Hello! Welcome back to The Friday Sign Out - a newsletter for primary care physicians and advanced practice providers.

Happy Nurses Week! I could not do my job without our fantastic, hard working nurses!

Here’s what I’m reading and thinking about this week.

In the News

This article from BMC Primary Care shares data supporting yearly screening for B12 deficiency not only in patients on metformin, but also in all type II diabetics, regardless of the duration of disease. This test can easily be incorporated into the yearly lab panel. B12 deficiency is also simple to treat, and supplementation in the setting of low levels can improve a patient’s quality of life. As a PCP, I love these easy wins!

In Your Practice

Please take this newsletter as a reminder to schedule your next vacation!

In all seriousness, go look at your calendar now and pick a week to block. It can be in 2 months or 8 months. It can be a stay-cation or a trip to Europe. Time away is SO important. To continue to take care of others, we need to fill our own cups. We need to take breaks.

This means no inbox! In primary care, our work days (and often our days off, too) are consumed by inbox management. I really encourage everyone I work with to take dedicated time away from the office AND the inbox. Your colleagues will help cover, especially if you do the same for them when they are out. Here are a few steps I take prior to vacation that allow me to relax and stay out of my inbox while away:

• I send a staff message to my colleagues (a “sign out” if you will 😃) detailing any important patient labs or scans that might come back and require immediate follow up while I’m out.

• I clear out my inbox completely.

• I am clear about expectations for inbox management while I’m gone. For example, my colleagues help with refills, phone calls and MyChart messages. Most results, unless urgent, will wait for my return. I advise them to ignore CC’d charts and generally anything else that can wait a week.

• My medical assistants will reply to MyChart messages notifying patients I am out of office. An EMR smart phrase is great here. This lets patients know that that a reply from me will be delayed and to call the office with any urgent concerns

Vacation is top of mind as I just returned from a week on Anna Maria Island - a lovely quaint beach town on the Gulf of Mexico.

As all the parents know, a vacation with kids is actually more of a “trip” instead of a true vacation, but we had a wonderful getaway nonetheless. It was refreshing to unplug and not worry or think about work. A huge shout out to my awesome colleagues, Eric, Joshua and Kathy, for helping with my patients and managing my inbox. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

In Your Heart

Practicing medicine is truly an art - a mix of knowledge and feeling, book-smarts and instinct. I love this gentle reminder of what a privilege it is to practice medicine and care for people.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ashley