Doctors with a complex. Some doctors are the salt of the earth. Others are hellspawn. Most exist somewhere in-between.
I am a hospital medical records supervisor. Deal with doctors every day. Every pet peeve gets directed at me. Case in point:
Two days ago, I got a call from a surgeon. He was upset that his office had not received a copy of a procedure note he dictated into our system. Swears up and down we lost his report. We are just dog do-do. Worthless. "I did not dictate this report for YOUR department to get rid of! This is costing me money!"
Understand, this physician is never wrong. Never wrong as in if it is raining outside and he said it is sunny, he is right and everyone else is both wrong and soaking wet. Think I'm joking? lol.
So I ask for information to identify the patient and their medical chart. I checked the chart. No report. We have two dictation systems, one is voice based for self-transcription and the other is through a transcription service.
I check the voice transcription. Nothing pending an additional action like an electronic signature, etc. Nothing routed to an incorrect account (yes that occasionally happens too). He dictated nothing for the patient.
Moved over to the transcription service's website that can be accessed to review pending and completed jobs. Same thing. Nothing done for the patient.
Checking takes less than a minute and he is on hold. I take him off hold to tell him he did not dictate for this patient. In fact, I tell him I cannot find a date of service for the patient when he claimed the procedure was performed.
He does not put me on hold but asks his nurse standing in the room with him, and who has been quietly listening to our whole exchange (smart woman), "I know this case was at <my hospital>. Now <I> tells me they lost her whole record (which I did not say at all).
His nurse asks him, "Didn't you do surgery over at <another area hospital> for her?"
Dead silence for about seven seconds.
He finally says, "Yes I did. I know where I can find the report now."
*click*
