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"The patient denies..."
I remember being surprised the first time I saw this phrase on a medical chart; it seemed to allude to a frank suspicion that everything the patient said either was, or very well could be, a lie. In spite of these adversarial connotations, emulating what I have read and heard, I now use this phrase in every case I present.
This afternoon, reading Sapira, I found a stronger indictment against this phrase: she makes the point that to deny something implies it must be true, and for the doctor to state what the patient denies, implies that the doctor knows what is true and what is not. Also, if the patient has forgotten or doesn't know a piece of information, their negative response is not really a denial. Finally, patients might well get pissed when they see the phrase in their chart and take it as an implication that the doctor thinks they are lying.
Any thoughts? Anybody use different phrasing than "the patient denies..."?
I remember being surprised the first time I saw this phrase on a medical chart; it seemed to allude to a frank suspicion that everything the patient said either was, or very well could be, a lie. In spite of these adversarial connotations, emulating what I have read and heard, I now use this phrase in every case I present.
This afternoon, reading Sapira, I found a stronger indictment against this phrase: she makes the point that to deny something implies it must be true, and for the doctor to state what the patient denies, implies that the doctor knows what is true and what is not. Also, if the patient has forgotten or doesn't know a piece of information, their negative response is not really a denial. Finally, patients might well get pissed when they see the phrase in their chart and take it as an implication that the doctor thinks they are lying.
Any thoughts? Anybody use different phrasing than "the patient denies..."?