There is one area of medical education where we have really missed the boat - we do not focus on it in medical school or in residency. And yet it has a huge impact on the rest of your practice.

"Can I get a doctor in here?" These are not words you want to hear in the emergency department. I went into the room to see what my nurse needed. I saw the nurse at the bedside with a young woman, clearly frightened with a blood-soaked towel pressed between her legs.

The hospital is a unique place within a community. Originally contrived as a common location to collect and care for ailing people, now along with schools, libraries, and parks, hospitals have come to be seen as an important and necessary part of a thriving community with each community or county supporting its local hospital. However, the healthcare landscape has changed in profound ways over the past several decades. Post the 2009 legislative healthcare overhaul, this tectonic movement...