1. Assume nothing and trust no one.
2. No matter how bad your day is, at least you do not have pancreatic cancer.
3. Breathe and smile.
Category Archives: thoughts
Safety nets
A thought that occurred to me this morning whilst walking the dog post-nights…
In GP land the concept of ‘safety netting’ exists; putting mechanisms in place so that a patient who you believe to be well and have condition x does not become unwell and deteriorate if they in fact have, or develop, the (unlikely but possible) condition y.
It’s important to do the same for inpatients that probably do not need admission to ICU, and often is done anyway, but without this label. Thinking of it this way helps to crystallise the thought process and rationale.
Safety nets include:
- explicitly leaving your name/number with the referring team as point of contact
- pro-actively re-reviewing
- involving Critical Care Outreach to review
- admitting for closer monitoring and further observation until the trajectory declares itself
Just a thought.
