Reply to Urgent Care- Unauthorized Pregnancy Test

Forum Index » Health and Medicine

Reply to "Urgent Care- Unauthorized Pregnancy Test"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I can’t believe this thread. It’s standard of care period. If you don’t want full standard of care don’t go to a medical professional.[/quote]

But many patients today think medicine is like a buffet - you pick and choose what you want. It’s disheartening, really. Especially since I’d venture to guess 99.9% have absolutely no medical training/knowledge. [/quote]

So many doctors since forever think they’re god and have an unqualified right to disregard a patient’s express wishes.  It’s disheartening really.  The patient always has the right to say no to something being done to their own body.  I’m sorry, it’s hard to accept apparently.  They have the right to make a dumb decision about it.  Not you.  Patch them up in the ER and kick them out as soon as you can.  That is your right.  But you don’t have the right to batter them, which is what you’re doing if you do anything they have told you they do not consent to.[/quote]

You sign a consent to be treated in the ER, when you sign in.  If you don't sign it, and you're walking and talking and able to say you don't want to sign it, you're probably not getting treated. You're right- no one has the right to do medical tests on you that you don't want.  But we aren't talking about you coming in, getting an IV and some basic blood and urine and then talking about whether or not we are going to do a procedure, or a scan, or anything more involved. Lots of patients decide they don't want that MRI, or they don't want that scope. You can absolutely refuse that, and we will discharge you and it will be heavily documented, with your signature all over the place that you are leaving against medical advice.  Totally fine. But you're saying you don't even want the basic blood/urine stuff done to get us started.  So why come?[/quote]

Because no pregnancy test is needed to know that a person celibate for many months or years is not pregnant, and we’re sick to death of being presumed to be liars because we have uteruses.[/quote]

I assume everyone is a liar in the ER and it has nothing to do with being male or female!  And I'm sure most of the lies aren't intentional, but people aren't focused on that skin mole they had removed 30 years ago when they say they have no past surgical history. People just glaze over the details they've decided aren't relevant for what they're being seen for.  Do me a favor and let me decide what's relevant.  Like don't tell me your child has no past medical history when she clearly has Down Syndrome.  It's awkward and it wastes time, and it doesn't help when you say "but that has nothing to do with why we are here".  Again- if you want my help, let me decide that. [/quote]

In most cases, I agree with you that the medical professional needs to be trusted to figure out what details are important for treatment. Occasionally, however, the "standard set of questions" needs to be tossed aside when there is an emergency. I went into the ER for a displaced radial fracture with compromised circulation,  and the ER doc started asking me about when my last pap smear had been, whether I had had a flu shot, and about my international travel history. None of that was necessary to know in the moment. I needed emergency surgery to save my hand, not a pap smear or flu shot. [/quote]

So wait -- the ED doc knew there needed to be immediate surgery, and they were going to do it themselves but decided to wait and talk to you a bit first before whipping out a scalpel?[/quote]

Well, not quite.  :wink:

The ER doc was essentially following a script rather than using his brain to evaluate the situation. Thankfully, I was moved to the OR in time to save my hand, but an orthopedic surgeon performed the surgery, not the ER doc.  :wink: [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics