October 27, 2005

More woes of telephone medicine. “A night call from a patient who complained of back pain. The doctor quickly established the pain was an old problem and asked the patient if he could leave the consultation until the next morning. The patient agreed but later had a mild myocardial infarction. He had not had time to report his chest pain. The researchers urge doctors to consider the possibility of a hidden concern, especially during a late night call and to give patients time to explain their chief complaint. Asking: ‘Is there anything else you want me to know about?’ can be used to uncover potentially important information.”

Is the best way to prevent such sue-worthy scenarios is just to send everyone to the ER after hours?

Similar Posts:


KevinMD.com on Facebook


{ 28 comments }

1 Anonymous October 29, 2005 at 3:34 pm

My favorite “What the hell is taking so long” Was a 20 year old woman who signed in at 2 am because she had swallowed some guys sperm when she was “doing him a favor” and she wanted to be treated “in case” she got an STD. After 5 minutes in the room she started yelling at us that the wait was too long!

2 Anonymous October 30, 2005 at 10:16 pm

That’s a heck of a favor.

CJD.

3 Anonymous November 1, 2005 at 12:47 am

I hear trial attorneys do that all the time for their shameless “star” expert witnesses all the time?

Comments on this entry are closed.

Previous post: Previous Post

Next post: Next Post

Site Meter