Celebrity Patients

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I know about HIPAA, blah blah blah. But generally if anyone worked in a clinical setting and a person walks in who is a celebrity, do healthcare and administrative workers treat him/her differently?

Sorry, sounds like a random question but I was watching a documentary about how a celebrity teen popstar was once hospitalized, cussing at nurses, etc.

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Nobody really gives a **** 10 minutes after they see them. The awe wears off fast
 
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I don't know about celebrities in particular but I believe some research has demonstrated that "VIP treatment" leads to worse outcomes.


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What research?
There are papers on the subject if you google things like VIP patient, syndrome, etc. Basically the gist of what I've read is that if a patient is an "important" person one might be less willing to ask them invasive questions or be reluctant to do anything that might make them uncomfortable. You also might be more willing to acquiesce to requests for treatments, tests, and so forth that aren't indicated. I don't know how that exactly plays out in practice, though.

Alternatively, you might be more inclined to report the patient's weight as 50 pounds less than what it actually is and tell the White House press corps that your patient will live to be 200.
 
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Alternatively, you might be more inclined to report the patient's weight as 50 pounds less than what it actually is and tell the White House press corps that your patient will live to be 200.

Hey. But what if he DOES weigh 50 pounds less? :heckyeah:
 
In the Emergency Department that I work in, we see a fair number of celebs. We prioritize their privacy and get them single rooms in less-trafficked areas. I think I speak for most of my coworkers when I say that they're otherwise treated just like other patients.
 
In the Emergency Department that I work in, we see a fair number of celebs. We prioritize their privacy and get them single rooms in less-trafficked areas. I think I speak for most of my coworkers when I say that they're otherwise treated just like other patients.

If your ED sees celebs on a fairly regular basis, then its no longer unique then. I think OP was talking more about places that see a celeb like once a year or so.
 
celebrities are just people like the rest of us
 
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I know about HIPAA, blah blah blah. But generally if anyone worked in a clinical setting and a person walks in who is a celebrity, do healthcare and administrative workers treat him/her differently?

Sorry, sounds like a random question but I was watching a documentary about how a celebrity teen popstar was once hospitalized, cussing at nurses, etc.

Of course they treat them differently. Medicine is no different than any other industry. It is made up of people... who get excited by celebrities. My hand surgeon routinely takes care of the local MLB pitchers and while we may have sat next to each other in the waiting room for 20 minutes, how everyone from the MA to RN to MD treats them is different.

Personally, we don't get many celebrities, but we get a fair number of VIPs. Foreign dignitaries, billionaires, major sports team owners, Fortune 100 CEOs... And yes, they are shepherded through the systems differently. Some get better care than average, some don't. Money/notoriety doesn't ensure the best product. But, someone who knows how/where to spend money/influence will get better care, no question.

As an aside, I've done a fair number of complex operations mostly by myself. I am very well trained, but there is something very different about the pressure of doing something as simple as placing a central line when you have secret service agents watching you.
 
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I've occasionally seen a "VIP" patient or two, and they get treated with royalty. The staff also acts differently, nursing staff would step up and check on them every hour, doctors would round on them several times a day and pull up results in the room.
 
Chefs, Butlers and Marble Baths - Not Your Average Hospital Room

I'm pretty sure that medical students and residents never even step foot in these suites.
" “I’m perfectly at home here — totally private, totally catered,” she added. “I have a primary-care physician who also acts as ringmaster for all my other doctors. And I see no people in training — only the best of the best.”

Mr. Keathley said the lack of interns and residents on Eleven West was a function of clinical judgments and limits to the training program, not the preferences of rich patients."

For some reason I feel like that quote might not be true....:rolleyes:
 
Physicians are bound by legal and ethical duty to treat celebrities exactly the same as a homeless drug addict.

That being said, we see what happens when doctors compromise their ethics when awed by celebrity status. Just look at the personal physician for Trump who wrote a letter saying he was the "healthiest President ever and might live to 200 yrs. old", or the cardiologist who was employed by Michael Jackson. Case closed.
 
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Define celebrity? A-list Hollywood or self proclaimed Instagram model?
 
Define celebrity? A-list Hollywood or self proclaimed Instagram model?

I cringe thinking about the day when an attending starts to swoon because Logan Paul or RiceGum is his/her patient
 
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There are papers on the subject if you google things like VIP patient, syndrome, etc. Basically the gist of what I've read is that if a patient is an "important" person one might be less willing to ask them invasive questions or be reluctant to do anything that might make them uncomfortable. You also might be more willing to acquiesce to requests for treatments, tests, and so forth that aren't indicated. I don't know how that exactly plays out in practice, though.

Alternatively, you might be more inclined to report the patient's weight as 50 pounds less than what it actually is and tell the White House press corps that your patient will live to be 200.

Literally laughed out loud.
 
Chefs, Butlers and Marble Baths - Not Your Average Hospital Room

I'm pretty sure that medical students and residents never even step foot in these suites.

My friend interviewed for IM residency at Cedars-Sinai in LA. He said they spent a good chunk of time telling the interviewees about the elite suites, how as residents they will never go there, and how looking up celebs is one of the quickest ways to get fired from residency.

It's a cash cow.
 
We see quite a few and there is actually a special office that helps them navigate the system. For us that typically means bringing them through a back entrance, scheduling priority, etc. I've seen a number of them as a resident, though I'm a little pop culture impaired so sometimes I don't realize it was a celebrity I was seeing.

Hard to say how care differs. It definitely does but perhaps that's appropriate when these people have so many other people and millions of dollars depending on them and their health and their ability to continue to do whatever it is that makes them famous. It certainly changes the risk/benefit calculus at times.

As a resident, I'm probably a little more deferential when seeing them in the ED and have a much lower bar for running decisions up the chain of command. Mostly this is because I don't want my attending and/or chief getting angry calls/pages from the hospital bigwigs about a patient they've never even heard was there.
 
" “I’m perfectly at home here — totally private, totally catered,” she added. “I have a primary-care physician who also acts as ringmaster for all my other doctors. And I see no people in training — only the best of the best.”

Mr. Keathley said the lack of interns and residents on Eleven West was a function of clinical judgments and limits to the training program, not the preferences of rich patients."

For some reason I feel like that quote might not be true....:rolleyes:

So basically.... "The richer you are, the better care you deserve from someone with more advanced training"
 
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So basically.... "The richer you are, the better care you deserve from someone with more advanced training"
They want you to learn, but not on them, near them, or on the same hospital floor as them.
 
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Not a celebrity by any stretch, but my dad once came through the ER where I scribed. The doctor nearly knocked himself unconscious trying to give him Dilaudid. I side-eyed him and requested .5 of morphine instead. He wasn’t in much pain, and he hadn’t even gotten very annying (yet), so I don’t know why this doc was trying to knock him unconscious, except, I guess, to show that he likes me?
 
Not a celebrity by any stretch, but my dad once came through the ER where I scribed. The doctor nearly knocked himself unconscious trying to give him Dilaudid. I side-eyed him and requested .5 of morphine instead. He wasn’t in much pain, and he hadn’t even gotten very annying (yet), so I don’t know why this doc was trying to knock him unconscious, except, I guess, to show that he likes me?

No offense, but if you trust your judgment over a physician's... as a scribe, you are foolish. It seems like you are exaggerating to make a point that you want to believe is true.
 
No offense, but if you trust your judgment over a physician's... as a scribe, you are foolish. It seems like you are exaggerating to make a point that you want to believe is true.

I’m not trying to substitute my judgment for anyone else’s, much less a doctor’s. I don’t think it takes a doctor, though, to see that “ok, let’s get you some Dilaudid” is probably not the most appropriate response to a patient who has just said, “nah, I’m not really in much pain.”
 
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