Jeff CrumpAug 31, 2023

“We don’t stop hand washing because norovirus cases are down. We don’t stop wearing gloves because HIV cases are down. As a doctor, if you’re arguing that you should be able to expose patients to COVID because infection control annoys you, you should not be a doctor. Find a new career. I bet you’d love denying insurance claims. I bet you’d be a natural.”

This article is a banger.

https://www.thegauntlet.news/p/hospitals-are-killing-patients-because

#covid

Via @harold

Hospitals are killing patients because they don't feel like doing infection control

We now know COVID is fully airborne. We also know how to control airborne disease. So why are vulnerable people still dying of hospital-acquired COVID?

The Gauntlet
Valerie PaquinSep 1, 2023
Show threadColin
@crump
I'll keep saying it, but people seeking care can be immunocompromised/vulnerable to a degree greater than outwardly anticipated. I work in diagnostic imaging.
Person A comes for a scan, no hint they're more vulnerable - and then they leave with me discovering an incidental tumour.
They were vulnerable when they walked in, they just didn't know it.
Why healthcare doesn't cater for that, troubles me.
I still mask, I'm one of very, very few that still do.
Sep 1, 2023 at 9:17amWeb
Show threadValerie PaquinSep 1, 2023
@XraySonoCol @crump Thank you for masking. The healthcare "professional" who did my recent breast MRI wasn't masked, and just as you described, they incidentally found a huge thyroid tumor. I'm now going through the thyroid cancer process, where I'm still exposed every time I go to a care facility by the hacking, unmasked masses in the waiting rooms and the providers before I request that they mask (because they don't automatically do that for cancer patents!)
Show threadColinSep 1, 2023
@pongojones @crump I'm so sorry to hear of your diagnoses! Well done for asking for what I'd consider a very reasonable adjustment. I can't wrap my head around why people would think known cancer patients aren't vulnerable and mask by default. Have you had your thyroid nodule assessed by other imaging? MRI and CT often send lots of patients for further evaluation to ultrasound, and as the vast majority of thyroid nodules are benign, I hope your journey with your thyroid ends on a good note!
Show threadValerie PaquinSep 1, 2023
@crump @XraySonoCol Thanks for your kind words. Yes, I've had US and FNA and next up is a surgical consult. (And I'm very grateful my doctor fought my insurance company to get the MRI in the first place.)
Show threadColinSep 4, 2023
@pongojones @crump
You're welcome.
Hearing stories that patients have to fight insurers worries me enormously.
If we don't fight against it, we'll end up with a version of that in the UK