Merry Flu Christmas

Merry Flu Christmas!  Sean woke up throwing up and with a high fever on Monday night. He had a cough and was miserable. I had to work. Don stayed home with him and I took him to Bountiful Kids Care after work. The letters below tell the story of that experience. David Jensen arranged for me to get him into his regular doctor on Christmas Eve. He had a positive flu screen for the A strain AKA H1N1. The amazing thing is he was so much better. He was playing Mario Kart 8 with AJ. I got the prescription for steroids and she thought it best that we start him on Tamiflu. I wanted to cry when she said he had flu. Don and Phoebe were sick too so I figured they had flu too. She said since he was so much better she thought it was OK for us to fly to Orlando the next day.

Dear Carol,

Thank you for your email. I am so sorry for your experience in our Bountiful KidsCare and with Dr. Galian. I have sent your concerns for review and will get back to you when we have had a chance to investigate. I see that Sean was seen by his Pediatrician the next day, and that he received medications as needed. Having a sick child during the holidays is very stressful and I hope that he gets feeling better soon.

I will get back to you as soon as I have had your concerns reviewed. Due to the holidays, there may be a delay.

Please don’t hesitate to call me at the number or email below.

Sincerely,

 

Robyn Kingery, RN

Patient Relations/Risk Management

Intermountain Medical Group/Central Office

Office 801-442-3971

Fax 801-442-0423 / robyn.kingery@imail.org

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From: ccCNA - Carol Lindsay [mailto:carol@cccna.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2014 10:35 PM
To: Robyn Kingery; David Jensen
Subject: Kids Care visit

 

 

Concerns involving my son’s visit to Bountiful Kids Care on December 23, 2014 at 7:30.

 

I took my son to Bountiful Kids Care December 23, 2014 after work. My son had been vomiting and had a fever as high as 104.6 since the night before. I went to Kids Care because my son’s pediatrician Dr.  Shakib was not in the office today.  I was under the mistaken impression that being seen at an Intermountain after hour’s clinic would provide a level of continuity of care with my son’s intermountain pediatrician.

We saw Dr. Jack Gallan (or something close to that he never actually introduced himself). The doctor asked what was going on and I told him about the fever, vomiting and that Sean had a cough. I then made the mistake of saying I would like a refill of prednisone for Sean’s asthma because we were leaving on a trip. Apparently I said the wrong thing. The doctor told me he did not write prescriptions for maintenance meds but only for meds to treat an acute condition that he witnessed and that he would be putting his license on the line if he wrote a prescription for prednisone and it would be wrong of me to ask him to do so. I said OK, fine. He then said he would listen to Sean’s lungs which he did and declared them clear. “He doesn’t have asthma” he said. He didn’t ask me if Sean has been wheezing earlier or how many times I had given him albuterol in the past 12 hours. He just declared his lungs clear. I told him Sean had illness induced asthma and he basically told me there was no such thing. OK fine! Apparently the doctors at PCMC and the pulmonologist are wrong when they tell me my child has illness induced asthma. 

 

He then proceeded to lecture me about how Kids Care has no relationship with the pediatricians at Intermountain clinic and that if I wanted a maintenance prescription I should wait until Kids Care closes and call the doctor on call or PCMC. In the words of Frozen, “Let it GO!” I got it he wasn’t going to write a prescription for prednisone. I asked he said no, I let it go but the doctor would not. I wanted to move on to a diagnosis.

In an attempt to give him some context in to Sean’s health, (or as some of us in the healthcare industry call it a health history) I said that Sean has several hospitalizations the most recent being in September.  I said that Sean was immunocompromised in that he had no IgA. He said “well if he really is immunocompromised he should NEVER have steroids.” For the love of all that’s holy man LET IT GO! Now I’m getting angry. IF my son is immunocompromised?  There is no IF involved check his lab. I told him to look at Sean’s chart on the computer. I half assumed he had since he asked me NO questions about my son’s medical history. He asked what his diagnosis were when he was admitted and I said pneumonia and asthma. He didn’t ask any more questions about Sean. Honestly, I don’t think he asked anything about Sean after I showed my total lack of medical understanding when I made the gross error of asking for steroids.

 

I asked if he thought Sean could have the flu and he said he doubted it but he could do a nasal swab to check. He said he thought it was just a “stomach bug.” Nice diagnosis since he didn’t even feel his stomach. Heck, maybe Sean had a ruptured appendix but how would he know, he didn’t examine any part of him other than to listen to his lungs. I said I wanted the swab because if Sean did by chance have flu he should have Tamiflu because of his immune issues. Now the doctor proceeded to lecture me about Tamiflu being the only medicine to treat viruses and if they gave it to all kids then they wouldn’t have it for ones who really need it. At this point I tell him to quit being condescending. I have a Master’s degree in nursing and I know about viruses, bacteria and drug resistance.  I should have told him I also know how to do a physical assessment and obtain a physical background but I didn’t bother because I knew he had already determined I was a drug seeking mother looking to score some prednisone.

 

I respect a doctor’s stance that he won’t write a prescription for a maintenance medication for a symptom he doesn’t see. What I don’t respect is a doctor who doesn’t perform a reasonable physical assessment or take a reasonable health history is condescending and wastes my time and money.

 

I am very unhappy with the quality of care my son received at this visit.

 

Thank you,

 

 

 

Carol Lindsay MSN, RN