“On an unrelated note, Hennimore…”
D.O.s these days are regarded as being as fully qualified to practice medicine as their M.D. counterparts, and may hold academic positions.
It’s been a long time since they were equated with chiroquacktors. Even though there are notoriously woo-ridden osteopathic physicians (Joe Mercola comes to mind), it’s not hard to find M.D.s with the same affliction.
I’m certain it’s one reason.
Nah. It’s just a side benefit. And you can’t even count on it*.
Toetally bad jokes 
“Decapod 10.”
I was just in for a inguinal hernia repair and while on the operating table just before surgery, the surgical tech confirmed with me that it was on the right side. She actually touched the hernia to confirm the bump.
I don’t know if we will eventually find out more information, but you have to wonder what the heck went wrong.
The hospital is also really good at confirming the patient name and date of birth. It gets a little repetitious having to say your name and birthday all the time, before any needle pricks or getting drugs, but it sure beats getting the wrong meds or procedures.
That would not have worked in the case of my father. My brother accompanied my father (already frail, then) to a heart clinic in the late 2000s getting a catheter ablation for arrhythmia, and only by good luck asked a question of the front desk while my father was waiting to be called. It turned out that there were two datasets for the day under my father’s name and DOB: one for catheter ablation, and one for a cardiac bypass 
How does that work? They had the DOB wrong on one of them? I don’t think that’s possible here in Japan because of national health insurance.
I don’t think it’s possible in any country that uses national ID numbers.
But in the US, it’s entirely possible that two babies born the same day we’re given the same name and ended up in a hospital later in life at the same time.
I think the implication is that not only that every record would have the national ID number , but that medical staff would ask for your ID number instead of just name and DOB - but I’m not sure that second part is true. All of my medical records have additional information -an address, phone number, insurance company, insurance ID number, my emergency contact and so on. And they could distinguish me from some one else with the same name and DOB by asking for the address or phone number. But they don’t - and I’m not sure that the national ID number would really make a difference regarding which information is asked for.
Before my doctor surgically repaired my left shoulder AC joint, he took a sharpie and personally initialed the shoulder he would be working on.
No, his personal data were correct in both lines in the database (and his first name/last name combo is rare enough for there not being a duplicate with same DOB), it was only that in data entry in the clinic they had assigned his personal data to the database record for his catheter ablation operation, as well as to (presumably) another person’s bypass operation. If the operation slot for the bypass operation had come up earlier they’d have prepped him for that, in the process asking him for name and DOB which would have checked out…
This reminds me of the way that the military healthcare system for active-duty service members and their families used to keep track of records (and perhaps still does, for all I know). Because their databases were so large, they kept track of medical records by some combination of the patient’s name and the service member’s SSN. This worked well if you were trying to distinguish two “John Smiths” who might have the same birthday (but different SSNs, of course).
It did not work well for family members of the active-duty soldier or sailor though, because they used the service member’s SSN for the whole family. This system therefore ran into snags if one of the children was named after the service member, like a “Jr.”
I knew someone in which the father’s and son’s medical records were thoroughly mixed up. It’s one of the reasons I rejected naming my son a “Jr.” when I was in the military.
I am fortunate to have a very rare last name and the only person to have my first name with that last name ever in history. It’s just me, my exwife and my stepmom in the entire Western part of North America. In Santa Barbara it’s just me and the ex.
I know that they are following procedure but it amuses me when I go the pharmacy where my ex also goes and they ask me birth date, last name, first name. After the first two it’s obvious by process of elimination.
I hope there was an investigation by risk management or quality control.
BTW, I believe the doctor does ask the patient, “So you’re here for a [procedure name], correct?” And I think the cardiac ablation would be done in the cardiac cath lab while the cardiac bypass would be done in an operating room.
I seem to remember one of the times I was having a cardiac procedure done via catheter after they shaved my crotch (where the catheter was going in) they put an X on the side where the catheter was supposed to go.
On the subject of having to give your name and DOB every time anything was done, at one point I got so used to it that one time I wasn’t in the hospital when someone asked me my name I caught myself about to add my DOB.
A family member had a medical emergency while traveling in the states - yes, Florida - and was in the ICU. Their adult child was in the room when a nurse came in with medication and addressed the patient by the wrong name and started to manipulate the IV without checking the ID bracelet or other verification. Fortunately the child asked “did you mean Correct Name, because this isn’t Wrong Name”.
The nurse was a little belligerent but went through the verification process and confirmed that she was about to give the wrong medication to this patient. I don’t know what complications that medication might have had. The nurse did apologize.
The same child -a veterinarian - intervened a couple of weeks later, when the family member was more listless and disoriented then they had been, and the vet grabbed the patient chart, read a note about “dark stools” and diagnosed an active GI bleed. Again, stubborn and belligerent staff, but they finally checked and the bleed did, in fact, require intervention and two units of blood to resolve. I wasn’t there for this, but I’m told the vet dressed down the doctor with “I may not be a medical doctor but I graduated top of my class and I know a GI bleed when I see it and you WILL address it”.
Some medical staff are so complacent it’s scary.
The family member has permanent effects from that medical event, but they’re doing very well considering and I’m grateful to their child for being on top of things and paying attention!
Okay, this was nearly 40 years ago, but I worked with a woman whose surname was Brown, and when her son was born, there was another Baby Boy Brown in the nursery. On the 2nd day or so, a nurse came in and said they were circumcising him, something they had earlier given permission to do, and when they brought him in later and she changed his diaper, he hadn’t been circumcised! They had been doing the procedure on the OTHER Baby Boy Brown, or at least the nurse had come in and told the wrong parents.
The pediatrician went ahead and did it before he was discharged.
And let’s not turn this into a newborn circumcision discussion; there are other boards for that.