Doctors with Gay Bias Denied Meds, Man Says - Page 2

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  1. Jun 4, '12 by
    Something is off on this whole story. Wait and see what comes of it.
    KelRN215 and PMFB-RN like this.
  2. Jun 5, '12 by
    Quote from Heidi0410
    I believe there is something missing as well. It is just weird that I can only find one other mention of this on the below website.

    Doctor Denies HIV+ Man Meds “For Going Against God’s Will” / Queerty

    I wasn't worried about having an order for the medication because I was thinking about the facility I work at. We have a Internal medicine Hospitalist group and one of them surely would have ordered the medication. Also I think a nurse for the patient could easily have taken the order from the patients personal doctor if they really couldn't find a doctor in the facility that would order the medication.

    I've only been a RN for a year and 7 months now but honestly the patient has a right to his medication, his sister could have brought it in to his room and he could have took it. Its his choice. Regardless of order or not.

    There has to be information missing in this case somewhere though.
    While I agree that there is probably more to the story than is reported in the article posted (there usually is, in this type of situation), there are a few basic things I would point out --

    The article specifies that the individual was admitted to an inpatient psychiatric unit. They typically have specific, limited visiting hours, and even close family members cannot just drop by whenever it suits them and visit with someone.

    I have never worked in any psychiatric setting (in over 25 years of psychiatric nursing) where clients were allowed to have medication brought in to them from the outside, even by a family member, to take without that medication being ordered by the attending physician in the facility and "checked out" by the hospital pharmacy (that the medication actually is what it's supposed to be). There's just no such thing as someone just bringing in a bottle of pills from home and an individual being allowed to take them.

    Many of the HIV medications are rare and extremely expensive. It's not at all uncommon that a community hospital pharmacy might not have them in stock.

    Also, nurses can't just take medication orders from any physician -- a physician has to have practice privileges at a particular facility. The nurses could not have legally "taken the order from the patient's personal doctor" if that physician isn't on the medical staff of that hospital -- just as you can't just walk into any hospital you choose and start caring for the clients there; you have to be employed by the hospital.
    KelRN215 likes this.