As an emergency physician I promise it's not something we do on purpose to harm anyone. It's because people lie to us all. the. time.
I've had patients who were lesbian, with their partner, swear up and down that they only had sex with women who were pregnant not once but twice. I diagnose surprise pregnancies quite frequently. It's not that I don't trust you, it's that I can't fully trust anyone.
Edit:
I appreciate the thougtful comments I'm receiving on this. To help clarify - in the emergency department if I'm ordering a urine hCG I'm probably seeing you in triage, I have 5 to 7 minutes to see you, ask questions, perform an exam, and place orders. No I don't have time to review your prior records, I have 60 patients in my waiting room and 10 people after you to screen, 14 more checking in the next hour.
Respecting your autonomy, your sense of self, and being an ally are very important to me. But I've also had patients believe they had a hysterectomy when they didn't because health literacy is hard. If I'm seeing 60 to 80 patients in triage in a shift my first priority is minimizing mistakes and misses.
Look, I get that, but I seriously think y'all are just making more work for yourself. If a patient is going to lie, they're going to lie. Asking again in multiple different ways isn't likely to change that. And saying shit like "are you sure?" Just makes you look like a dick. Take note of what the patient says and let them lie in the bed they made. It makes zero sense to harass every single patient because some lie.
Not in the medical field but my grandmother worked in the red Cross for fifty years and had a close friend who was a doctor for about the same amount of time.
She once told me about a time when her friend had trusted their patients word on an issue because that patient had never previously lied to them. Except that time they did, don't remember exactly what it was she said they lied about, but whatever it was, because it was missed that patient suffered massively because they were given the wrong form of treatment from what they needed, and the doctor almost lost his medical license because they chose to trust a patient who'd never before lied to them
Exactly! It damn near inevitable, even from good patients. The standard should be "lie or omit at your own risk" Not "the doctor is responsible for managing human stupidity." I mean, obviously there's a point to confirming certain information, but the extent that it's gone these days is just ridiculous.
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u/TubesAndLines Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
As an emergency physician I promise it's not something we do on purpose to harm anyone. It's because people lie to us all. the. time.
I've had patients who were lesbian, with their partner, swear up and down that they only had sex with women who were pregnant not once but twice. I diagnose surprise pregnancies quite frequently. It's not that I don't trust you, it's that I can't fully trust anyone.
Edit: I appreciate the thougtful comments I'm receiving on this. To help clarify - in the emergency department if I'm ordering a urine hCG I'm probably seeing you in triage, I have 5 to 7 minutes to see you, ask questions, perform an exam, and place orders. No I don't have time to review your prior records, I have 60 patients in my waiting room and 10 people after you to screen, 14 more checking in the next hour.
Respecting your autonomy, your sense of self, and being an ally are very important to me. But I've also had patients believe they had a hysterectomy when they didn't because health literacy is hard. If I'm seeing 60 to 80 patients in triage in a shift my first priority is minimizing mistakes and misses.