John Shufeldt, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP I participated in my first triathlon in 18 years last weekend in a town named for a card game. Show Low sits at 6,412 feet at the base of the White Mountains in northern Arizona. Remember the first scene in Chariots of Fire, where a group of men are running barefoot, effortlessly through the crashing waves on a beautiful beach with the orchestra playing an inspiring melody in the …
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June 2010
Harmony in the Urgent Care
John Shufeldt, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP My kids might offer a dissenting opinion, but I think I am pretty hip. And, although I have no idea what these lyrics mean … I want your ugly I want your disease I want your everything As long as it’s free I want your love Love-love-love I want your love … I still have Lady Gaga on in my iTunes. In fact, I kind of like these lyrics; …
Read MoreA Slip of the Lip Can Sink a Practice
When I was 11, attending Our Lady of the Wayside, I was on the wrong side of this exchange during a Marriage and the Catholic Family class, taught by a “largess nun” named Sister Marie Magdalena, whom the entire seventh grade called “MooMoo.” MooMoo: “Sexual relations are a very beautiful thing and can only occur between a husband and a wife.” JS after being called upon: “How would you know how beautiful it is?” Now, …
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May 2010
Too Big to Fail—Urgent Care Lessons from Toyota
John Shufeldt, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP In his book, How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In, Jim Collins discusses the five markers or stages of decline and how a company can identify these stages and reverse itself even after large-scale defeats along the way. (Or, as Bluto (John Belushi) said in Animal House, “Was it over when the Germans bombed Peral Harbor?”) Applying those stages to the rough patch of road …
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April 2010
March 2010
Using Evidence-based Care Paths
Oscar Wilde was quoted as saying, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” This was never more apparent to me than a few Mondays ago when I was paraded in front of a number of primary care doctors who questioned the use of “care paths” in urgent care medicine. The leader of the mob was a gentleman who was the patriarch of a local family practice clinic. The meeting opened this way. “I …
Read More‘Sorry’ Shouldn’t Be the Hardest Word
The following movies, in my opinion, are non-starters on first dates. In no particular order: Sophie’s Choice (tragic) Schindler’s List (depressing) The Exorcist (freaky) The English Patient (mind-numbing boredom) Terms of Endearment (heart-wrenching) and finally, Love Story (sappy). You may, if you were born before 1960, remember the tagline and memorable quote in Love Story. “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Oh please, even in 1970, when I was 10-years-old, I knew that …
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