November 8th, 2009 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Against Medical Advice, AMA, Emergency Medicine, Labyrinth, On-Call, Physicians, schedule
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The call schedule is hidden somewhere inside!
Dictation:
‘The patient was seen in the emergency department by Dr. Niemans, who is the acting hospitalist on call for Dr. Whitman’s group, who usually admit for the patient’s actual primary care provider, Emily Knight, PA, who works for Dr. Robelo, who no longer takes call, but admits his patients to the hospitalist.
Because the patient has COPD and an acute left-lower-lobe pneumonia, pulmonology was consulted. However, no pulmonologist is available this weekend. Pulmonary is being covered by Dr. Albertson, pulmonologist in the neighboring city. I spoke with Dr. Albertson about this and he told me he wasn’t taking call for our patients, and why did people keep bothering him.
The patient’s cardiologist, Dr. Rease, is being covered by Dr. James. I spoke to Edgar, PA for Dr. James who said that as of 7am, Dr. James was trading call with Dr. Housefield while Dr. James went to his son’s soccer game, but if I had any questions I should call Dr. Housefield’s Nurse Practitioner Michael, who would be rounding for Dr. Housefield, Dr. James and Dr. Josefson, at least until soccer was over or something bad happened. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
November 7th, 2009 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Broken Thumb, Costs, Emergency Medicine, Finance, Healthcare reform, Hospital Bill, Orthopedics, Prices, Radiology
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I took my son to the ER for a broken thumb. It was a minor injury but the thumb is the most important digit on the hand. The ER care was just fine…a quick look, an Xray and a small splint. We didn’t have to wait long and everyone was courteous.
Imagine my surprise to receive the bill from the hospital. Yes, I have insurance. My out of pocket expense was minimal but here is what the insurance company was charged:
- Hospital Misc.- $56.00 (could this be the splint?)
- Diagnostic Xray – $342.00
- Emergency Care- $952.00
- Surgery – $570.00
- Total $1920.00
Take a look…surgery? There was so surgery, no procedure. There was no break in the skin. The doctor component of the visit was about 7 minutes (mainly because I knew the doc and we chatted about politics)
This bill is unreal and is comprised of unreal health care costs. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
November 7th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in True Stories
Tags: Bathroom, Dirt, Dirty, Doctors, Flu, Hand Washing, Hospital, Hygiene, Infection Control, Infectious Disease, Influenza, NYC
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I was hesitant to post this photo because it is an image of my girlfriend’s bathtub in New York City. I’m sure she wouldn’t want me to post this, but I figure it’s ok because I didn’t reveal her identity and also, she doesn’t read my blog.
My girlfriend is a physician. She is friendly and smart and well-groomed. Her bathroom, on the other hand, is pretty scary. It’s not unlike other bathrooms I’ve seen in New York – which means this could be partially a cultural phenomenon. She knows it needs cleaning – I guess.
She invited me to stay at her place during a recent visit – instead of a hotel – and I gladly accepted. We planned to have a nice dinner and drinks out on the town. She showed me to my room and casually mentioned that she needed to get some Draino for the bathroom. I wondered what exactly that might mean, and was surprised by her use of understatement in this case. Read more »
November 7th, 2009 by MotherJonesRN in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Dr. Hasan, Fort Hood, Nursing, Psychiatry, Shooter, Shooting
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My iPhone started ringing just as my nursing colleagues and I were getting ready to report off to the next shift at Undisclosed Government Hospital. The frantic caller was one of our nurses. She cried, “Are you on lockdown? Don’t leave the unit!” I signaled everyone in the room to cut the chatter. Then we heard the patients in the television room gearing up. I’m not going to replay everything that happened last night. I can’t do it. Suffice to say that things got tense at the nurses station when the name of the Fort Hood triggerman was released. We knew him. He was a former psychiatrist at UGH.
People are asking me what it was like to work with Dr. Hasan. They want to know if there were any signs that he was going off the deep end. No, he didn’t come across as a Unabomber in scrubs. He was just one of the guys, and that’s what made him so dangerous. He could make me laugh. I use to banter with him about his bachelorhood. He told me it was too bad that I was already married and then he would ask me if I could line up a nurse who wanted to marry a doctor. We never talked about religion or politics on the unit. He was always polite and respectful. He was an officer and a gentleman. Read more »
November 6th, 2009 by Bongi in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Bleeding, Emergency Medicine, Gastroenterology, General Surgery, Peptic Ulcer
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Recently I had a moment to reflect on adrenaline and adrenaline inducing sports. It was a bloody moment. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Bleeding peptic ulcers occasionally cross the path of general surgeons. Usually they stop bleeding with conservative treatment. But sometimes they don’t. Then you need to whip out the trusty knife. Even then usually the operation is little more than routine. This case, however was exceptional.
He was white as a sheet. He had been bleeding for three days but only decided to come to the hospital when he started falling over. It seemed he could at least recognise falling over as not normal. The initial gastroscopy showed a penetrating duodenal ulcer with no active bleeding. the body had managed to curtail the bleeding, partially because of vasoconstriction, but mainly due to a low blood pressure which in itself was due to loss of blood. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at other things amanzi*
