Guaranteed Referral

Emergency physicians are generally a good group of people. Most of the time we will go out of our way to try to help you. Sometimes, things just won’t work out, though. For example, if you bring your child in with a bead stuck in her ear and the first words out of your mouth when the doctor walks in the room are “If my daughter so much as WHIMPERS when you’re trying to get this bead out, I will SUE you!” Suddenly, the doctor might not feel so comfortable with his or her ENT skills. Sure, the doctor will examine your daughter to make sure she doesn’t have an emergency medical condition. But then when there is no longer an “emergency,” the law doesn’t force us to risk a lawsuit by digging around in your child’s ear. In that case, you might get referred to the only ENT in about a 40 mile radius … who doesn’t take your “insurance” … who requires a $200 deposit at the time of the appointment for people whose insurance he doesn’t accept … and whose appointments are probably booked up for the next couple of weeks. And there’s a pretty good chance that if you make the same threats to him, he’ll just flat out refuse to see you. In that case you could always call your lawyer to see if he could help you. ———————– This and all posts about patients may be fictional, may be my experiences, may be submitted by readers for publication here, or may be any combination of ...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Tags: Patient Encounters Source Type: blogs