Bad experiences with medical professionals

[Raja]

Fairly tragic & big case going on in the US regarding a medication error

Quote

Vaught is on trial for the death of Charlene Murphey, a 75-year-old Vanderbilt patient who died on Dec. 27, 2017, after she was prescribed a sedative, Versed, but was inadvertently injected with a powerful paralyzer, vecuronium. Vaught does not deny she accidentally confused the drugs but has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Her trial — a rare example of a health care professional facing prison for a medical error — has been closely watched by nurses across the U.S., who worry it could set a precedent for future prosecutions.

In the wake of Murphey's death, Vanderbilt took several actions that resulted in the medication error not being disclosed to the government or the public, according to county, state and federal records related to the death. Vanderbilt did not report the error to state or federal regulators as required by law, a federal investigation report states. The hospital told the local medical examiner's office that Murphey died of "natural" causes, with no mention of vecuronium, according to Murphey's death certificate and Davidson County's chief medical examiner, Dr. Feng Li.

 

Vanderbilt also fired Vaught and negotiated an out-of-court settlement with Murphey's family that bars them from publicly discussing the death.

 

[Gusguson]

That's a normal experience to be honest, during your lifetime you will probably meet them at least once. You just have to find a good dentist and stick to him, that's what people usually do all the time, in order to avoid going to doctors which you never visited before and don't know how good they are. I have had a tooth pain in the past, and I couldn't get an appointment in time, so I read the article what I could do to get rid of the pain, and it helped actually until I went to the dentist.

 

Edited June 1, 2022 by Gusguson

[DireWolfSpirit]

While this hasn't happened to me personally. I find a lot of our "end of life" care in the U.S. to be a sort of massive scheme to just siphon away whatever resources our elderly have left.

Shady a-f-k practice happening in many communities where nursing homes are sueing children, friends, distant relatives, any victim they can try to pin medical bills on.

If you get one of these notices it could be completely NOT YOUR RESPONSIBILITY, the nursing homes don't care.

They are after anyone's money they can pin a Bill on.

Testimonies in following article over these shady bastards and their wealth siphoning, strong-arming, practices.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/07/28/1113134049/nursing-homes-are-suing-friends-and-family-to-collect-on-patients-bills

Edited July 29, 2022 by DireWolfSpirit

[Raja]

That's a yikes from me

[Martell Spy]

1 hour ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

While this hasn't happened to me personally. I find a lot of our "end of life" care in the U.S. to be a sort of massive scheme to just siphon away whatever resources our elderly have left.

Shady a-f-k practice happening in many communities where nursing homes are sueing children, friends, distant relatives, any victim they can try to pin medical bills on.

If you get one of these notices it could be completely NOT YOUR RESPONSIBILITY, the nursing homes don't care.

They are after anyone's money they can pin a Bill on.

Testimonies in following article over these shady bastards and their wealth siphoning, strong-arming, practices.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/07/28/1113134049/nursing-homes-are-suing-friends-and-family-to-collect-on-patients-bills

It wasn't a nursing home, but some creditors did contact me when my parents both died. I guess their mindset is if you are stupid enough to pay it you deserve it. I was not stupid enough to pay.

[Chataya de Fleury]

Resurrecting this thread because I had a shitty radiology report, today. This is a read of a thyroid ultrasound, bilateral nodules. 

My complaints -

1. How can a thyroid nodule go from solid one year to spongiform the next? And if it was TI RADS-4 in the prior year and TI RADS-3 in the current year, why recommend biopsy now??

2. How can a spongiform nodule be TI RADS-3, anyways?? Spongiform equals 0, no further scoring.

3. The radiologist did not specify HOW he (yes, it was a “he”) scored each nodule and came up with TI RADS-3 for both clinically significant nodules, so we are left to guess on this.

I have requested the images to send to my brother and my cousin, both of whom are radiologists.

[Larry of the Lake]

Nothing much to offer other than I've had several people close to me get some very bizarre opinions from radiology and then have to cross-check across multiple other opinions, with actual results all over the place.  Hope you can get some more concrete answers and rational explanation for what's going on, and that this person is just being very cautious.  It's lousy to be left wondering about so much. 

[Chataya de Fleury]

15 minutes ago, Larry of the Lake said:

Nothing much to offer other than I've had several people close to me get some very bizarre opinions from radiology and then have to cross-check across multiple other opinions, with actual results all over the place.  Hope you can get some more concrete answers and rational explanation for what's going on, and that this person is just being very cautious.  It's lousy to be left wondering about so much. 

What’s really annoying is when radiology says one thing, and then the endocrinologist looks at that report like it’s a picture of a two-headed cat, and even I’m looking at it like it’s a two-headed cat, and I can’t read the images, just the report.

Although it’s finally handy two have two close relatives who are radiologists, one with a Johns Hopkins pedigree.

Previously, I thought my brother at least would be rather useless, and I somewhat regret half-assing his taxes.

Edited September 23, 2022 by Chataya de Fleury

[Raja]

 I have constant contact with radiologists & reports and have certainly spent time calling radiologists going like 'wtf does this report even mean'. Generally they are good and can be relied upon, though a lot of times you're left scratching your head.

Some of it stems from outsourcing radiology reports to other countries, where the radiologist does not have enough context/ access to previous scans - ie in a lot of hospitals in the UK, overnight our reports are reported by radiologists in New Zealand/ Australia.

[Raja]

Not good.

[Raja]

 

[Zorral]

This hospital also has a special wing of luxury hotel=style medical suites for these same patients.

 

[Chataya de Fleury]

I mean….does it matter?? I have a concierge doctor. Or, I’m a member of a concierge practice, whatevs.

Contrast this with The Doctor, who is constantly bemoaning everyone expecting freebie samples, people with the sniffles calling him when he’s on call, and everyone generally expecting free sh1t from him.

I pay my doctor $2k/year just to “belong” to the practice. I will get a same-day or next-day appointment if I am sick (you have to see The Doctor’s less popular doctor in his practice, if you want that….his next available appointment is 30 days or more), and basically I can get anything I want just for the asking. Not to mention, I don’t have to explain my hysterectomy to a medical assistant at each and every appointment.

I hated that when visiting a pre-concierge practice doc. “When was the date of your last  menstrual period”….”April 7, 2014, best day of my life (bitch)”. READ MY CHART, bitch!!

Ok, I might be a bit over the top, but the last medical assistant who asked me about anything to do with my now non-existent uterus asked me if my weight gain could be due to pregnancy. So, let’s just say that I have a bit of a bias against non-concierge stuff or where my money can’t buy me things.

Money buys things, that is what it does.

And trust me, The Doctor is a penny pinching soul, as are all my relatives who are doctors.

 

Edited December 23, 2022 by Chataya de Fleury

[Raja]

This is very different from normal concierge practice, we're specifically talking about an Emergency Department where the only thing that should matter is how sick you are & how long you've waited, in terms of prioritization - you're describing clinics, which are very different to an ED.

It's an anathema to how ED practice works, which is why so many clinicians have left the hospital.

And then there's this - this is bad practice & unethical.

Quote

“Dozens of doctors said they felt pressure to put V.I.P.s first. Many witnessed such patients jumping ahead of sicker people for CT scans and M.R.I.s.”

 

Edited December 23, 2022 by Raja

[JGP]

33 minutes ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

I mean….does it matter?? I have a concierge doctor. Or, I’m a member of a concierge practice, whatevs.

Contrast this with The Doctor, who is constantly bemoaning everyone expecting freebie samples, people with the sniffles calling him when he’s on call, and everyone generally expecting free sh1t from him.

I pay my doctor $2k/year just to “belong” to the practice. I will get a same-day or next-day appointment if I am sick (you have to see The Doctor’s less popular doctor in his practice, if you want that….his next available appointment is 30 days or more), and basically I can get anything I want just for the asking. Not to mention, I don’t have to explain my hysterectomy to a medical assistant at each and every appointment.

I hated that when visiting a pre-concierge practice doc. “When was the date of your last  menstrual period”….”April 7, 2014, best day of my life (bitch)”. 

 

NVM. 

 

edit: I hate my phone

Edited December 23, 2022 by JGP

[VigoTheCarpathian]

 

41 minutes ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

I mean….does it matter?? I have a concierge doctor. Or, I’m a member of a concierge practice, whatevs.

Contrast this with The Doctor, who is constantly bemoaning everyone expecting freebie samples, people with the sniffles calling him when he’s on call, an

It’s only a big deal if they ever want to bill Medicare or Medicaid ever again - sadly the ED (and L&D) is the only place in the US where you are guaranteed by law to receive care…which it’s almost part of our culture to seek care there instead of primary or urgent care.  There are boutique private hospitals but I would guess that they don’t provide any emergency service for this exact reason.

https://www.cms.gov/regulations-and-guidance/legislation/emtala

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

I mean….does it matter?? I have a concierge doctor. Or, I’m a member of a concierge practice, whatevs.

Contrast this with The Doctor, who is constantly bemoaning everyone expecting freebie samples, people with the sniffles calling him when he’s on call, and everyone generally expecting free sh1t from him.

I pay my doctor $2k/year just to “belong” to the practice. I will get a same-day or next-day appointment if I am sick (you have to see The Doctor’s less popular doctor in his practice, if you want that….his next available appointment is 30 days or more), and basically I can get anything I want just for the asking. Not to mention, I don’t have to explain my hysterectomy to a medical assistant at each and every appointment.

I hated that when visiting a pre-concierge practice doc. “When was the date of your last  menstrual period”….”April 7, 2014, best day of my life (bitch)”. READ MY CHART, bitch!!

Ok, I might be a bit over the top, but the last medical assistant who asked me about anything to do with my now non-existent uterus asked me if my weight gain could be due to pregnancy. So, let’s just say that I have a bit of a bias against non-concierge stuff or where my money can’t buy me things.

Money buys things, that is what it does.

And trust me, The Doctor is a penny pinching soul, as are all my relatives who are doctors.

 

NVM

[S John]

Kinda preaching to the choir in this thread, but I became friends with a guy at work who’s father is a surgeon and used to be in medicine himself but completely switched fields to engineering. He told me numerous times the importance of advocating for yourself and loved ones when it comes to medical issues.

First time he told me I kinda shrugged it off, but over the years - to my dismay - I’ve found this to be a hard truth about life. Not to undermine the expertise of doctors and medical practitioners in general, but they are humans and they are fallible and the human body is extremely complex. You have to be an active participant, even if that sometimes means being a pain in the ass.

[RhaenysBee]

I wouldn’t necessarily label this as a bad experience, at least not with the medical professional, just an unprofessional one. This person today told me that we could try doing this and that diagnostic test and if we are lucky we will have a proper sample for answers. And I was like, and if we aren’t lucky? Well then there’s a different kind of test if I want to get it done but it costs more. HO-NEY. allow me to manage my own finances. Your damn job is to tell me which test is professionally advised and necessary, THEN inform me about the costs and THEN allow me to decide if I can and want to pay for it. I know it’s a two edged sword because if you recommend me pricy tests I will think you’re trying to rip me off, but in between there’s the golden standard of a professional opinion with solid arguments in layman’s terms so I can make an informed decision about MY LIFE. Which is a tad more important than €150. Yes, she literally wanted to save me €150 and potentially waste three weeks to diagnose me if the more basic test doesn’t work. For crying out loud. 

Edited January 4 by RhaenysBee

[Raja]

On 12/24/2022 at 4:51 AM, S John said:

. You have to be an active participant, even if that sometimes means being a pain in the ass.

Absolutely agree with this.

On 1/4/2023 at 5:39 PM, RhaenysBee said:

 in between there’s the golden standard of a professional opinion with solid arguments in layman’s terms so I can make an informed decision about MY LIFE.

Yeah, it sounds like they were trying to give you a choice as to what you wanted to do, albeit they were doing it poorly. There are a lot of tests like this, where there is a first line investigation, and then a confirmatory test. Usually guidelines tell us what do first, however there are a lot domains where there isn't a clear cut answer.