Errors in emergency treatments; doubt about long COVID; ‘a little dirty’ patient and potential defamation — Morning Medical Update

Author(s):

Richard Payerchin

Key Takeaways

Emergency medicine requires rapid diagnosis, which can lead to errors; focusing on preventable harm and near misses may enhance care quality.
Long COVID patients often face disbelief from clinicians, emphasizing the need for validation and appropriate medical care.
A study highlights the importance of believing long COVID patients to prevent misinterpretation of psychological support as dismissive.
John Oliver's defamation lawsuit by Dr. Brian Morley over alleged fabricated statements on Medicaid highlights media's impact on professional reputations.

The top news stories in medicine today.

emergency ultrasound picture: © sudok1 - stock.adobe.com

Emergency care or error?

Emergency medicine doctors diagnose life-threatening conditions at breakneck speed — no easy task. Emergency physicians, like all doctors, do their best, but sometimes make mistakes with missed, incorrect or delayed diagnoses. Instead of focusing on errors, the best way to get better may involve focusing on “preventable harm and on near misses that have the potential for harm.” The journal Academic Emergency Medicine devoted an entire special issue to the science of errors in emergency care.

I have long COVID. Do you believe me?

The COVID-19 pandemic had a tremendous human cost in lives lost. Other patients had it relatively easy with just mild cases. For some people, the illness lingers — but not everyone believes it. That includes physicians and other clinicians, according to a new study. "We found that the problem isn't people with long COVID refusing help — it's about the deep need for people to be believed,” said a study co-author. “When a patient feels dismissed, offering psychological support instead of medical care can be misconstrued as insulting." Here’s the study and an accompanying news release on COVID-19 and credibility.

Potential defamation over ‘a little dirty’ patient

British-American comedian John Oliver is known for long-form jeremiads about various social issues, ills and injustices on his show, “Last Week Tonight.” Last year he took on Medicaid, and now Dr. Brian Morley, former medical director of AmeriHealth Caritas, is suing Oliver for defamation. The Guardian reports Oliver quoted the doctor as saying it was OK for a patient with bowel issues to remain “a little dirty for a couple of days.” Morley claims Oliver’s “false accusations were designed to spark outrage, and they did,” but the accusations were fabricated. Read all about it here. Warning: If you’re not familiar with Oliver’s delivery, there is strong language involved, including non-medical suggestions involving human anatomy.