Oto Primary Care FINALhigh

EVALUATING AND KEEPING TRACK OF PATIENTS

trick is to use an acronym that represents a

system based on disease cat-

egories

(such as “Vitamin C” in the accompanying box).

Try it for yourself, and practice using it on all your patients. You will find

that this or another system will be a big help in organizing your thoughts

when you are confused or during high-stress rounds.

V ascular

nfectious

T raumatic

A utoimmune (or anatomic)

M etabolic

atrogenic or idiopathic

N eoplastic

C ongenital

On the otolaryngology service, most patients spend very little time in the

hospital, and keeping track of everything about each patient is not worth

your time. However, certain key information is needed on each patient,

and you should learn how to keep this information in a usable format.

Physicians need a good system for keeping track of patients, and we offer

this system to help you with your inpatient duties.

Perhaps most important, a list of patients and their diseases is an ideal way

to review and select topics for additional reading. (Remember, you are

reading an hour every day.)

One system involves

3 x 5-inch note cards

. The basic idea is shown in

Figures 2.1 and 2.2. Other alternatives include using Personal Digital

Assistants (PDAs) or other mobile devices with commercial data software.

This system allows storage of the data, so should you wish to “retrieve” a

memorable patient experience, the information will be available.

What you will notice if

you look closely and

understand the system

is that you know every-

thing about the patient

during their whole stay.

When the chief resident

asks, “What was his cre-

atinine three days ago?”

you know it!

Figure 2.1.