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Mean People Suck
A personal reflection on how meanness is always a choice and the hurt it causes can outlast any apology, with a hope that a young son learns early to let slights go and give people second chances.
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Ambulance Chaser
A lawyer showed up uninvited outside the ICU to solicit a trauma family, claiming a vehicle defect — even though the driver was intoxicated and traveling over 100 mph — confirming that ambulance chasing is very much real.
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Never Events
CMS expanded its list of so-called never events — hospital-acquired conditions it will no longer reimburse — and a surgeon argues the policy is a cost-cutting measure disguised as patient safety, since many of these conditions cannot be prevented 100% of the time.
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iCal - Exchange Time Zone Fix
A single AppleScript solution is presented to fix the broken time zone information that Microsoft Exchange injects into iCal meeting invites, preventing Mac users from missing meetings by correcting the TZID before the event is imported.
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Immediate Breast Reconstruction and CMS
A frustrating CMS billing dispute is recounted after performing immediate breast reconstruction following another surgeon's mastectomies, with Medicare refusing payment because the add-on code requires both procedures to be done by the same physician.
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Ivory Towers
A regional Level 1 trauma center refused a difficult transfer for specialized endovascular care, sparking reflection on how academic medical centers have drifted from their traditional mission of supporting community surgeons without question.
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New Year Blues
The new year brought grief when a dear friend lost his mother in the emergency department, a loss made more painful coming just over seven years after the death of her son Henry, who was also a close friend.
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Closing the Office
An announcement that the author is closing his elective surgical practice to join a local trauma group, a move driven by the rising costs of running a private office.
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Securing Email
A brief account of getting SSL working for IMAP, POP, and SMTP on a Leopard Server Mac mini after two frustrating days, resolved by following Panther-era instructions from Joel Rennich with only a minor workaround for the serial file.
