- Joined
- Jul 14, 2010
- Messages
- 361
- Reaction score
- 205
I recently attended a pharm dinner hosted by a (doctor) father of a co-intern's and afterwards he spewed so much disdain for our duties as interns. (He is affiliated with two very good programs). His beef was that we do EVERYTHING related to a discharge. We do the discharge instructions, discharge medication rec, discharge summary. All the attendings do is review, minor edit, sign.
He told us that these should be responsibilities of attendings, since this is a main component to the hospital receiving payment (he said the reimbursement is $150 for just the discharge summary).
A discharge usually takes up 30 minutes, but on a busy service you can end up w/ 3-4/day. (I did 17 in a 3 day span once). He told us this is time we should be learning/reading. This is unnecessary SCUT work for us. But this is the way it has always been at our program.
He told us that these should be responsibilities of attendings, since this is a main component to the hospital receiving payment (he said the reimbursement is $150 for just the discharge summary).
A discharge usually takes up 30 minutes, but on a busy service you can end up w/ 3-4/day. (I did 17 in a 3 day span once). He told us this is time we should be learning/reading. This is unnecessary SCUT work for us. But this is the way it has always been at our program.