Emergency On-Call Physician Policy – A Doctor Dissents

• The initial text message often arrives when I am driving.   Attempting this process while driving would be suicidal.
• The messages announcing the abnormalities are not given with any patient contact information or medical details.  While the hospital is happy, I then have the fun and excitement of trying to find the patient’s phone number, not easy to do at 9 pm.  When I can’t reach the individual, it guarantees a night of insomnia for me.
• Try listening to any radiologist’s dictation.   I’ve done this many times and often cannot ascertain which language is being spoken. 

I called the lab director and begged to be removed from this automated system.  I argued that, while it satisfied the hospital’s documentation police, it was not serving patients or doctors well.  If a test result is CRITICAL, then I want to be called by a living and breathing human being.  The two of us will have what is called a conversation, providing me with sufficient knowledge so that I will be reasonably equipped when I reach out for the patient.  I may want, for example, to hear results of prior tests, so that I will understand the current results in context.  Get the point here?

The lab director couldn’t promise to release me from electronic bondage.  Throughout the medical profession, I witness the duel between documentation and doctoring.  Guess who’s winning.