This story is a bit of a rant, but I want to hear funny ones, too.
Yeaterday, a pt of mine passed away at (time) 1727. She was 96 years old, had a fantastic life and had family & friends with her at the end. It was a very gentle passing, and the family thought I was a big help to them. That is the good part.
At 1730 I paged the MD to get him to pronounce the pt so she could go to the funeral home as soon as the family was ready.
No answer to my page. At 1750 I page him again with "NOW" added to the page. Still no answer.
At 1815, I page him STAT with the notation, "Your patient Rm 217 deceased". *STILL* no answer.
At this time, I called the operator, who said, "Dr. X is no longer on-call. Dr. Y is." So paged Dr. Y.
Guess what? NO ANSWER!
I called the Operator again, who called Dr. Y. Dr. Y yelled at the operator, saying, "I AM NOT the on-call doctor! Dr. Z is!" The operator told her that the schedule clearly showed her as the doctor on-call. Dr. Y yelled, "I *SAID* I AM NOT ON-CALL! Call Dr. Z and quit bothering me!"
I now got the Nursing Supervisor involved. I told the family it was OK to leave, that we would handle the sending to the funeral home, etc. and not to worry. They were beginning to really wonder about this stupid MD, who was not pronouncing poor Mama. I had to be really diplomatic about all of this and try hard not to say, "Well, your doctor is a jerk!" Supervisor called Dr. Z, who verified the on-call MD was indeed, Dr. Y.
Are you guys still with me here?
Nursing Supervisor called Dr. Y for me, and told me she would be calling me soon.
It has now been 1 hour and 45 minutes since the time of death. The family is gone, but I feel terrible for them and am VERY MAD about this situation. What if it was a patient who was going down the tubes? Would they want to still play "Who's On Call"?? Of course, I would have intervened a lot faster, but you know what I mean.
FINALLY Dr. Y called me back. I told her, "The patient of Dr. X FOR WHOM YOU ARE ON CALL passed away at 1727. I need a release for the funeral home to pick her up."
Dr. Y: "Uhhhhhh.....no...uhhhhh....breath sounds or heart tones?"
I answer, "No...not for ALMOST TWO HOURS NOW!"
Dr. Y: "Yes, well, you can release the body and call the family."
Duh. I said, "The family was present at the death." I wanted to add "YOU IDIOT" but restrained myself.
Dr. Y: "Well, uhhh you can call the funeral home then."
Well.........what do you think?