KevinMD Strikes Again

I'm going to get perilously close to talking about something that I actually know a thing or two about. I'll try not to make a habit of this.

I read an article today on KevinMD, 10 things you might not know about the emergency department. I wasn’t too happy with it, mostly for the same reasons I brought up back in April: High-minded rhetoric about the ER being inappropriate for certain medical complaints overlooks the fact that it’s the only medical service available to many people. Saying that the ER isn’t the best place to treat tooth pain is all well and good, but Dentists aren’t free. If that tooth ends of breaking or rotting, guess what, the ER will deal with it. It will just be ten times more expensive by then.

One part that jumped out at me was the section on not trusting patients… every woman gets a pregnancy test, regardless of what she says about her sexual activity. Just this morning I saw a post somewhere - I’m not sure who wrote it, or even what site I saw it on - saying how empowering it had been to get a CT exam without having a pregnancy test first. How wonderful it was to have the doctor trust her, even just a little bit.

I’m not saying pregnancy tests aren’t a good idea, to help diagnose abdominal pain, or before giving treatments that are dangerous for pregnant women. But just doing the test on every woman who walks through the front doors is excessive.

There’s a complaint about patients using their phones… when I went to the ER last month, I packed a phone, a charger, a spare battery, and ebook reader, and a tablet. I knew I was in for a wait.

Oh, yeah, the article also says not to complain about the wait. Well, if you aren’t allowing any food, water, or distractions…

This isn’t the only problematic article on KevinMD recently. There was also a video a couple days ago, complaining about having to treat obese patients. I didn’t see it, it was pulled as soon as there was a public outcry. And there was an article on July 7 telling about how a surgeon cut a patient’s vena cava in order to teach a student how to deal with emergencies. This was presented as a valuable lesson, not an attempted murder. That article was pulled as well, not because it described a horrific crime, but because it couldn’t be verified. Something tells me the author wasn’t eager to give out incriminating info just to prove it happened.

It doesn’t surprise me that some doctors have this kind of contempt for their patients, though I am surprised they are so eager to admit it publically. Maybe everyone involved in medicine should be the patient now and then… if only to see how long they last without a bed and a book.