Heartburn with Multithousand dollar work up

Published: May 7, 2017

 

Have you ever wondered how a simple Heartburn can lead to $20,000 ER bill? Dr. Sorry deals with ER physician (Dr. Admission) and gets to learn the politics behind HOSPITAL and "DEFENSIVE MEDICINE."

Mr. Innocent, a 30 year old patient was ecstatic to find out after a two day long hospital stay that Chipotle wasn’t clogging the blood vessels of his heart. “I couldn’t hear a better news than this. After an overwhelmed ER physician took a detailed history and did a thorough physical exam in ten seconds, I knew that he knows exactly what was wrong with me.” “Its Chipotle that could be clogging your blood vessels”, ER physician, Dr. Admission, told Mr. Innocent while running to the next patient for another detailed history and physical. “I just told him that the last meal I ate was Chipotle right before experiencing heart burn and he was spot on.” Mr. Innocent continued quite excitedly, “He ran a total body scan on me in TSA style and informed me that I should be admitted without informing me much about the findings. This was followed by a heated argument between him and the night hospitalist over something. I assume, most likely my health. But then the hospitalist gave up and approached me while uttering “Whatever” from his mouth. He was equally efficient and actually spent a few more seconds with me than Dr. Admission.” Mr. Innocent continued, “It didn’t finish there. Night hospitalist handed over my care to day hospitalist who called the heart specialist who after checking heart strips and enzymes for a few times ran an ultrasound and injected a dye in my heart to eventually tell me that Chipotle was not blocking my heart vessels.” Taking a sigh of relief, “I am so grateful to all these doctors for taking care of me and finally making the right diagnosis. Its just going to cost me $10,000 on my high deductible insurance plan. But in the end, its all worth it.” He finishes with a huge smirk on his face.