I'm on call this weekend, and had to go in and round on the patients in the morning. I met one woman yesterday, 90 years old and very pleasant. We had a very nice chat about how she was feeling, I did a physical exam, checked her recent labs, and wrote a note. She thanked me for coming to see her and said that my visit made her day. I finished rounds around lunchtime and felt pretty good about myself.
An hour later, the pager buzzes. I call back.
"[Patient] is complaining that a doctor hasn't seen her yet. She said she's been waiting all day for a doctor, is very upset that no one has examined her. Wanted to speak to whoever was on call."
"Uh, yeah, I saw her today. We had a very pleasant conversation. She's stable, doing okay."
"She says no one saw her."
"I wrote a note. Though I'll admit, I didn't notice any dementia. But this was my first time seeing her."
"There's no dementia in her chart."
"Okay, well, I guess that's something to work up during the week."
"And you're sure you saw her?"
"I wrote a note!"
"So?"
"So I don't write notes on patients I don't see!"
"Come on, we all do."
"I saw her. Tell her I'll see her again tomorrow."
Two hours later the pager buzzes again. Same number. I call back.
"[Patient] is insisting no one saw her today."
"Didn't we have this conversation already?"
"Did we?"
"I saw her. I wrote a note. We talked about it."
"I'm sorry, I really don't remember."
"Okay, I think we have to work you up for dementia too."
"You're sure you saw the patient? She's very insistent."
"I wrote a note!"
"So?"
"So I don't write notes on patients I don't see!"
"Come on, we all do."
"I saw her. Tell her I'll see her again tomorrow."
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you didnt see the wrong patient?
ReplyDeleteyeah, you see the wrong patient, LOL
ReplyDeleteI am guessing you look young. When I was doing clinicals for nursing I was in class with a bunch of young people. I am not ancient but they are clearly younger than me. When they would go in and take someones blood pressure or whatever, the person would swear no one "real" came in. When I went in they counted me as "real" because I appeared older and they assumed I was a higher rank because of that. I wasn't, and did exactly the same as they had done but they only believed someone real had been in if I went in. It became kind of a joke in my class.
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