trials and tribulations

Well, today was interesting. There has been a crazy snow storm in my city over the last few days and now we're starting to see all the broken bones come in..."Oops, I was walking and I slipped and fell"..."Oops, I was shoveling my driveway and I slipped and fell"..."Oops, I was snowboarding and I fell". PEOPLE...do you not know that snow =frozen water=ice. Ice is slippery. You've seen it on TV. You know, that white stuff that hockey players skate on?!?!?!? Keeps, the Emergency department on their toes though. We had 9 cases of similar stories waiting to be seen. Glad I'm not on tonight!

So, I had a moral dilema today. The clinic I was working at today regulalry has drug reps in who sponsor lunch 'meetings'. But really, it is just lunch. See, the ongoing debate is that phamraceutical companies know that by giving 'gifts' (like lunches) and promoting their product in offices, they can influence the way that doctors prescribe medications. This is seen as a conflict of interest. Boy, did the lunch smell good...souvlaki, rice, greek salad, hummus with pita bread, and dessert. And what did I do..."No thank you, I brough my own lunch" and I went to the hospital for coffee (and a crappy peanut butter and banana sandwich). I think I deserve a badge.

And for the first time today I encountered hospital burocracy. I had to admit a patient who came straight from an X ray clinic and bypassed the emergency department (he broke his leg and needed surgery). So I filled out all the required paperwork and I called the Bedline (a number that controls all the hospital beds in the province). A bed was available, but I needed to submit the paperwork somewhere. My attending sent me to the emergency department, who said they needed to confirm the bed (which they did). They sent me to central admitting, who said they needed special paperwork because he bypassed emergency. I filled those out, and took them back to admitting, who then wanted to reconfirm the bed situation. Done (again). But the patient needed to wait for his bed because another patient hadn't left yet, so the nurses wanted him to wait in emergency until the bed was available, but emergency wouldn't take him because he didn't come through emergency...PLEASE PEOPLE GET YOUR S**T TOGETHER!!!!! I took it upon myself to take the patient myself to the ward and have him wait in the patient lounge until his room is ready. I have a feeling I may catch flack from the nurses tomorrow. Oh well, I wanted to go home!