This happened a while back ago.
I go to my GP because I threw my back out. Doc give me two shots in the back. She writes me a script, then casually tells me she wants me to go to an MRI place so she can get a better look at my back. Her specific words were: “No need to make an appointment, They take walk ins, go at your convenience.”
So I left the Doc’s office. Went and got my prescription filled, ran a few errands, had lunch, then went to the MRI place.
I get my MRI, I then pay the lady in the office, and then try to bid them adieu. To which the lady in the office says: “Sir, your doctor has orders for you to stay here until she’s had a chance to look at your MRI.”
Me: “, uh, I’m fine. If there’s a problem, she can call me”
Lady: “Sir, it will only take a few minutes” [Liar!]
Me: “That’s okay, I’m good”
Lady: “Sir, I really need you to stay here.”
It was at this point I notice the really nervous look on her and her coworker’s face in the office. as in “Oh shit! We got a runner!”
Me: “Okay fine!”
An hour later, I get the okay to go.
I’ve always been curious what would have happened if I basically said: “FU guys, I’m going home!”
Probably the drama would have been that they had to explain to your GP why they didn’t make you stay OR they thought there was something wrong with your MRI and wanted you to stay so they didn’t have to try to track you down later on.
Yeah. They may not have had any idea why there was a request from GP to start with. And they can’t tell you if they think they found something in the MRI. Doesn’t really matter at all as long as the GP can find you to tell you there’s an alien growing inside you.
Well. As a retired E.M.T., I’m familiar with the legal term Continuity of Care. Once care is initiated, it cannot be stopped.
In the case of your M.R.I., I am guessing that your G.P. thought that there was potential for something to be found upon reading the image that would precipitate an emergency transport to a hospital. If you refuse to stay put and walk out, the Continuity of Care is broken and those office workers assume some level of legal liability were something to occur to you after you walked out of the facility.
Could have been anything, and I’m not prying, that made you get that M.R.I. Sore belly. Headache. Something that seems not an emergency but could rapidly escalate.
Sore belly? Meh. M.R.I. shows nothing. Go home and fart a lot !
Headache? M.R.I. shows a mass in your brain. DON’T MOVE.
See what I’m getting at? If you leave, and that M.R.I. reveals something significant and you, say, have a massive seizure as you’re waiting for the bus down the block and fall in front of the bus and die, well. Those people who didn’t keep you in the facility are in a pickle.
Well, I would have been pissed at my Dr. for giving them that order and not telling me about it. “Go at your convenience (but be prepared to not leave for up to an hour afterward)” might affect when I went; expecting the process to take maybe an hour or less vs. 2 hours or more, makes a difference to a lot of people. Your Dr. seems a bit cavalier about such things.
I don’t know much about CoC but once he walked out of the doctor’s office that was broken. I didn’t think the MRI facility would count either since they aren’t providers in that sense. They can’t even tell the patient that they found a problem.
Unless the situation has changed since I quit working in hospitals in 1998, we could not legally hold someone in the hospital if they wanted to leave. We called it “discharged AMA (Against Medical Advice).” I had people on ventilators in ICU extubate themselves and leave. As long as they could make it out the door, we couldn’t restrain them. We could raise the alarm and try to talk them into staying and notify the pertinent staff, but we were not a lock-up facility. The only exceptions were people charged with crimes or those in psych lock up because they were a danger to themselves or others.
, uh, I’m fine. If there’s a problem, she can call me”