r/emergencymedicine • u/Princessgargoyle 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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u/Temperance522 12d ago edited 12d ago
"Great news! Everything looks good!" might be how you see it, but sadly it isn't comforting to an anxious patient. When they're going through the portal, they're trying to absorb a lot of information.
It might help to be more informative in your reply: "In the context of all your other labs, this elevation is understood as only slightly out of range, which is a normal occurrence and non-concerning when taken as part of the overall picture. We can be reassured by these results as a whole that there is not an acute situation presenting. If you are concerned about an ongoing process that needs medical attention, I invite you to schedule an appointment with your PCP to can address these concerns in an outpatient process?"
In sum, "You're great" feels dismissive because you aren't addressing the central issue: the anxiety.
In these situations, it can work better if you put your normal "logical" focus on the back burner and switch to an emotional focus, which is equally valid.
People often find that if you lead with accurate empathy and tell them what you can do, you get out of the room quicker.
-A clinical psychologist