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62yoF PMH DM here w/ LLQ pn, n/v x3d. VSS. Nontoxic. CT, labs, urine - reviewed, c/w acute sigmoid diverticulitis w/o perf. Tolerating PO. Exit abdominal exam is benign. Appropriate for outpt abx. Understands return precautions. Informed of incidental findings [list what they are, or actually you can just put it in discharge instructions, which is better.]
I think this is interesting.
A pt comes in complaining of LLQ abdominal pain, they are tender (so not benign), and CT shows diverticulitis. And for whatever reason they are discharged (because it often is.)
Writing "Exit abdominal exam is benign" is either 1) false because diverticulitis doesn't get better in a few hours, 2) true because they got a ton of narcotics, or 3) ... well I can't think of a three.
Yet we all do this. I write this, a ton of docs write this. The suggestion is that we are afraid to send people home with abd pain. What if they still had abd pain when we discharge them?
I think in reality what we want to show is that people aren't getting worse when they are discharged. Diverticulitis perforates 2% of the time regardless of what you do. So I wonder if we write "Abd exam not getting worse" would be just fine legally. We all know that the vast majority of what we do in a chart is to protect our behinds in court.