Ever been asked to sign another physician's chart?

[pgg]

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Had a very weird encounter this week and I'm still not quite sure what to make of it. Curious what the hive mind has to say about it.

One of our surgeons was abruptly deployed to Haiti (actually Cuba I guess), and four of his charts were not signed before he left. They brought the charts to me so his dictations could be signed. I am not a surgeon. I didn't look closely, but I don't think I was involved in the cases at all.

As I raised the concern that it seemed oddly inappropriate and medico-legally foolish to commit my signature to someone else's chart, I was hastily reassured that my signature was 'meaningless' and that I could just write 'surgeon deployed' in the margin. But my signature as 'Anyname MD' was simultaneously 'essential' to getting the charts coded. Or something.

General reaction to my refusal to sign the charts has ranged from bewilderment to annoyance. Everyone, with the exception of my own dept head, seemed genuinely startled that I said no.

Anyone else ever fielded a request like this?

 

[orbitsurgMD]

Had a very weird encounter this week and I'm still not quite sure what to make of it. Curious what the hive mind has to say about it.

One of our surgeons was abruptly deployed to Haiti (actually Cuba I guess), and four of his charts were not signed before he left. They brought the charts to me so his dictations could be signed. I am not a surgeon. I didn't look closely, but I don't think I was involved in the cases at all.

As I raised the concern that it seemed oddly inappropriate and medico-legally foolish to commit my signature to someone else's chart, I was hastily reassured that my signature was 'meaningless' and that I could just write 'surgeon deployed' in the margin. But my signature as 'Anyname MD' was simultaneously 'essential' to getting the charts coded. Or something.

General reaction to my refusal to sign the charts has ranged from bewilderment to annoyance. Everyone, with the exception of my own dept head, seemed genuinely startled that I said no.

Anyone else ever fielded a request like this?

If your dept. head took the request seriously, he would have signed it himself. Why doesn't he want to?

If they are in a twist, draw a separate signature line below the dictating/generating physician's sig line, sign that line, write your name and annotate "signed as read and without endorsement." Let them puzzle out as to the value of that.

 

[IgD]

I have signed and seen other physicians sign for deployed/absent physicians but only within a particular specialty. For example, one psychiatrist was deployed and another psychiatrist signed the chart. I felt pretty comfortable doing that. Under each signature we would sign it "Dr. X for Dr. Y" or something like that to indicate we were covering. You could probably put a brief note in the chart if you felt there were extenuating circumstances.

4 charts is such a small amount. It has probably taken more effort to ask you to sign the charts then complete them. Wonder why he is going to so much effort??

 

[Gastrapathy]

I have signed and seen other physicians sign for deployed/absent physicians but only within a particular specialty. For example, one psychiatrist was deployed and another psychiatrist signed the chart. I felt pretty comfortable doing that. Under each signature we would sign it "Dr. X for Dr. Y" or something like that to indicate we were covering. You could probably put a brief note in the chart if you felt there were extenuating circumstances.

4 charts is such a small amount. It has probably taken more effort to ask you to sign the charts then complete them. Wonder why he is going to so much effort??

Just sign the charts. Make the beancounters happy. Then apply for credentials for the procedures you just "did."

Seriously, there is no way I would sign someone else's notes for a different specialty. Covering for a member of my department, sure (as long as what he/she wrote made sense) but for another specialty...no. Let the hospital commander sign the charts.

 

[AF M4]

Just sign the charts. Make the beancounters happy. Then apply for credentials for the procedures you just "did."

Seriously, there is no way I would sign someone else's notes for a different specialty. Covering for a member of my department, sure (as long as what he/she wrote made sense) but for another specialty...no. Let the hospital commander sign the charts.

Agree with above. Fraudulent bullcrap. None of the people who asked you to do this would have to pay the piper if this came back to bite you. They would just stare ahead blankly with their mouths slightly ajar with that well-practiced expression of bewilderment that they so often use and say, "well, the doctor said it was OK..."

If this is so important, it is the hospital commander's/chief of the medical staff's job to take care of it. If this is because some Scrooge-like GS RVU-beancounter is having a snit-fit because their numbers look a little off this month because of an actual real world disaster took place, well, tell 'em to blow it out their piehole until the doctor who wrote the notes comes back and signs them.

This ain't your ball of wax, don't touch it lest it stick to you.

 

[pgg]

If your dept. head took the request seriously, he would have signed it himself. Why doesen't he want to.

My department head is not a physician. That's a whole 'nother thread - though the arrangement has actually worked out fine.

If this is because some Scrooge-like GS RVU-beancounter is having a snit-fit because their numbers look a little off this month because of an actual real world disaster took place,

That was kind of my impression. I don't really understand what "coding the chart" entails, why it's important, why I should care, or why the endorsement of an anesthesiologist on a surgeon's op report is necessary for them to push these beans around.


OK, it's reassuring to know that even a bunch of people accustomed to milmed ... quirkiness ... thought this request was stupid.

 

[Homunculus]

i'll chime in with another "WTF are they thinking" response. if it were someone in your smae specialty, i can see it, but not something like that.

if it's that big of an issue, there must be a way to account for deployed docs other than medicolegal tightrope walking. it's not like we just now started deploying people, lol. if anything is wrong with those charts, your name will be the one that comes up. "signed as read without endorsement" is good, or even an entire memo explaining the situation and that you are not a surgeon.

do you have a DCCS who can sign off on it along with a memo or something?

--your friendly neighborhood lawsuit avoiding caveman

 

[IlDestriero]

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[The White Coat Investor]

I sign lots of things for my partners without thinking about it-quarters slips, profiles, prescriptions, work notes etc. A chart? Uhhh...no. I don't know of any routine deployments that don't have a fax machine. Have them send it to him if it's that important.