Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Open discrimination

Another one to add to the list. This hotel freely discriminates against those that don't believe the owner's religious beliefs. Richard Dawkins' reservation was canceled once the owner saw him on The O'Reilly Factor. Actually, if I include all companies that have owners that watch The O'Reilly Factor, it would probably be a perfectly accurate list of religion-laced businesses that I would want to keep my money away from.

Friday, October 7, 2011

General medicine is generally frustrating

Not because the medical decision making is difficult or the patients are a mystery. It's more that I spend most of the day doing work that really shouldn't be part of my job description. A typical medical admission is like this:

1. The ER or outside hospital has already diagnosed the patient, my job is to put in the basic orders to get them admitted and write a summary of what brought them in. Then, whether they came in with a diagnosis or not, consult a specialist and wait for their recommendations.

2. Fix their electrolytes, heart rate and maybe start them on some broad antibiotics while waiting for the specialist to see them.

3. Specialist sees them, gives recommendations, and I put in the recommendations into the computer system.

4. Wait for the patient to get better or wait for the specialist to tell me they can be discharged.

5. Figure out where they're being discharged to. Call medical offices to make them appointments. Call nursing homes, long-term care facilities to see if they'll take them.

6. Summarize everything that happened to the patient during their hospitalization.

Every once in a while, I feel somewhat like a doctor when I am answering patient's questions.

All important things, but, as you could see, there is very little actual medical decision making. It's very rare that I am reading up on various medical conditions and thinking about what tests to perform to figure out what's wrong with my patient.

Oh well. Glad I won't be doing that for the rest of my life.