Wednesday, September 24, 2014

A higher standard.

So a common phrase muttered in the ER is "this is not burger king".
They are right; this is not burger king. As a patient you cannot walk up to the counter and order rocephin-burger with a side of prednisone for your (very likely viral) laryngitis. There are a lot of good reasons for this. 1. You don't need antibiotics, especially strong antibiotics for a viral infection. 2. Overuse of antibiotics has lead to superbugs that are bad for the community as a whole. 3. If your only symptom is that you can't talk, you will be just fine until Monday when you can follow up with your primary care provider.
But let's talk about us healthcare providers. We mutter in disgust when someone asks for something unreasonable, because it's annoying that people don't trust us with their health even after they have signed in and gotten the blood work. So here's the other side of the coin. This is NOT BURGER KING. We don't serve slabs of greasy beef between sesame seed buns. We have a standard to uphold. We have to give these people a reason to trust their health to us. If we mess up, someone could get really sick, their life could be seriously altered or they could die. For example, Walgreens has screwed around getting my prescription refilled for 6 days. They can't manage to figure out how to get my beta blocker, my SSRI or my whelcol refilled. (Beta blocker is a heart medicine that should not be suddenly changed or stopped, abruptly stopping an SSRI can cause suicide ideation and stopping my whelcol prevents me from eating anything for the last 6 days). I am very diligent with my medications to keep my body working to the best of it's ability. Being out of medications for almost a week is doing serious damage to me.
So, here's the deal. Next time you mutter that this is not burger king, take a look around and make sure you are running a 5 star restaurant.

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