, according to a recent national survey of nearly 2,000 physicians.

A variety of medical professional ethics codes, including the American Medical Association’s, say physicians have a duty to report other doctors whose substance abuse, mental health or other problems could endanger patients. But the survey, whose results were published in the July 14 Journal of the American Medical Association, found that just 64% of physicians completely agreed that they had an obligation to report all impaired or incompetent doctors. The rest of the physicians either “somewhat agreed” that they were obliged to report problem colleagues or disagreed that they had such a responsibility.

The whole shebang.

My lede:

The Iowa Medical Society recently launched what appears to be a first-of-its-kind initiative by a state medical society to help its members recruit new physicians.

Telling potential recruits about the benefits of practicing in the Hawkeye State is the aim of the medical society’s Center for Physician Recruitment. The effort, which started in April, is packaged under the slogan, “Iowa: A Practice Worth Living,” and features a website, coffee-table sized booklet and videos of Iowa doctors from various specialties talking about why they enjoy working and living in the state.

The whole shebang.