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Specializes in Surgical Specialty Clinic - Ambulatory Care.

Soooooo. Got a patient with a PICC. Not my patient, never seen him before. Get to his home and he requests that I changes his PICC dressing as it had some drainage under it. Last changed 5 days ago. I take off the dressing and note redness to basically right under where the stat loc is. No swelling, no heat, patient's vitals all normal. Patient does say it itches. So I think it is an adhesive allergy. Call the IV provider and they are going to send out a different dressing by mail...expect arrival in 2 days when next dressing due. I finish changing the dressing.

It is after 4:30pm on a Friday so when I call the ID office it is the afterhours doctor I get...who actually happens to be the doctor I want. The doctor responds to my description of the wound but I honestly have NO freaking clue what she just said. I ask her to repeat and again, not a damn clue. Like so bad I don't know if she is giving me an order or if saying my response and plan is reasonable. She hangs up the phone and I have nooooooo clue what she just said.

I decide to stick with my plan. The patient is aware that if redness worsens or spreads or if he starts to feel bad or even have a tiny temp he needs to go to the E.R. What would you do?

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Specializes in Pedi.

Look for her email address and send her an email to clarify in writing?

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Specializes in Surgical Specialty Clinic - Ambulatory Care.

If we worked in the same system I guess I could. She is not affiliated with the system I work at. But thanks for the thought. I'm just going to call the guy over the weekend and see how he is and the. Go look at him again on Monday.

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Specializes in Pedi.

A lot of hospital systems publish their MD's email addresses. Or, if you know how they format their email addresses, you might be able to make an educated guess as to what it is. I was able to follow-up on a job application I submitted earlier this year by finding the director of HR's profile on LinkedIn and then correctly guessing her email address because I knew this particular hospital formatted their email addresses as [email protected].

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agreed follow up with email. everything has to be clear

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