The other night, around 1:00, I took a call from the emergency room. One of Dr. Brain's patients was being admitted for a seizure and I was covering for the evening. I discussed the case with the ER physician and went back to bed.
The next day I'm seeing a patient in the office, when Mary interrupts me for a hospital call. So I pick up the phone.
Dr. Grumpy: "This is Dr. Grumpy."
Dr. Newgrad: "Hi! This is Dave Newgrad, the hospitalist seeing Rosanna Shakin. I have her ready to go, but you haven't been by to see her."
Dr. Grumpy: "I thought she was Dr. Brain's patient."
Dr. Newgrad: "She is, and he's been by and seen her and cleared her to go home. But I need you to come by."
Dr. Grumpy: "If Dr. Brain already did that, then you don't need anything from me."
Dr. Newgrad: "But the chart says the ER doctor spoke to you."
Dr. Grumpy: "She did, but I was covering for Dr. Brain."
Dr. Newgrad: "I thought that if you're the one who talks to the ER, you're legally obligated to come see the patient."
Dr. Grumpy: "Where the hell did you hear that? That's completely wrong."
Pause
Dr. Newgrad: "Nobody teaches you these things in training."
Where the hell did he do his residency? If that's news to him, he wasn't paying attention. Maybe he needs an extra year.
ReplyDeleteDude...
ReplyDelete-mary
"I had my fingers crossed while I was talking to the ER doctor, and at the end of the call I said 'HOT POTATO, ORCHESTRA STALLS!' before he had a chance to say 'YOU'RE IT!' three times, so I'm off the hook. Don't you know the rules?"
ReplyDeleteNow he knows!
ReplyDeleteSeems like commonsense to me. Guess they don't teach that either.
ReplyDelete@Anon: "Common sense" and "legally obligated" aren't always related.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, but I have to side with Newgrad here. They don't teach you a lot of the stuff you're supposed to know in residency.
ReplyDeleteFor example: just since ICD-10 I can't finish a chart without defining a patient's condition as "intractable" or "not intractable." If anybody ever said one word to me about the literal, practical definition of "intractable" at any time during training, I missed it. As far as I can tell, it has no medical meaning. Yet, I'm expected to have a definite opinion about it.
Also, suddenly, they want to know whether my admit is an "observation" or an "admit" but what qualifies for the one or the other seems to be a deeply held trade secret of the coders.
#justmuddlingthroughoverhere
#impostersyndrome