Emergency physician Edwin Leap asks the following: “Sick patient, worrisome exam, negative studies. So, what do we do?”
Should they impose on already overburdened specialists to come in for another opinion?
From the ED perspective, I believe the answer is yes. Especially when it’s their name on the chart, the specter of a failure to diagnose lawsuit is too much of a risk to ignore.
If a specialist can’t answer the call, an observation admit to ensure the patient doesn’t go south is not unreasonable.
Related posts:
- Directing patients to the ER
- Want to fix health care?
- Ordering tests for other doctors
- Man sues hospital for a "forced" rectal exam
- Expectations
- Are doctors getting enough skin cancer exam training?
- When doctors are hospitalized
KevinMD.com on Facebook
{ 1 comment }
That sounds really callous–”the spector of a lawsuit” being too risky. That is presumably only a major risk if something bad happens to the patient. Isn’t that more of a worry? How about “the spector of a patient being crippled or dying because I missed the diagnosis is too much of a risk to ignore”. Try it. Sounds better and if you repeat it enough, it might stick.
Comments on this entry are closed.