I have had an experience of a lifetime that has really put into perspective the frustrations that families encounter when a physician is too arrogant to enforce patients rights. My father is currently a patient in a local ICU & has required mechanical ventilation. Prior to today, I had highly respected the intensivist overseeing my dad's care. He seemed to really empathize with the families of patients he cared for. He kept us informed of dad's condition & explained things laymens terms so everyone understood. Yesterday evening My dad had a coloscopy and prior to the procedure, we notified the nursing staff that we would like to speak with the gastroenterologist doing the procedure to further discuss his findings & any reccomendations that he had to help resolve the issue @ hand. Needless to say, the message wasn't relayed & he never stopped to talk with us. When my mom requested to talk with him - the intensivist stormed into the family room and read us the "Riot Act".
First of all, we are not to request to talk with any other physician besides himself. He's in charge - he writes the orders, consults specialists as HE deems necessary, and doesn't need to be told how to do his job. He went on to further say, that families are always quick to make reccommendations regarding what they feel should be done when really all they do is make the physicians job that much harder.
Needless to say, based upon my assessment of my fathers clinical status seeing as though families always knows him best - I requested that his TSH be checked. The MD said, "whatever the result is, I will take it with a grain of salt anyway". The result was 250. He's now receiving IV levothyroxine.
So far, the hospital stay has been 52 days & my mom has not left the hospital one night. Since the encounter with the MD, my mom feels that she needs to be there 24/7 because she feels insecure that he may not make decisions in dad's best interest.
Given my Nursing experience, I was furious that a MD thought he could get away with treating a family in such an unprofessional manner - afterall, if he did it to us, he's obviously treated other families the same way. I contacted the medical director of the hospital but she didn't seem real concerned. Any Suggestions?
