Early Career Low

Let's talk about some straight-up bullshit, people.

I'm sure all of you are expecting me to go on a rant about this health care reform stuff. You're wrong, because I'm frankly sick of hearing about it.

No, friends, today the police were called on me and my attending physician by a patient. This all occurred while she was in a room inside the clinic.

Here's a nickel's worth of free advice - don't call 911 and complain of harassment and expect that the doctor will still be willing to see you. Bad form.

The short and medicolegally correct version of the story goes like this:

- Patient delivers baby by c-section 2 weeks ago after nearly dying. Both mom and baby are healthy post-partum.

- Patient has mild wound infection. Instead of immediately returning to a medical facility, she obtains legal counsel.

- THEN, patient returns for a 1.5 hour appointment where her incision is cleaned and re-dressed. An oral antibiotic is also given for back-up.

- At the instruction of her lawyer, patient goes to other hospital to confirm the diagnosis. No further action was recommended.

- Patient returns to clinic in order to record the physician and nurses to use against them in court.

You know, I don't fancy being recorded so my words can be taken out of context and used to nail my attending to the wall. Neither does my attending for that matter. But, asking* to see the phone to make sure it's not on record is tantamount to harassment and battery.

When did the collective opinion of doctors sink so low? Was is when health insurance companies began their rapacious pursuit of profits instead of delivering recommended care? Or maybe when lawyers started to advertise the option of suing the shit out of them when anything less than (the patient's idea of) perfection was achieved? Before you start to play devil's advocate, I get it. There are bad doctors out there. Just like there are bad hair stylists, gardeners, actors, CEOs and lawyers. But there are few, if any, professions requiring the time commitment of medicine that are subsequently governed by the interests of other industries.

I don't know where I'm going with all of this. Let's just call it venting.

Just don't call the cops on your doctors, ok?

* I didn't ask her because she scared the shit out of me. Just to clarify.