Ok this winter I had a pt. that came down with the flu really bad.  She came into the hospital because she did not want to get her children sick and let them see her in such bad shape.  Her husband was very suppotive of her decission to come in.  I was taking care of her at the begining of my shift and realized nothing had been done for her despite that fact that she had been on the floor for 4 hours already.  Not even IV access had been achieved.  She should have had already been given two antibiotics but had not.  So I went in to start her iv.  While starting it I always carry on a little banter to keep the pts' mind off of what I am doing.  So it is then that I find out this is a Ped. DR.from my hospital.  Working nights I do not see some of the DRs so I did not know who she was.  This is  funny because now I am nervous with her being a Dr. and all.  She requested that I call the Dr and get her regular  daily medications ordered cause she did not want to miss them.  I called and the Dr. stated that the pt. can wait until the morning for her rugular Dr to order those since he was only the on call.  I said ok and went back to the pt. room and let her know.  Needless to say since it was only a birthcontrol pill and a multi-vit the Dr/pt. was upset about having to  miss her birthcontrol.  I reminded her that since she was on alot of heavy  antibiotics her birthcontrol would be non-existant anyway.  Meanwhile she was coughing and coughing and could hardly catch her breath.  I had also gotten an order for cough medication and gave it to her.  I assessed my other pts' and then went back to her room.  She was getting worse!!!  Now she was coughing so hard she could not catch her breath. I called the on call back and he started with "what is she a regular who seeks attention and drugs?"  I told the Dr. that I thought she needed to be evaluated further stat and that he needed to come in.  He said "no, she would be ok when she finally went to sleep."  I finally put my foot down and told him look "this is Dr.-----  and she is to sick to be here.  The Dr. on call then said "OH! SHIT!!!"  Is that who this is......  Let me tell you he started throwing out orders for CT of the chest with contrast, stat EBG, EKG..... need I say more... Then to everyones surprise he showed up personally to help push the Dr. to CT.. Demanded to have the pt in the CT currently removed and finsihed later.  We had the Dr. transfered to ICU before she even had the CT finished.  The Dr/pt. ended up intibated within the next few hours and remained so for the next week and 1/2.  They almost lost her 2 or 3 times.  Her right lung was completely consolidated and her left lung had the lower lobe consolidated and the upper left rhonchi but was still moving air.  I had told the Dr. on call about her LS before and he had done nothing other then order the cough medication.   I was glad that this turned out the way that it did however I wonder had she not been a Dr. how would it have turned out.  Why do Drs' not listen sometimes?????  

 

Thank you Deb.  I really appreciate your input.  We had a ped Dr. that had an on call collegue(?) that would refuse to give us orders (even tylenol for a fever was not given).  Finally after this on call Dr. had been repremanded by the hospital several times they threatened to take his privaleges away.  The other Dr. talked it over with him and finally they agreed to a set of generally accepted boundaries that they both felt comfortable with and made a list of generic orders for the most common things we usually called for.  Eventually the Dr did leave but it was much easier for the time he was still there.

Well you saved her life.  But why is it when he found out it was another doctor that he got off his lazy behind and started ordering test?  All patients should be treated this way.  The doctor patient should report him.