Patients interpreting their own portal results

[u/Princessgargoyle]

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!”

[u/gottawatchquietones]

If it's someone with a bunch of vague chronic complaints and some minor CBC thing that is out of range, who asks me if that thing could explain their symptoms, I say, "I don't know. It's possible. You need to see a specialist," and I give them the number for the hematology clinic. They're not going to believe me when I say it doesn't matter, so I might as well lean into it.

[u/Boxofmagnets → u/gottawatchquietones]

And by pawning it off you ruined someone else’s day

[u/Old_Perception → u/Boxofmagnets]

revenge for the asymptomatic HTN referrals

[u/ratkween → u/Old_Perception]

The cycle of violence continues 😞