Confessions of a Renegade Nurse

Several years ago when working in hospital, I had the pleasure of caring for a delightful gentleman who suffered a broken leg. This break required surgery and hardware placement.
He was my patient for 2 weeks, and months later he returned with the leg broken and broken hardware requiring another surgery. He had a history of narcotic use--heroin.

The man never asked for pain medication. How he could bear it is beyond my comprehension.

One night I checked in on him, he was in a sweat and his knuckles were white from gripping the bed. I asked if he wanted pain medication, but he just shook his head. I paged the Resident on-call who refused to write an order. The doctor said “The patient is drug seeking.”

I hit the roof. I’d had this patient for two rounds of hospitalization. Not once did he ask for pain medications. Clearly the man was in extreme pain. I communicated this to the Resident physician who yelled, “I DON’T CARE! HE IS A DRUG ADDICT. I WILL NOT give him pain medication, HE IS DRUG-SEEKING.” I had to hold the phone a foot from my ear to avoid bleeding eardrums.

This only increased my distaste for Residents and my anger at the medical establishment. So, I did the logical thing at 3:00 a.m. I called the Attending Physician.

Calling an Attending in the middle of his sleep cycle is not for the faint of heart. But, I was hell-bent to get this man the care he needed, and as a human being he deserved.

Fortunate for me, the Attending agreed and ordered the appropriate pain medication.

The next day, as rounds were beginning, I could hear the Attending yelling at the Resident down the hall. When they came on the floor the Resident looked a bit smaller than the last time I saw him.

In the end, my patient rested comfortably. He was later discharged, and healed well.
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What does this have to do with you?

Plenty.

Your health history is not just a document. Incrementally, histories are working against patients. Insurance companies are seizing on portions of a persons health history and using it for nefarious purposes, specifically, using these bits of information to deny coverage.

If you've ever smoked a cigarette in your life, and told your doctor, it's in your records. If you've ever smoked marijuana (but didn't inhale) it's in your record. If you've ever had an alcoholic drink and told your doctor, it's in your record. If you've ever engaged in risky sex behavior and told your doctor, it's in your record.

Have you ever bungie jumped? Or gone snowboarding? Any risky behavior that you might have mentioned to your doctor is likely in your medical record. Do not be surprised if within the next few years any of the above mentioned behaviors (and many more) are the cause of your insurance denying you coverage.

It's a dirty business that's getting dirtier by the minute.