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A. The patient likely had the braces placed in the USA since she lives here. I know she had the baby in Galveston because I asked. The point is she seeks medical care in the USA and expects us to accommodate the fact that she speaks no English. She has made no efforts to even try and pick up a basic English vocabulary despite living here and beginning to raise a family here.

Clearly an assumption. You have no knowledge that she has been in the country more than a month. Also I would say that it is much more likely that she got any dental work done in a foreign country as it is much cheaper there and dentists don't work for free here. Even people born in the USA go to South and Central America for some medical treatments because it is that much cheaper.

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C. The husband couldn't come to the preop area because he had to take care of the 1 month old baby.

A nurse couldn't take care of a baby for 30 minutes?

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B. There's is no magic phone line where I work to just dial up a Spanish interpreter.

Its not "magic" as you mention you had access to it in another hospital. And they have services that are cheaper than getting an interpreter to the hospital in person. What does your hospital do if someone is a tourist that speaks a language other than Spanish? Do you have an interpreter on call for every one?

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How many times do you get woken up in the wee hours of the morning to do your job, which requires putting yourself (and those dependent on you) at significant liability (often not even getting paid for your services)?

When I was younger, a lot. Not so much nowadays as I am in control of all the systems.

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Then on top of that be expected to know skills above and beyond what your job is?

All the time.

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Posted by BeaumontBengal

Member since Feb 2005

2337 posts

Posted on 5/18/14 at 1:15 pm to mmcgrath

The patient told me she had all her prenatal care at Galveston as I was wondering if I could maybe find some old medical records to read through so I could take care of her appropriately. So I know she was here for her pregnancy - which is more than a month.

A nurse is not a babysitter. Why should they be asked to do this?

No a phone line is not magic but it's not free either. Why should the hospital be required to pay for an interpretation service?

You woke up at 3:30 AM to go work and didn't get paid? Were you a salaried employer? If so, you got paid. As a physician, I get paid for the cases I do, which may or may not get reimbursed. I am not salaried.

You were expected to use skills unrelated to your profession? Please provide examples. Speaking Spanish is not relevant to practicing medicine in the USA.

The sad thing is, the patient is not to blame. We continue to accommodate her , so why would she need to learn English?

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