How often are we told as doctors? You can’t do this. Don’t do that.
We are sometimes made to feel as if we are two-year-olds.
Now for the good news. An article published by Victor Cotton, MD, JD* pushes the opposite position. Curbside consults. If you follow the basics, you’re on safe ground. A breath of fresh air.
As a neurosurgical resident, we were cautioned to avoid curbside consults. Attending physicians admonished us to get the formal consult. At Ben Taub County Hospital, our service was busy. The internal medicine service was busy. Everyone was busy. The one commodity we did not have was time.
I was forced to use the following strategy to coax an internist to see my patient – one suffering from a head injury, in the Neuro-ICU, with a gazillion lines penetrating his skin and a blood sugar of 450.
“I know you are really busy and I hate to bother you. I have a patient with severe head injury and a blood sugar of 450. Do you give one amp or two amps of insulin?”
“What! Don’t do anything. We’ll see your patient in a matter of moments.”
Mission accomplished. The more stupid I sounded, the easier it was to get a consultant to the patient’s bedside.
That made no sense to me then. It makes no sense to me today.