Primary Care Otolaryngology

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 I nfectious T raumatic A utoimmune (or anatomic) M etabolic I atrogenic or idiopathic 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 N eoplastic C ongenital

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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.

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