r/emergencymedicine • u/Former_Bill_1126 ED Attending • Jul 20 '24

Advice US won’t come in if pain >12hrs

Working at a new site, US techs are very picky, will not come in for torsion studies if pain is >12hrs. I talked her into coming in and she’s pissed af, said she knows I’m new and “I’ll learn the protocol”.

Am I in the wrong?

Edit: Does anyone support the US tech or rad protocol and do you have any studies or evidence to support this practice? I’m just wondering if they pulled this out of their ass or where they got the arbitrary 12 hour thing?

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u/Drew_Manatee ED Resident Jul 20 '24

Sounds like your next patient will have been having pain for only 10 hours. And then once the US tech gets to the hospital you can let them know you must have misheard the patient and as it turns out, their pain has been for more than 12 hours. "But since you're already here, why don't you just scan them anyway?"

Alternatively wait until after the scan to report that the patient is now remembering they had the pain for more than 12 hours. Those silly patients, always losing track of time.

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u/KumaraDosha Jul 20 '24

Do not lie to us. Hope this helps.

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u/Kindly_Honeydew3432 Jul 21 '24

We’ll do what’s right for the patient . If the sonographer is reasonable and can be talked into coming in because physician discretion and actual evidence based medicine trumps some made up protocol that is like to result in patient harm…great! If not, I’m gonna lie.

Hope this helps.

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u/KumaraDosha Jul 21 '24

And you think lying in the future will help the current patient how? 🤷‍♀️