Will surgeon really come to the ER just for me if he is not the one on-call??

I saw my PCP this week just for med refills and to tell him about the plan for what to do about the belly pain.  (The surgeon had said that, the next time the pain got really bad, I should call his office or the medical society (if after hours) before we headed to the emergency room and he would do the surgery to try to "catch" whatever it is while it is happening... sort of "pseudo-emergency" surgery.  I presume that means that he would then contact the ER people to let them know what he wanted to do.)

My PCP seemed to think, though, that there was no way it would happen like that... that even if I called to have someone tell the surgeon that we were going to the ER, and told the ER people that he had been contacted, they would probably still just do what they have done before... a CT scan, a shot of pain meds, and send me home... and that the best case is that they would just call whichever surgeon from that office is on-call for emergencies at that time, but if it was not the surgeon I talked to, they would likely do nothing.

Has anyone ever done something like this before (or anyone work in an ER...)?  I have used this surgeon several times for various things (he is NOT my RNY surgeon, though), and I don;t think he would tell me somethign he did not intend to do, but my PCP seemed very skeptical... and today I am having some moderate pain, so it is on my mind that I may need to go in this weekend... but I am going to be SO upset if they just do nothing but give me pain meds. I have been fighting this intermittent pain (at low, moderate, and severe levels) for well over a year and am SO tired of it...

Lora

My RNY surgeon was NOT oncall when i had bleeding issues. I called the after hours number and he told me he would call ahead and meet me at the er.

So yes my surgeon did follow thru with this.

And I did work at a hospital locally prior to this and we would ahve this happen often. But only when the physician really cared to be part of their patients care. So its not unheard of. Be thankful you ave a great physician!

 A surgeon - not mine, but one affiliated with our local support group - said to our group that if anyone ever went to our local ER and requested a bariatric consult, he would be the one to show up and would be covered as in-network (though he doesn't normally accept insurance) because he is the head bariatric surgeon affiliated with the hospital. Day or night, he promised. So as long as your surgeon has a relationship with that hospital, especially as a primary consult, they should at the very least page him. The only hiccup I can imagine is if the ER doc is a jerk and just tries to send you home..... INSIST that this surgeon be paged as soon as you get to the ER!

It's really gonna depend on the surgeon.  Some surgeons would do that for a patient, some would not.  And some docs, for some reason I don't understand, will tell patients they will do that but then not really do it.

Maybe you can call the answering service and you'll end up talking to whatever surgeon is on call first, and see if contact your surgeon and what he says.  Then you can decide if you wanna go to the ER or not.

Well, I have never worked for the ER, but in OB/GYN I worked for a practice of 6 MD's. There were some Dr's that patients did NOT want to deliver their baby (including myself lol) and the Dr.s were not on call but still came. I don't see why it would be a problem. Your surgeon is the one that suggest this route so I don't see why he wouldn't follow through. As long as he has surgical rights and is affiliated with the hospital he can go in and do surgery. There are some Dr.s that no matter what wouldn't come in if they weren't on call but a lot do.
Keep you head up! (((hugs))) 

~OB nurse perspective~.........

 I agree with the others....it depends on the doctor, the local hospital culture and the ER staff present when you come in.  Some will NOT call a doctor that is not on call just on a patients say so...for many reasons....it is an unusual practice...many docs are down right nasty even if all you do is page them and ask if they are willing to see the paitent and some paitents tell fibs to get what they want.

Having said that...could you call the doctor before you get there?  Or could the doctor write a standing order to be placed in your chart or electronic record....or give you something written to carry with you so that the ER staff has some guidance?

 

Yes, me calling the surgeon before we go (either his office or the medical society answering service if it is after hours) is the plan... 

I didn't think about whether he could add something to my electronic chart.  Good idea... definitely worth asking about (assuming I don't end up in the ER this weekend, of course).

Lora

Before you go to the ER, call the surgeon's service and see if he is the one on call, then when you get to ER tell the Doc what problems you are having and the conversation you had with your surgeon, they may go a head and run some tests, just let them know you are still in really bad pain and the ER Doc will call your surgeon, just make sure he is the one on call

Patty

The problem is that I'm not going to just ignore the pain if he isn't the one on call (a 1-in-4 chance, assuming that all 4 doctors split the on-call time evenly) and then wait for the severe pain to happen when he IS on call...

Lora

Lora
This may sound crazy but for those pts who we already discussed another doctor coming in when not on call, we would give the patient a script written out by myself or the Doc. We live in the sticks and we don't have electronic charts. Perhaps for piece of mind you could have your surgeon send you a script stating that if you go to the ER the ER staff is to call him. There were a few docs that I worked for that if the were not on call they wouldn't care if it was their mother, they weren't coming in.

Like the PP poster said some Dr.s refuse to call another Dr not on call. One time I thought I was miscarrying the twins (I was hemmoraging @ 12 wks and my dr called me from home told me to go to the ER when I got to the er they ask what I was doing there. (b/c if I was miscarrying there is nothing really they can do)I told them my dr sent me for an ultrasound. So they did it and the girls were fine. Well I told them to call my dr and they said he can get the results on Monday. I told them very nicely (snicker) that I am his "NURSE" and either they call him or I will b/c I have his home phone number (I did and still do). Once they realized I wasn't just a crazy patient they called him LOL