A friend of mine who's 75 lives in NC, but frequents NJ, where his daughter lives and where he still has his doctors. He was recently on antibiotics for a week and developed increasing indigestion and the really bad diarrhea. So, he calls up his gastro doc in NJ, on Monday, for an appointment, discusses it with him. The doc tells him he may have C-Diff, he gives him an appointment for Friday.
OK, so he's getting worse, passing blood now too. So, I google for C-Diff and it's really serious. It's a bad bacteria that can take over when antibiotic wipes out the good bacteria. Older people and people with compromised immune systems are most susceptible. Friend was also diagnosed with MS and has been taking a drug for that that screws with your immune system. He's had MRSA, the drug resistant staph infection, twice. And C-Diff kills about 6% of people diagnosed with it.
So, isn't this doctor stupid? To diagnose this you need a stool test. He suspects he may have it, if he does, it's very serious, life threatening, why not order the stool test right away, he could have the results by now or certainly by Friday. Instead, he's going to show up Friday and you pretty much know the doc is then going to just listen to him, take his blood pressure and temp and tell him he needs to get the test. If he got the test on Mon or Tues, he'd have the results BEFORE the visit and the longer the delay, the greater the risk of hospitalization or death. I told him yesterday to just go to a walk-in doc or the ER, but he's on his way up here now instead. His doc doesn't have office hours tomorrow. I told him to get a hold of the doc and get the doc to order the freaking test.
Is this just me or is this just nuts? While some docs order all kinds of tests, partly to protect themselves, others seem incapable of exercising common sense and quickly ordering a simple, inexpensive test that could save someone's life. And seems to me another example of what drives up healthcare costs. If this isn't treated quickly, the chance he winds up in the hospital for weeks goes up.