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What If the Patient Were Your Mother?

What If the Patient Were Your Mother? EDITORIAL S I WROTE THIS EDITORIAL, MY 89-YEAR- pages of newspapers every day, and all of these crises seem old mother had been hospitalized for to have no clear solution and to be generally beyond our 8 days after a fall in her home and a long- control as a profession. delayed diagnosis of hip fracture. Ini- The one component of these various crises that we in A tially there was diagnostic uncertainty as medicine can directly do something about is the loss of various imaging studies were not definitive for hip frac- confidence that our patients have in us. What do patients ture. Given my mother’s long-standing medical prob- want and expect from physicians, and what does my re- lems, including a history of venous thromboembolic dis- cent experience with my mother tell us about all of this? ease and pulmonary embolism, diagnostic uncertainty I think most patients want their physicians to be avail- resulting in days of bed rest in the hospital were a source able, to see them promptly when they are sick, and to not of anxiety owing to the known medical risks of immo- avoid them for any reason. They want us to communi- http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png JAMA Internal Medicine American Medical Association

What If the Patient Were Your Mother?

Greenland, Philip
JAMA Internal Medicine , Volume 165 (6) – Mar 28, 2005
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References (4)

Publisher
American Medical Association
Copyright
Copyright 2005 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved. Applicable FARS/DFARS Restrictions Apply to Government Use.
ISSN
2168-6106
eISSN
2168-6114
DOI
10.1001/archinte.165.6.607
pmid
15795334
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

EDITORIAL S I WROTE THIS EDITORIAL, MY 89-YEAR- pages of newspapers every day, and all of these crises seem old mother had been hospitalized for to have no clear solution and to be generally beyond our 8 days after a fall in her home and a long- control as a profession. delayed diagnosis of hip fracture. Ini- The one component of these various crises that we in A tially there was diagnostic uncertainty as medicine can directly do something about is the loss of various imaging studies were not definitive for hip frac- confidence that our patients have in us. What do patients ture. Given my mother’s long-standing medical prob- want and expect from physicians, and what does my re- lems, including a history of venous thromboembolic dis- cent experience with my mother tell us about all of this? ease and pulmonary embolism, diagnostic uncertainty I think most patients want their physicians to be avail- resulting in days of bed rest in the hospital were a source able, to see them promptly when they are sick, and to not of anxiety owing to the known medical risks of immo- avoid them for any reason. They want us to communi-

Journal

JAMA Internal Medicine – American Medical Association

Published: Mar 28, 2005

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