If there’s no female on shift then the patient is going to be seen by a male lol. I’m not saying that ED docs need to move heaven and earth so that they can accommodate the preferences of the patient. All I’m saying is if there are both a free male and female ED doc waiting in their booth or whatever they call it, and the patient wants a female it shouldn’t be a huge deal for the female to see her. Now if the female doc has 5 other patients waiting and the male doc is just chilling obv that’s not gonna happen. Just basic human respect and decency is all I’m asking for not to make the ED doc a slave and subservient to the demands of the pt.
Basic human respect and decency is provided without having to provide a physician of the patient's preferred gender. If a patient checks into triage and says "I would prefer a male/female physician if possible" and they are able to accommodate that, perfect. Everyone is happy. This is almost never how it goes down. Usually, a patient comes in with a complaint such as vaginal irritation / pelvic pain / bleeding, and is brought back to the first available module / the first physician available signs up for the patient. They go into the patient's room, do the basic history and physical, labs if necessary, treatment if necessary, then when finally ready to do the pelvic with the appropriate chaperone, the patient says "I want a woman to do the exam." What is the problem with simply grabbing the nearest female MD/DO? Several. First, this is an unpleasant examination, both for the patient and the physician, and you are basically pushing your dirty work off to someone else. Even at the patient's request, you are making someone who is not the treating physician do something that no one wants to do. Not fair to her. Second, there is the liability aspect. The instant that other physician touches the patient, any potential liability is now shared. If the patient ever develops anything that could in any way in the twisted mind of a plaintiff's attorney be turned back on you, not only is the treating physician being sued, but now the female who simply did an exam is going to be on the hook as well, for a patient she had nothing else to do with and has no ability to make decisions about. The other side of the liability coin is that if I do a pelvic exam, I know what I saw/felt. If someone else does it, regardless of what they tell me, I have no clue what the exam actually demonstrated, because I did not perform it myself. Now I am treating a patient with incomplete information, and if something was missed by the helpful female physician, I am on the hook for that. Why not transfer the patient completely to the other physician? well I just spent time getting a history and physical, ordering and interpreting labs, /other tests, etc. and now the other physician will have to redo everything (well not the labs of course) wasting both of our time and the patient's time. AND the liability is still shared.
So what is the option to protect basic human respect and decency? The patient always has a right to refuse any examination or procedure they wish (if of sound mind). If a patient comes in for pelvic pain/irritation/bleeding, they have no EMERGENT need for a pelvic exam, so if they don't want me to do one I am happy to document this and treat the patient on the information I have, and recommend the patient see their OBGYN for follow up for the examination to be performed by them if needed. If they have a life-threatening condition such as they are exsanguinating or some such, they still have a right to refuse and I would treat them to the best of my ability with the information I have. This is really no different than a patient refusing a rectal exam; document the refusal and move on. Nothing REQUIRES another physician to do part of your job for you, even if the patient requests it. If the complaint is that emergent, the patient needs to allow the available physician to deal with it, or accept that care may be substandard due to their refusal to allow the physician to do his/her job. If the complaint is not that emergent, they can go find their own outpatient doctor of their preferred gender/skin color/religion/political affiliation/etc. if they are unwilling to allow the available physician deal with it.
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