Also make sure that you actually register with a legitimate Name, Address, and Telephone number so that if there is a significant discrepency (fairly rare) between the resident or ER docs reading that you can be contacted after it has been read by the Attending radiologist in the morning.

The article is misleading in stating that most ER’s are staffed with resident physicians. Not true. At most rural hospitals you are unlikely to have a board certified emergency physician, because there are just not enough of them.

Ah the old fake name address and telephone number trick.

It is amazing that my hospital still falls for this one. It must cause quite the uncollectable bill headache for people even with insurance.

Typical wrong crap from a scumbag:

1: “Most” ER’s are NOT staffed by residents and NONE are ONLY staffed by residents.

2: Reasonable

3: An ER attending typically has NO experience reading MRI’s or CT’s. Personally I would take a radiology residents opinion. Again most ER’s are NOT staffed by radiology residents reading films rather by radiology attendings with PACS type computor systems at home or by overseas radiologists (Nighthawks). That is unless you are in a tiny rural ER which wouldn’t have MRI’s or CT scans anyway. By definition radiology residents have attendings over them for questions.

4:Reasonable to ask but the fact is ALL medications (including OTC’s like tylenol) can cause allergic reactions PERIOD.

5:Reasonable that from what I have seen all hospitals do.

How about a little “free” advice to “veteran New York malpractice lawyer Gerry Oginski”…..stick to what you know you are talking about because based on that article you sound like an uninformed idiot.

“Odd, you agree with most of what the lawyer says–yet you insult him and misinterpret his article merely to make pedantic points.”

Actually I was pointing out where he was obviously wrong on incorrect points such that he has little understanding how ER’s are staffed and subspecialty coverage(like you). Read for comprehension.

Showing up not drunk is a good thing, but a lot of people are there because they are stinking drunk, have caused an accident that hurt themselves, and are unlikely to remember how obnoxious they were the next day. Their condition aggravates their injury treatments, and they are lousy about telling what happened (so the physician can understand the dynamics), and they are lousy about telling what is wrong with them. Who can blame the ER physician for doing CYI testing? The real problem with that of course is that the lousy drunk probably is not insured either. As a non-physician (retired state trooper) I cannot say how the ER works, but I have seen big-city ERs, and really rural ERs. The commonality was they all worked very hard to save and fix people, many times they were overworked due to the influx of patients, and they took the most serious first. Too bad if you have to wait a bit.

I too had a 2-month old child in an ER after she and her mother fell down a flight of stairs. The physicians were trying to save a badly burned 7-yr old boy (successfully) and took enough time between procedures to check my daughter and get another doc in to see her. Their knowledge told them immediately that her leg was probably broken (it was), and they showed me how to keep her comfortable until another came from his home to treat her. They all took their time while reading the x-rays and discovered a birth defect in her hip that would have required surgery had it not been discovered. Imagine if had I been impatient, abrupt, rude, threatened a lawsuit, etc., and do you think they would have been as caring? She is a fine healthy 15-yr old who has competed in track, gymnastics, and walks the dog for me when it is cold.

My wife also recovered from her fractured shoulder and concussion, and on another day another daughter was treated and recovered from her fractured leg from a sledding accident, and on another her brother recovered from a double compound fracture of his wrist from a playground accident. I have recovered with scars from a crushed hand courtesy of a drunk in an escape attempt, a fractured skull from a childhood accident and several other traumas. In other words, they are trying to do their jobs, and the lawyer mentality tries to convince you that you have to protect yourself from them. I say, just be smart when you are there and let the good folks do their jobs.

Also an additional point to be made

The fact is that almost all doctors can expct to be sued several times in their career. So either they are being sued inappropriately by ambulance chasers like The Hon Gerald Oginski. or they are being sued appropriately and are all incompetents. in which case I advise all readers to go to the law offices of the Hon. Gerald Oginsky for better emergency medical care.

“Another post said “An ER attending typically has NO experience reading MRI’s or CT’s.”

I must disagree with this educated and ‘informed’ posting. Contrary to that comment, many ER attendings claim to have good proficiency in looking at MRI’s or CT’s. Most of those attendings will nevertheless rely on an attending’s reading of films over their own interpretation”

Gerry:
Your uninformed sarcasm aside, I have done hospital work for many years and I have NEVER had an emergency doc claim he/she is proficent at reading CT’s and MRI’s. Now I know since you have deposed many ER docs you may think you know much about the subject but in reality you don’t so a little education:
A radiologist goes through five years of training or more (a prelim/transitonal year plus at least 4 years radiology). This includes extensive hands on education in reading CT’s/MRI’s usually 1:1 with an attending radiologist. Your typical ER doc does not have any of this instructiuon. Yes they may “go over” the scan read with the radiologist but that is much much different than reading the scans on your own. I go over scans with the radiologist all the time and yes I can even pick up abnormalities at times (can you say “pattern recognition”), but I have never claimed to be able to read an MRI/CTR scan. Now you may have deposed individual ER docs who have made the claim to be proficient at “reading” CT’s/MRI’s. That is either stupidity on their part or lawyer trickery during the depostion on your part.

With respect to attendings reading films at 03:00. In my hospital the attending radiologist reads ALL CT’s/MRI’s (even at 03:00 AM) thanks to the PACS system (you have heard of it right?) at home. I do agree residency can be different. However, there is an attending on call to back up the resident AT ALL TIMES. If not that is a training violation in which should be reported.