Posted by fires on October 25, 2006, at 1:04:37
In reply to Wanted To Ask This For A Long Time, posted by Phillipa on October 22, 2006, at 22:18:31
If I were an MD here's what I'd use as a guide to treat patients who fail to improve:
1) Am I treating the right illness? (correct dx)
2) Am I using the right meds?
3) Am I using the right meds, and at the right strength?
4) Am I using the right meds, at the right strength, and for the correct amount of time? (not giving up too soon)
5)Is the patient complying with my treatments?(taking the meds, etc...)
6) See #1 above then > Have I considered other contributing conditions that must be addressed?
7) Am I ordering the right labs for the other possible conditions?
8) Am I interpreting the lab results correctly?
9) Am I ordering labs to be repeated to avoid false negatives?
10) Did I use other labs to confirm results?
11) Have I INSISTED that the patient not use: alcohol, caffeine, tobacco and street drugs? (and is the patient complying?)
12) Have I consulted other MDs about the patient?
13) Have I tried off-label meds?
14) If the answers to all the above are yes, I think I need to consider demonic possession, and consult an exorcist.
poster:fires
thread:696901
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061020/msgs/697533.html