If a hospital makes a mistake ...

[milovany]

Is one required to *PAY* for said mistake?

 

I had an EKG done last Friday (had been having some chest pains and wanted to see if anything was up). I got a call from the referring doc after he saw the results that he wanted me to go see an internist who had a subspecialty in cardiology. So I did that yesterday.

 

We went through all the questions (history, symptoms, etc.) and then he said that my EKG results had been "abnormal" and he wanted to run another one.

 

[A spin-off thread could start here: What would go through YOUR mind when you hear the words "Your EKG was abnormal" right before the doc exits the room?]

 

So his assistant came in and hooked me up for another EKG. She took the little strip of paper next door to show the doctor and I heard him immediately say, "Perfect! She's fine." [*Whew!*]

 

He came back in and showed me the first results -- there was an "r-wave" missing in a certain area which would normally indicate that the front wall of the heart had shut down. Then he showed me the second one complete with requisite r-wave. He said the tech who did the first EKG must've hooked the thingies up incorrectly, hence the missing r-waves.

 

So there's my question: Do I have to pay for that first EKG in your opinion? I have NO problem paying the doctor for his service and the second EKG because I certainly did want to find out that everything was in fact okay. But I have a problem with paying for an EKG that was administered incorrectly in the first place, KWIM?

 

I'm just trying to figure out what I'm going to do when the bill comes.

[Renee in NC]

I would not pay for the first test - send a letter stating what you said here.

[WTMindy]

I wouldn't think so. I would ask the doctor to put something in writing that the first one wasn't done correctly.

[milovany]

Here's the thing (tell me what you think) -- the doctor did this exam as a favor for my brother-in-law who is an OB-GYN. Not *my* OB, but an OB all the same. NO DOCTORS are taking new patients here in this town. I called another office trying to get a referral and couldn't get in to see anyone. So I went to my b-i-l to ask what a person is supposed to do in this situation. I seriously went to him for *information* not to have him do something for me. But he quizzed me and sent me to the hospital for the EKG. When he saw the results he walked over and talked with this other doctor and asked him to see me and he agreed even though he's not technically taking new patients. So I don't want to stir anything up or make him have to go out of his way for me any more than he already has, KWIM? I really appreciate that he took the time to see me, and he was very nice and friendly (not irritated that I was on his schedule). I don't want him to be contacted by the hospital in a negative way for having said the hospital tech probably hooked the machine up wrong. So I'm hoping I can handle this without having to involve or even name the doctor.

 

All three places (the OB, the internist and the hospital) are all in the same block/"campus" so I'm not sure how interrelated they all are.

[JFSinIL]

Last year our ped. had one of my son's get and x-ray for scoliosis (which turned ot to be no biggie). BUT - the notes from the radiologist had the ped. suddenly listening to ds's heart,m probing his torso - the notes from the radiologist said all my son's internal organs were in the wrong place - flipped! The ped., who had been my son's doctor for 16 years, (and I am sure would have noticed before now if the heart was on the wrong side) was all for sending us out for another,m confirming x-ray.

 

I stopped him. Could it be possible, I asked, that the radiologist had the x-ray turned around the wrong way when he was reading it????

 

I really doubt that my kid's insides are all in the wrong place.

[Natalieclare]

Last year our ped. had one of my son's get and x-ray for scoliosis (which turned ot to be no biggie). BUT - the notes from the radiologist had the ped. suddenly listening to ds's heart,m probing his torso - the notes from the radiologist said all my son's internal organs were in the wrong place - flipped! The ped., who had been my son's doctor for 16 years, (and I am sure would have noticed before now if the heart was on the wrong side) was all for sending us out for another,m confirming x-ray.

 

I stopped him. Could it be possible, I asked, that the radiologist had the x-ray turned around the wrong way when he was reading it????

 

I really doubt that my kid's insides are all in the wrong place.

 

A little off topic, but I had to share...

 

In medical school, my dh worked on a cadavar whose organs were flipped. It happens! Not to say that's true for your son, but it does happen. :)

[Natalieclare]

Here's the thing (tell me what you think) -- the doctor did this exam as a favor for my brother-in-law who is an OB-GYN. Not *my* OB, but an OB all the same. NO DOCTORS are taking new patients here in this town. I called another office trying to get a referral and couldn't get in to see anyone. So I went to my b-i-l to ask what a person is supposed to do in this situation. I seriously went to him for *information* not to have him do something for me. But he quizzed me and sent me to the hospital for the EKG. When he saw the results he walked over and talked with this other doctor and asked him to see me and he agreed even though he's not technically taking new patients. So I don't want to stir anything up or make him have to go out of his way for me any more than he already has, KWIM? I really appreciate that he took the time to see me, and he was very nice and friendly (not irritated that I was on his schedule). I don't want him to be contacted by the hospital in a negative way for having said the hospital tech probably hooked the machine up wrong. So I'm hoping I can handle this without having to involve or even name the doctor.

 

All three places (the OB, the internist and the hospital) are all in the same block/"campus" so I'm not sure how interrelated they all are.

 

Dar, have you called the hospital to find out about their policy? It might be that simple. Here's hoping....

[GraceinMD]

Not to say that's true for your son, but it does happen. :)

 

:iagree: I've seen cases of dextrocardia (and other organs "flipped," too).

(although I also agree that 16 yrs is probably long enough to figure it out :D)

[Jennifer3141]

A little off topic, but I had to share...

 

In medical school, my dh worked on a cadavar whose organs were flipped. It happens! Not to say that's true for your son, but it does happen. :)

 

No way! My DH did too!! Freaky!

 

OP, I would ask your BIL about this since he helped you out. He'll have a good idea of what hospital policy is.

 

Jen

[G5052]

Is one required to *PAY* for said mistake?

 

I had an EKG done last Friday (had been having some chest pains and wanted to see if anything was up). I got a call from the referring doc after he saw the results that he wanted me to go see an internist who had a subspecialty in cardiology. So I did that yesterday.

 

We went through all the questions (history, symptoms, etc.) and then he said that my EKG results had been "abnormal" and he wanted to run another one.

 

[A spin-off thread could start here: What would go through YOUR mind when you hear the words "Your EKG was abnormal" right before the doc exits the room?]

 

So his assistant came in and hooked me up for another EKG. She took the little strip of paper next door to show the doctor and I heard him immediately say, "Perfect! She's fine." [*Whew!*]

 

He came back in and showed me the first results -- there was an "r-wave" missing in a certain area which would normally indicate that the front wall of the heart had shut down. Then he showed me the second one complete with requisite r-wave. He said the tech who did the first EKG must've hooked the thingies up incorrectly, hence the missing r-waves.

 

So there's my question: Do I have to pay for that first EKG in your opinion? I have NO problem paying the doctor for his service and the second EKG because I certainly did want to find out that everything was in fact okay. But I have a problem with paying for an EKG that was administered incorrectly in the first place, KWIM?

 

I'm just trying to figure out what I'm going to do when the bill comes.

 

 

I can't count how many times this has happened to us. DH has chronic health issues, and if I didn't track the bills like a hawk, we'd be out $ every year. Call the hospital and speak to the head of the billing department, and if that doesn't work try to find a patient care representative or ombundsman. In a smaller, patient-focused hospital, you might be successful.

 

In a huge, bureaucratic hospital you might not. DH had two bills with a big hospital that I wasn't able to negotiate out of after months of trying. I did everything I could to get these reversed and finally just paid them after they were almost sent to collection. Hospitals actually do have the right to charge you for a procedure even if it was done wrong, and they do have the right to send a bill to collection in that case. They shouldn't, but they do.

[mooooom]

but I know that doctors will usually stick up for each other. As will vets. We rec'd a dog from down South who had a horribly botched up neuter, cost our rescue several hundreds to put him right. And OUR vet, who didn't even know the guy, refused to put something in writing that southern vet had done something wrong - so we were never able to recoup our losses. I thought that stunk!

[kalanamak]

But I have a problem with paying for an EKG that was administered incorrectly in the first place, KWIM?

 

Human beings don't come with markers on their skin saying exactly where these leads go. Particularly in women (because of b@@ks) the frontal leads are tricky. Is the woman flat....is she up 30 degrees because she's on a stretcher, and her b@@ks pull in a certain other direction?

 

 

Everyone one is a little different. Why is the second one, where the anterior leads could have just been a little closer together, the "right" one just because you got a normal result? What if it are the "incorrect" one?

 

This is where the art of medicine comes in. A young healthy female comes in with chest pain typical of costrochondritis and shows up with a weak sign for an old MI? It was probably NOT from an old MI, and therefore the doc took the "normal" one as evidence for what s/he already knew....the first was a glitch or a sampling error or "positional" and even if it had been repeatedly positive for this common finding, if you were young and healthy, I'm betting s/he would have then brushed it off as just being "part of you". Unless they feared you. Then you'd get the cath.

 

The "it was just done incorrectly" was to REASSURE you, not to make the hospital not charge you. Don't take this personally, but if I'd said that, and then was asked to write a letter to get you out of paying for it in the ER, it would be one more tiny chalk mark in my mind for being the "silent, uncommunicative" doc so many grow into.

 

I didn't answer your question, because I don't know the answer, but I HTH.

[JFSinIL]

A little off topic, but I had to share...

 

In medical school, my dh worked on a cadavar whose organs were flipped. It happens! Not to say that's true for your son, but it does happen. :)

 

I know - it is just that after 16 years of check-ups with the same pediatrician listening to ds's heart and probing his liver etc. I think if stuff was "flipped" this doctor would have noticed it before now.

 

Then again - this IS the son with all the odd stuff wrong with him (autism/hypotonia/a touch of scoliosis/absence seizures/advanced silliness ;)) so how much you want to bet....