7/2017
Communication is important in the effective practice of medicine. Ergo the medical record. It is a way for one physician to inform other physicians and staff what is being done for this patient by a physician. One area of importance in the medical record is the “Problem List”. This is where one can go to look for all the active problems that are being addressed by all of the different physicians treating a patient. It sort of weeds out all of the old stuff, the fake stuff and the errors and such.
But alas, social media has arrived to the EMR (electronic medical record).
One of my patients, tonight, had 3 listings for a severe medical problem that had a direct impact on what I did or didn’t do. Listed below in exact representation from the EMR are the following:
1. liver transplant
2. Liver Transplant
3. Unspecified organ or tissue transplant
This may seem confusing and complicated to those not highly trained in the medical profession.
1. “liver transplant” implies that the patient has had a complete failure of his natural liver and a liver from another individual was transplanted into his body, in a casual voice.
2. “Liver Transplant” implies that the patient has had a complete failure of his natural liver and a liver from another individual was transplanted into his body, in a firmer, louder voice, but not shouting. (That would be LIVER TRANSPLANT)
3. “Unspecified organ or tissue transplant” is a little more complicated. It could mean that the surgeon doing the transplant was totally clueless as to what he was harvesting from the donor and where it was going in the recipient, like in the book Catch Me If You Can, about the Doctor/Airline Pilot impersonator. Or, it could mean that the surgery was done in Colorado or California and that the surgeon was a die-hard Cheech and Chong fan, striving to carry on the principals espoused in Up In Smoke (1978).
To think that the U.S. Congress mandates that we use this efficient, productive and safe method of physician-to-physician communication boggles the mind.
Delusions in the pursuit of absurdity from your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave.
Weary.