# Hospital Uses a Video-Link Robot to Tell a Patient He is About to Die **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 10, 2019, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospital-uses-a-video-link-robot-to-tell-a-patient-he-is-about-to-die/830871 "2019-03-10T04:01:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospital-uses-a-video-link-robot-to-tell-a-patient-he-is-about-to-die/830871/41 "2019-03-12T11:05:17Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > She was there in person, and held his hands while they talked. Different strokes, but personally I don’t want some doctor holding my hand. If they reach for it I’m going to pull away. I’ll take competence over “bedside manner” any day. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospital-uses-a-video-link-robot-to-tell-a-patient-he-is-about-to-die/830871/42 "2019-03-12T13:57:06Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > If you read through it all, a doctor earlier in the day relayed the same news (no other treatment available, please consider options like hospice). She was there in person, and held his hands while they talked. This second doctor used video conferencing and confirmed what Doc 1 had said. It was not a robot. There was a nurse there as well. It was not the first time the family had heard that all medical options had been exhausted. Do you have s link to that? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospital-uses-a-video-link-robot-to-tell-a-patient-he-is-about-to-die/830871/43 "2019-03-12T14:44:24Z")
Siri - change my status on Facebook to “Not Buying Any Green Bananas”. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospital-uses-a-video-link-robot-to-tell-a-patient-he-is-about-to-die/830871/44 "2019-03-12T22:46:35Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > Do you have s link to that? Grrr. Do you have a link? I looked but could only find the original articles which don’t have this additional information. ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospital-uses-a-video-link-robot-to-tell-a-patient-he-is-about-to-die/830871/45 "2019-03-12T23:17:22Z")
Imagine this scenario: it’s late in the evening, your family member is clearly very sick and there’s talk of being terminal. A specialist is brought in by teleconference to evaluate the patient. After speaking with the patient/family, doing an exam and reviewing lab and imaging studies, all while establishing a rapport, what’s this doctor supposed to do? Call in the night shift doc, who hasn’t ever met the patient and who can’t answer detailed questions about the patients expected course, to come to the room and deliver bad news? Or conversely, the specialist is available for in-person consults some days a week but only between the hours of 8a and 12p afterwhich s/he has to go elsewhere. So the earliest you might be able to see this doctor is the morning after next. Yes it would be ideal for every hospital to have every speciality available for bedside consults 24/7 but that’s not a reasonable expectation and this method at least helps make timely evaluations by specialists a possibility. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospital-uses-a-video-link-robot-to-tell-a-patient-he-is-about-to-die/830871/46 "2019-03-12T23:54:12Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > If you read through it all, a doctor earlier in the day relayed the same news (no other treatment available, please consider options like hospice). She was there in person, and held his hands while they talked. This second doctor used video conferencing and confirmed what Doc 1 had said. It was not a robot. **There was a nurse there as well.** It was not the first time the family had heard that all medical options had been exhausted. > > The family feels the way they feel about this. I can’t call right or wrong on that. I do think the story is misrepresented. My bolding. After asking for a cite earlier, I did find that while the BBC article linked in the OP does not have the part concerning other doctor, CNN does. However, I didn’t see anything concerning a nurse. Do you mean that there was a nurse when the robot was there? If so, I have not seen that. ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospital-uses-a-video-link-robot-to-tell-a-patient-he-is-about-to-die/830871/47 "2019-03-13T01:01:18Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > My bolding. > > After asking for a cite earlier, I did find that while the BBC article linked in the OP does not have the part concerning other doctor, CNN does. > > However, I didn’t see anything concerning a nurse. > > Do you mean that there was a nurse when the robot was there? If so, I have not seen that. I haven’t seen one way or the other for this case but it’s standard for the patient’s nurse to be at the bedside during a telemedicine consult to make sure the machine is working, help with physical exam and any information the teleconsultant may not have access to. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospital-uses-a-video-link-robot-to-tell-a-patient-he-is-about-to-die/830871/48 "2019-03-13T03:14:01Z")
> [@USCDiver](#): > > I haven’t seen one way or the other for this case but it’s standard for the patient’s nurse to be at the bedside during a telemedicine consult to make sure the machine is working, help with physical exam and any information the teleconsultant may not have access to. The articles ( one article?) implies that the robot comes in the door by itself. > [@](#): > > “I look up and there’s this robot at the door,” she said, and then goes on to quote the hospital official as saying: > [@](#): > > Michelle Gaskill-Hames, senior vice-president of Kaiser Permanente Greater Southern Alameda County, said in a statement that its policy was to have a nurse or doctor in the room when remote consultations took place. > > “The evening video tele-visit was a follow-up to earlier physician visits,” she added. “It did not replace previous conversations with patient and family members and was not used in the delivery of the initial diagnosis.” > > She added: "That said, we don’t support or encourage the use of technology to replace the personal interactions between our patients and their care teams - we understand how important this is for all concerned, and regret that we fell short of the family’s expectations. It doesn’t state if there was a nurse there or not. I read it as there wasn’t a nurse present and that the policy wasn’t followed, but it could be either way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospital-uses-a-video-link-robot-to-tell-a-patient-he-is-about-to-die/830871.md?page=2)