Disclaimer: I am not at Jefferson and have zero firsthand knowledge, but I am going to piece together a plausible series of events based upon reading between the lines in the article.
Dr. Christopher, chair of Emergency Medicine at Jefferson, is working a shift in their CDU. Like most CDUs, it's a cushy shift and overstaffed with both an intern and an NP on with him. He rounds in the morning and things are smooth - it's not like a regular ED shift where you're constantly seeing new patients; they're all just chilling, waiting for stress tests and serial troponin results. Cue sudden BRBPR. As a longtime academic chair, the just texts his buddy who's the division head of Gastro who of course finds a way to squeeze him in for a same day colonoscopy. Hell, he can even get him in before his shift on the CDU ends.
Now, instead of formally calling in the jeopardy faculty to cover the CDU, he decides that's overkill and after all, he's the chair. Maybe he even tells one of his faculty that are workin in the main ED downstairs that he's going to step off the unit for a doctor's appointment and to he backup for the intern and NP. Keeps someone from having to be called in at home. What a thoughtful boss.
Now what he's forgotten is that he's not actually a very thoughtful boss and based upon a recent gender discrimination investigation, his faculty don't particularly care for him and think that he's dismissive, sexist, and absolutely not somebody that you're going to be a "homie" for. So whether Dr. Christopher was reported by a disgruntled nurse, a disgruntled NP, a disgruntled intern, or a disgruntled faculty member slaving away in the ED and now is also being asked to help out in case someone in the CDU starts dying, someone reports him for leaving duty without calling in appropriate backup.
This story, like malpractice, boils down to a simple idea. You don't get in trouble if make sure people like you.
www.inquirer.com
