r/emergencymedicine ED Attending 13d ago

Advice Patients interpreting their own portal results

Attending physician new to practicing in a more affluent area. How are you all dealing with patients asking for explanations for each out-of-range lab result that popped up in their patient portal?

I’m finding this aspect of my new site to be very frustrating and time consuming to have to convince the patient why the google interpretation of their isolated eosinophilia or glucose of 100 does not align with my “Great news! Everything looks good!”

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514

u/meh817 ED Resident 13d ago

“My basophils are high” dawg I don’t even know what a basophil is anymore 😭

124

u/surecameraman UK SHO (PGY5) 13d ago

My least favourite leukocyte I have to say

At least with eosinophils I can be like “allergies, innit”. What do you even do with a slightly raised basophil count?

78

u/D15c0untMD 13d ago

But chatgpt said it could be parasites!!!1!1

31

u/DonkeyKong694NE1 Physician 13d ago

Or cancer or a connective tissue disorder or …….