White Lie Pneumonia

I know that often people will tell little white lies because they want to tell you what they think you want to hear.  We see it all the time. "Sir, do you use any street drugs or pain pills?"  "Oh, heavens no!" We run the tox screen and it is pan positive.  "Do you use alcohol?" "No." DTs on the way.  I try to get people to be honest with me and try to explain that we are asking these questions so we can better help them.  It still doesn't work.  "Sir, did you have anything to eat or drink after midnight?", "No".  The bronch after the aspiration that occured during induction for the elective surgery sucked out what appeared to be bread, egg and either sausage or ham.  Talking with the family, they all hit Hardees on the way to the hospital.  The patient thought a couple of biscuits wouldn't hurt.

Macular degeneration (cant see the disc)

We see patients from all over several states.  No matter how hard we ask, most of them forget to bring their xrays.  They will bring the report but not the actual films.  Our schedulers call them and specifically ask them to go to where they had their xrays and have them put the images on a disc and bring it with them to their appointment.  When they don't have their xrays the patients get mad because we really cant do anything until we see the films and blame us.

Curbside Contagion

One of my partners biggest pet peeve is when she is on the OR and one of the staff comes by and asks if she can look at their throat or listen to their lungs because they think they are coming down with a cold.  Of course, if they are, it is a cold and their is not much to do about it.  Secondly, you will get the cold.  Sure enough, someone came by and asked her, she tried not to but did not want to look bad.  Despite the flu shot  she got the flu.  Now she is out and so are her patients.

Negative fecal matter on the slide Dr. Sherlock

I know that you will find it amazing, but the recent Rand study (the same people who promoted EMRs) shows that Electronic medical records did not reduce medical costs nor did they improve care.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/business/electronic-records-systems-have-not-reduced-health-costs-report-says.html