The day I retired I was honored to receive a phone call from Governor Otter asking me to serve on the new Idaho Health Insurance Exchange Board. I was not in favor of the Exchange, but I saw an opportunity moving forward to possibly “privatize the exchange” and put it in the hands of health […]
The after-action reports and the Monday morning quarterbacking have yet to take place regarding our State’s Covid response. Maybe we are waiting until after the November general elections. Historically in the medical and nursing professions every death and every bad outcome is reviewed at the clinical level giving context to the analysis done at the […]
I was blessed to practice surgery and medicine for 44 years. Almost half of that time was in the Navy, the other half in Boise. Twenty-five years ago, I was asked to help rebuild the trauma center at St. Al’s and I was lucky enough to recruit four outstanding surgeons from three outstanding medical schools. […]
Tonight, I am in San Antonio Texas at Ft. Sam Houston. I am teaching for the last time a course for military doctors and surgeons that I have been part of since 1983. We have military and civilian instructors. Several of the instructors work full time for the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the […]
As Chris Rock opined tonight “I’m still processing.” I just came back from teaching a military trauma course at Ft. Sam Houston. We had about 60 students from across the USA and several corners of the world. All surgeons or physicians who are currently serving in the military of their countries. The instructors were all […]
CRISIS STANDARDS OF CARE LEGISLATION INTRODUCED! We are happy to report that, after much work and prayer, we were able to get legislation introduced this past week to limit the scope of “Crisis Standards of Care” …and to provide strong patient protections if we move again into health care rationing: Patients’ Living Wills have to […]
Never underestimate the power of peer pressure or the power of the mind. Mass hysteria or technically Mass Psychogenic Illness (MPI) is defined as the spread of symptoms either psychological or physiological that have no bases or environmental or pathologic causes. When I was the Medical Officer on the USS Virginia our Nuclear reactors were […]
I have spent an hour as often as possible watching the Idaho Joint Finance Appropriations Committee (JFAC) proceedings. Without making comments about the process of setting a budget, the absolute disconnect between economic reality and public policy is astonishing. During the course of the political pandemic all fifty States have seen a surplus in their […]
In this weekend’s Wall Street Journal Al Hubbard and Brian Blasé have written an article about the high prices charged by major hospitals in the State of Indiana. The article starts out by stating “When most people hear the word non-profit, they think of a benevolent organization driven by the desire to serve their communities”. […]
It is time for Idaho hospitals that fired health care workers —mostly nurses but many doctors, who had acquired natural immunity from Covid-19 and who refused to be vaccinated, to return these brave people back to their jobs. Most took care of sick patients on the wards and in ICUs before there were any vaccines […]
One of the great tragedies that has come out of the Covid political pandemic has been the loss of reputation and respect given to the medical profession by the public. There are many reasons for this. It has been a long time in the making. It actually began many years ago and there are many […]
Based on my 30 years of practical experience on the prescription and use of respiratory protection equipment, I gave testimony last month on the proper use of masks in this crisis we have found ourselves in over this past year. This month, I wish to direct my testimony to a little known topic by the […]