This patient's ordeal at an emergency room Is this to be concerend with? Contact attorney?

Question

First of all I feel as though it is derogatory and damaging to the person's reputation. Especially if this person returns to this same hospital for an emergency. (All of this occurs over the course of about 4 days. )

A patient was admitted to a hospital for internal bleeding due to hemophilia. The patient had become distressed ,anemic & was very scared.

The doctor put in the charts a completely false statement about the patient , which is this" patient is acting "bizare" has been hospitalized in psychiatric hospitals for several mental illnesses. "

The doctor then proceeds to give the patient mental illness diagnoses.

The doctor also told the patient that she disagreed she could just leave the hospital and NEVER come back.

The patient leaves against medical advice still bleeding internally and losing blood.

In the charts it also states that the patient did not appear ill, though later it says the patient is anemic fevering, high pulse etc...?

Answer 1

I would call an attorney and report the physician to the proper medical licensing authorities.  This patient suffered through an awful ordeal at the hands of an incompetent doctor.  Sadly, there are far too many of them and they make it hard for good doctors to run their practice.

Also, the threat to put the patient in an asylum is an empty one.  It's well out of the authority of a single doctor to circumvent the rights of a patient.

Answer 2

Brad makes several good points.

Additionally, if your friend was exhibiting no bizarre behavior, then why was the bizarre behavior a side-effect of medication? There's an internal contradiction in your thinking.

Contacting a lawyer would be a waste of time and more money. Moreover, hemophilia in a female wouldn't show up on the "radar screen" of any doctor in his initial impression and is rare enough that you might even consider the veracity of your friend's story.

In any case, though, the appropriate way to respond to such incidents is to speak to the director of the emergency department, who will be interested in assuring quality care. He'll be a practicing emergency physician, so a meeting isn't a matter of just dropping in during office hours, but that's part of the job. He may also suggest the appropriate person in administration with whom to talk.

Answer 3

Did the person die? Was this person severely injured in any way? It does not sound like it. And, the patient went AMA.

Not sure what there is to call an attorney about.

Will our society ever stop being so litigious?

Answer 4

In order to sue and win (the latter being the important part presumably), one has to be able to show that they were harmed in some way be the negligence of the attending physician or the policies of the medical facility.  Based on what you wrote above, the only potential damages I see are the "derogatory and damaging" statements made in the person's medical records, so let's address that.  If there were health consequences that you didn't mention (e.g., prolonged bleeding leading to any number of complications), then that's a different issue.

First, I'd caution you to avoid describing diagnoses of mental illnesses as "derogatory."  Mental illnesses are not derogatory, they're illnesses.  If someone described you as having a cold, would that be derogatory?  Moving on...

Medical records are confidential and can only be accessed by medical personnel.  As a consequence, there is no lible or slander committed by describing the patient as having a mental illness.  These claims could be considered lible if the physician, for example, disclosed these diagnoses to persons other than the patient (e.g., an employer who might call to check on their employee).

About the only other case one might make is one of financial expense associated with multiple trips to hospitals.  If you were to argue that the first hospital should have correctly diagnosed the problem and didn't, thus creating the cost of a second trip to a hospital, then you might have a case.  That said, it's such a small amount of money, you'd have a hard time getting a lawyer to take the case.

Last, you comment that "The patient leaves against medical advice..."  I don't understand this.  Why would s/he have left if the physicians were still trying to figure out what the problem was?  Anyway, in the pursuit of legal action like this, the patient's conduct is very important.  The fact that s/he left against medical advice wouldn't bode well for any case.

My advice is to focus on the health of your friend, not try to punish medical facilities.

Answer 5

Write a letter to the state licensing board, and the hospital's emergency dept chairman.  Provide copies of documentation that support your claim.

There are doctors out there who shouldn't be practicing.  Complaints are investigated by the state boards, and are taken seriously.