Dear Dr. OlderGuy,
OK, I'm no spring chicken. I'm not one of those shiny new graduates with big ideas, ready to change the world, or at least the way veterinary medicine is practiced in one small corner of it. I have my own bad habits, I'm sure. But dude - all due respect, I realize you've been in practice more years than I have been eligible to vote, and I'm sure you know how to handle lots of things that still make me pee in my pants a little - I just do NOT understand why it is SO DAMN HARD for you to:
-document things in the medical record. No, "cleaned ears, gave vax" is not an appropriate medical record entry to document an annual physical examination. Sorry, but no.
-enter controlled drug use in the controlled drug log. Even write down how much you used on a post-it and stick it onto the book for someone else to enter later. Or just TELL me. Anything except force me to go back and figure it out based on what everyone else used and what patients you saw that day (whose records have no entries in them anyway).
-order diagnostic tests when you aren't sure what's wrong, instead of trying eleventy-billion different empiric therapies.
-ask for help if you aren't sure what to do. Honestly. I do it all the time! I think it is possible some of your cases could have improved outcomes with just this one simple step.
Love,
Dr. SickOfDealingWithThisCrap
Poor record keeping and missing control drug entries - sounds like we have the same boss! I had a patient in that he had repaired a broken leg a year before and there was no mention of which leg was operated on! I had to find the scar on the leg!
ReplyDelete