Altered MD Excuse

[NurseHeatherBSNRN, ASN, BSN]

My school's receptionist brought me an excuse which was obviously altered. The parent had used white-out over the dates excused and wrote in different dates. I called the doctor's office, who assured me that they never use white-out on excuses because "there's no way of knowing what is correct for audit purposes". Obviously, we are not honoring this excuse and those dates will continue to be unexcused absences. Parent is p!ssed.

How would you have handled this situation? Obviously, the school is not able to file a police report. I can only hope the doctor's office does, though.

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

Oh my FAVORITE thing!

It's only happened to me once. I obtained a new faxed note from the MD, passed that to the attendance clerk and let the principal know. I would decline to confront a parent about this because if they're willing to forge a medical document they're willing to do just about anything.

[NurseHeatherBSNRN, ASN, BSN]

8 minutes ago, ruby_jane said:

Oh my FAVORITE thing!

It's only happened to me once. I got a faxed note from the MD, passed that to the attendance clerk and let the principal know. I would decline to confront a parent about this because if they're willing to forge a medical document they're willing to do just about anything.

My thoughts EXACTLY! We've had ...um....issues with this parent for a while, so I'd rather not kick the hornet's nest. Attendance clerk, Receptionist, & I brought it to administration. They can handle it from here.

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

the times that I have had to verify a dr note, I like to scan it and email it or fax it over to the DR office so that they can verify the dates of absence. If the MD can't verify the dates and the alteration of the note is apparent to them, then we will not excuse the absences and the MD can pursue the alteration as they see fit.

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

2 minutes ago, NurseHeatherBSNRN said:

We've had ...um....issues with this parent for a while, so I'd rather not kick the hornet's nest.

BWHAHAHH HAHAHAH! Yes. Good analogy.

[CanIcallmymom, BSN, RN]

Would have handled it exactly the same. Have experienced it more than once between last year and this year at my school. I solicit the help of one of our amazing counselors, usually she calls if I am busy to find out! I feel like attendance excuses, when manipulated, are not my territory to deal with the parent alone...so that's why I enlist help. ?

[SandIsMyGlitterRN, BSN, RN]

2 hours ago, Flare said:

the times that I have had to verify a dr note, I like to scan it and email it or fax it over to the DR office so that they can verify the dates of absence. If the MD can't verify the dates and the alteration of the note is apparent to them, then we will not excuse the absences and the MD can pursue the alteration as they see fit.

Same here. I can verify with the DR office the correct information. After that the parent needs to come forth with a corrected form.

[kidzcare]

I hate this so much. I hate how much schools cater to parents who abuse the system or do outright illegal things.

I had this situation a few years ago when I was filing doctor's noted and noticed that two siblings had notes with the same medical record number. Confirmed with doctor's office that one of the notes had not come from their office. Nothing done.

I work on the IEP assessment team and we have parents inconvenience us in tons of ways and we have to bend over backward for them because we are bound by laws to have things done within specific time frames. Parents not showing up to meetings, not getting us paperwork, etc... There's literally no consequence for the parents and they can sue us if we don't get our end done on time.

[tining, BSN, RN]

I think I am looking at a forged medication form:

Inhaler as needed?

Cough syrup or drops

Antihistamine/zyrtec or claritin

Ummm NO.

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

23 minutes ago, tining said:

I think I am looking at a forged medication form:

Inhaler as needed?

Cough syrup or drops

Antihistamine/zyrtec or claritin

Ummm NO.

Anti-histamine. SNORK.

["nursy", RN]

I received a note from the provider that I WISH was altered, because it actually said "please excuse student because he had Ammonia!" All I could think was oh no....this could be the start of an epidemic...I hope they come up with an ammonia vaccine....

[LikeTheDeadSea, MSN, RN]

On 12/13/2019 at 3:19 PM, tining said:

I think I am looking at a forged medication form:

Inhaler as needed?

Cough syrup or drops

Antihistamine/zyrtec or claritin

Ummm NO.

I've gotten orders that have looked like this, which is always a fun phone call to make. I've even had an office nurse go, "Well you know what that they meant, don't you, you can't just make it work?"

...eyeroll...