Friday, February 22, 2008

Love Hate Relationship.


Needles enjoys watching House M.D. I am not saying that I hate the show but the inaccuracies in it are astounding. The show implies that the Doctors do EVERYTHING from the time the patients walk in the door, ALL diagnostic testing,ie. lab work and x-rays, to the time they are miraculously cured and going home with several brushes with death but non the worse for wear. Although I know that this show needs to have an entertainment value to get people to continue watching, but if you think that watching this will give you insight into what to expect when you go to a hospital for treatment, it would be like watching grass grow and learning the intricate workings of all the Eco systems of the world. If they made a show about what doctors really do in a general practitioners office setting it would be -Dr. walks in and looks over a chart with patient history prepared by a nurse, order tests, look at results, make diagnosis and write prescription or make a referral to a specialist, end credits. Boring Huh? This show might get exciting if it was in an E.R. setting with an E.R. physician but I guess they already have a show like that.....E.R. The show states that they try to maintain health care accuracies but when they omit every employee from the admissions clerk who takes insurance info and prepares admission papers, the lab tech who draws blood for testing, the radiologic technologist that does X-rays. MRIs, Ultrasounds, nurses that dispense medication, keep charting information in order, bathing and monitor any change in patients condition and the orderlies that wheels them to and from testing and to their car on discharge. When you see patients in rooms with glass walls, I think HIPPA(patient confidentiality) isn't top on their list of accuracies. Another thing about the show that drives me nuts is that when the patient first comes in they are having benign symptoms like an ingrown toenail but after several thousand dollars of testing, that no insurance in their right mind would pay for, several life threatening mis-diagnoses and then the final diagnosis that someone says something and Dr. House has a moment of clarity, like getting hit in the head with a brick. Of course this last diagnosis is so outlandish it's like they are diagnosed with a rare form of stomach ulcer because their grandma's neighbors aunts cat was kenneled with a dog who's owner had a homosexual encounter in a cave while in college 15 years ago and was exposed to bat shit while a foreign exchange student in Argentina and found Marco too stunning and had to get his "Broke Back Something or other" on. I mean to paraphrase Jenny for the Blog "WTF?" I guess it is good that a lot of sick people are cured but I bet when they get home that have to sell off everything they own because of the hospital bills that was accumulated during their stay. I guess that is one thing that is accurate. Most doctors don't care about how much of a bill the patient is going to get stuck with. They just care how much they are going to be reimbursed by the insurance for their service. Enjoy your next doctors appointment or hospital stay.

2 comments:

FarmWife said...

Way to crush my hopes & dreams. Next your going to tell me Hugh Laurie isn't really a doctor...he just plays one on TV. I'm horrified.

needlefingers said...

It makes for good teeveein'!! :)