Overheard on rounds

Nurse: "Have you had any previous heart issues?"

Patient: "I have a porcelain heart valve."

Nurse: "You mean porcine heart valve?"

Patient: "Whatever."

And now, music

Seen in a chart

This isn't the first time I've put up stuff like this, and it won't be the last.

But you know what? Crap like this is no longer the exception. It's the rule. I'd say at least 50%-60% of charts I read from hospitals and practices that use computer charting systems (which is pretty much all of them) have errors of this kind.

And these are what the world is pushing us to use more and more of.

I'm not saying computer chart systems are bad things. They have a lot of advantages. But they also encourage the slacker inherent in all of us. It's easier and faster to check boxes, cut & paste, and use templates than it is to actually type out what's correct. Especially if you skip the critical step of proofreading what you've just done. Most do.

The majority of these errors are just amusing. This one is just stupid, but likely won't cause a serious patient outcome.

But if it can make an error about smoking, it can also make them about your allergies. Your current medications. What conditions you have. Your past surgeries.

And one "minor" error in any of those could lead to a disaster in the right setting.

Cole slaw

I'm in the emergency room, talking to a patient's wife:



Dr. Grumpy: "When did this all start?"

Mrs. Concern: "Last night. He fell down in the bathroom, and said he couldn't move that side."

Dr. Grumpy: "Then what happened?"

Mrs. Concern: "I figured he was just angry at me, and trying to get attention. We'd had this big argument over cole slaw at lunch, because..."

Dr. Grumpy: "Okay, but last night..."

Mrs. Concern: "Oh yeah, anyway, so I watched some TV in bed - there's that new detective show I like - until I fell asleep. When I woke up this morning he was still on the bathroom floor, and boy, was he angry. So that was when I called paramedics."