Monday, May 26, 2014

Errors

Recently we had a patient admitted after a multi-trauma. Among the patient's many diagnoses was the diagnosis "right lamina propria fracture".

If you know what the lamina propria is, you'd realize this makes absolutely no sense.

I looked through all the documentation in the patient's chart and every single thing said "right lamina propria fracture".

Finally, I called the resident who dictated the discharge and I asked her what she meant by that. She recognized that this was not an actual thing that could be fractured, but she still seemed kind of angry that I was questioning her. She said, "I didn't take care of the patient most of time she was in the hospital. I was just copying somebody else's notes."

Well, I guess if you just copied and pasted something that was completely wrong without questioning it, you're not at fault at all.

I finally tracked down the nurse practitioner that was taking care the patient who told me what it really was. Any guesses?

9 comments:

  1. Funny that a histology term got in there!

    Lamina papyracea [aka orbital plate of ethmoid bone in the eye socket] is my guess.

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  2. If I echoed anon above with my guess I would be totally lying bc I had no idea. But wow! Fractured lamina propria. I talk about lamina propria all the time in my sign out comments in many different ways but never ever have I thought of it as fractured. Cool thought.

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  3. Lamina fracture of one of the vertebrae?

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    Replies
    1. That would have been my guess.

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  4. Hmmm either way, that's a resident that has an attitude problem and isn't looking to help out the patient in such a way that they get appropriate care. With all due respect, it sounds like she will be one of the stories that besmirches the medical profession on the 6 pm news. Not something I would want to see.

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  5. Um, yikes. I'm a resident, and I wouldn't throw a 'tude like that.

    Also, I purchased "the Devil Wears Scrubs" soon after I started my intern year- it's making its way around my classmates. We really enjoy it! :-)

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  6. Fracture of medial orbital wall?

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  7. Sounds like a radiology voice transcription error for lamina papyracea.

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