I had a patient who had a HIDA Scan. Obviously, I knew the results, and the doctor knew them but didn't come in to the hospital to discuss with the patient the fact that he would need surgery because it was a Sunday night. Meanwhile, the patient wants to know what happened with the test. The patient knew what they were looking for, the diagnosis wasn't a surprise, but the patient still had no formal confirmation.
Do you tell the patient, knowing he is going for surgery the next day and won't be seeing the doctor? Or not? And if not, how do you tell the patient that the doctor is supposed to discuss test results? When I tried this, my patient assumed there must be a tumor that I didn't want to tell him about. haha