Dr. gave my wife another patient's info and ruined our weekend.

[rw02kr43]

My wife is 7 months pregnant and has gestational diabetes. She had a test in July and her A1C number was 5.3. Totally fine. This past week she sees her dr and she says my wife will most likely be diabetic after delivery cause her number in July was 6.5. So all weekend my wife is very depressed and crying cause of this news. She called the nurse to talk to her about options on what to do. The nurse says she doesn't see that number anywhere. She looked back through records and doesn't see it. She asked another nurse to look. Never finds it. Turns out her Dr had been looking at another patient's chart. Really?

/rant.

Jason

 

[snafu21]

Malpractice like that could have dire effects on patients. The undue stress wouldn't have been good on your wife or your child... I'd be a little more that ticked off.

 

[HoughMade]

I'm sorry this happened, but humans make mistakes. I wish it were not true, but it is.

 

[SEIndSAM]

Good thing the other patient didn't have a venereal disease......You really would have had a crappy weekend then...

 

[CountryBoy19]

As frustrating as that is, it was a mistake. Is it a common mistake for that doctor? If so, then there are issues. If it's an exception I would express my displeasure about it and move on. To be honest, if you have health insurance I doubt there is anything they can do short of you filing a lawsuit that can "correct" things.

If you don't have health insurance maybe they could credit you for several visits etc...

The reason that they can't do much if you have health insurance is that most health insurance companies have agreements that any credit or reduction in service charges gets taken off the ins. company's share, not your co-pay etc. So essentially if they were to give you a credit, reduction in charges etc it would only benefit the insurance company.

That being said, they may be able to give you a general credit at that doctor's office that would take care of your co-pays for a while but that would likely be provider/insurance dependent (depends on what their agreement is)...

Are you looking for advice on what you should do? or just venting your frustrations?

 

[rw02kr43]

just venting really. I know there isn't much we can do. And it was a mistake. But still, caused a good bit of pain and suffering for a few days.

Jason

 

[Trigger Time]

Good thing they didn't give her another mans sperm. That's happened as I saw it on the news.

 

[HoughMade]

Good thing the other patient didn't have a venereal disease......You really would have had a crappy weekend then...

I've had that case....no I'm not kidding.

 

[Tactically Fat]

I've had that case....no I'm not kidding.

So...you had a case of venereal disease? I wouldn't go spreading that around. Ahem.

 

[HoughMade]

So...you had a case of venereal disease? I wouldn't go spreading that around. Ahem.

If only you had been honest, I wouldn't be in this position.

 

[hoosierdoc]

To be clear, you were told in July it was 5.3 and then recently you were told the July reading was 6.5? Did you recall that the last time they said it was fine? I have given incorrect results to patients probably on a monthly basis. I usually catch it within a few seconds, and usually while I'm in the room with them. It's the problem with having 16 active patients and going from room to room with an electronic health record.

Good news, no diabetes though. These mistakes happen and are a lot more common with electronic records. I have seen the other way too many times when abnormal results are missed.

I've had that case....no I'm not kidding.

Just curious, was the harm "mental anguish"? Did it lead to relationship problems/divorce? I can see that escalating quickly and causing some serious downstream effects. It's never fun to tell a lady she has trichomonas when her husband is in the room.

So...you had a case of venereal disease? I wouldn't go spreading that around. Ahem.

That reminds me of the time I got the letter in the mail with my results and had to call all those women.... Just kidding. I never called.

 

[Tactically Fat]

If only you had been honest, I wouldn't be in this position.

If you would be more loving, neither of us would be in this position!

It's never fun to tell a lady she has trichomonas when her husband is in the room.

You know I'm a compulsive Googler. Why'd you have to do that to me?

Also - I bet the diagnostics and diagnoses on that is oh so much fun.

 

[Que]

just venting really. I know there isn't much we can do. And it was a mistake. But still, caused a good bit of pain and suffering for a few days.

Jason

I'm sorry to hear this, but rejoice with you that it was an error and your wife and baby are fine.

 

[hoosierdoc]

Also - I bet the diagnostics and diagnoses on that is oh so much fun.

The surprises are when lab calls it on the urinalysis. They look under microscope and BOOM. Busted.

They will also call spermatozoa if they see them. When is that significant? Am I supposed to tell them? On my 80 year old should I high five him?

 

[rw02kr43]

Yeah I'm grateful that she and baby are fine. Just frustrating. She was told in July that the number was normal. Then Last week told it's not normal. This past week we've heard so many differing opinions often times coming from the same people.

Jason

 

[Tactically Fat]

They will also call spermatozoa if they see them. When is that significant? Am I supposed to tell them? On my 80 year old should I high five him?

Yes. But with a gloved hand.

 

[seabassnfg]

Good thing the other patient didn't have a venereal disease......You really would have had a crappy weekend then...

Lmao! Got a great laugh from this one!

And BTW rk02kr43, I'm glad to hear it was just a mistake.

A similar mistake was made by doctors when I was in the womb. Doctors had told my mother that when I was born, I was going to have cerebral palsey. Needless to say, they were wrong. Don't know where they got their incorrect information from.

 

[rw02kr43]

apparently what happened was a nurse came in while the dr was talking to my wife to ask about another patient. the dr pulled up that patient's info on the screen and just never checked the names. She was holding my wife's file in her hands. What makes me mad about this is my wife was asking a ton of questions cause she didn't think the info was right. The dr basically told her to stop asking questions, that she knew what she was talking about. Apparently she doesn't know my wife's name either since the name on the screen didn't match the name of the file in her hands. We're both going to see her next Saturday. She might not be our dr much longer.

Jason