Journal 2

Journal 2 – June 17, 2006

Part of my job here is to go with the doctors to do hospital rounds in Longview (about ½ hour away) each morning. The three practitioners rotate but I get to go every day, which makes for some pretty long days, although they recently rearranged their schedules so they don’t leave until about 6:30. Since St. John’s Hospital doesn’t use hospitalists the clinic docs direct their patients’ care throughout their hospitalization. I think I prefer this over the hospitalist system although I’m sure I haven’t had enough experience to be able to judge either. One drawback is that the doctors have to make the hour-long round-trip at least once a day and may have to change the clinic schedule at the last minute.

This week our schedule got a bit wacky due to a delivery on Thursday. We went to the hospital to admit the young woman on Wednesday night and stayed in the on-call rooms expecting to deliver early in the morning. But by nine she was only at 4cm so we headed back to Cathlamet to see a few patients. The call to get back to the hospital came about two hours later. I’d never seen a delivery before so it was a pretty amazing experience. I didn’t really do much except help stitch her up afterward but it was still memorable and I got to see my first Babinski sign. After finishing up there we headed back to the office and performed a vasectomy (not on the father). Quite a contrast in procedures for one day.

Interestingly, on the same day as the delivery the county made the final decision to stop doing Ob. at the end of this year. Last year they payed $60,000 in Ob. malpractice for the two physicians and only brought in $20,000 of reimbursement. Now women in Wahkiakum County will have to go elsewhere for care if they want to have children. It’s a shame but I guess it’s a sign of the times.