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/Former_Bill_1126 ED Attending Jul 20 '24

Yeah, it’s actually an NP patient, but I wasn’t comfortable with them not getting the US so called the tech back myself. I told him my new thing will be “yeah patient says 3 days of pain but it suddenly got worse 11 hours ago”

-144

u/KumaraDosha Jul 20 '24

And this is why ultrasound techs don’t trust y’all. Do not do this.

117

u/Johnny_Lawless_Esq EMT Jul 21 '24

Yeah, you're right. We'll just let people die or be maimed because US techs don't feel like doing their job. Cool.

Maybe I can tell dispatch to fuck off if they drop a stat transfer on us while I'm eating?

-68

u/KumaraDosha Jul 21 '24

Bro thinks lying or letting people die are the only two options when imaging becomes inaccessible at a site. 😭 Try critical thinking, look up “false dichotomy”.

77

u/STDeez_Nuts ED Attending Jul 21 '24

They might not die, but you can absolutely cost them their ability to have children, which is pretty important to some people. If people don’t like getting called in they shouldn’t take a job that requires being on call.

-70

u/KumaraDosha Jul 21 '24

ED physician seems to think lying is the only way to prevent losing a testicle; now that’s embarrassing.

30

u/STDeez_Nuts ED Attending Jul 21 '24

I said nothing about being ok with lying. I’m not going to lie for them to do their job. I’m placing the order then paging the tech. If they refuse to come in I’m documenting it so any delay in care will be due to them. I would also be calling the chief of medicine.

13

u/PA-Curtis Physician Assistant Jul 21 '24

100% agree. I will always do what I think is best for my patient at that time. If that means saying their pain is < 12hr in this circumstance, then so be it.

The 12hr thing sounds like a broken system to me. Broken systems get broken responses 🤷

2

u/STDeez_Nuts ED Attending Jul 22 '24

Exactly! I’ve probably done worse things than lying to get proper care for my patient.