What would you do?

[Amiens]

So here's the deal- Matt has a three day weekend this week. Yesterday, TWO residents called in "sick" or "death in the family" and didn't come in, which meant the other residents who were working (ie- Matt) had to pick up the late night call. I was a bit irked when Matt called and said he would not be having dinner with us again-- he was going to try really hard and explain to the attending he needed to be home at 4 pm to help me with some things. Matt had already been on-call the previous day, so he got home at 7 pm. I am sure the other residents were there until 11 pm or midnight.

I would really like to give these two residents the benefit of the doubt, but one of the residents is known for traveling a lot, and I have to think that he called in to get an extra day off. Matt thinks so as well. A fellow resident was over at our apartment, and Matt told he and his wife what transpired. They both agreed that it was irresponsible.

Oh well... I am just curious what everyone else would do.

Crystal

If they weren't really sick or hadn't experienced a death in the family....that is a crappy thing to do, IMO. First, it just abuses what little leeway there is for residents in those situations. Second, it screws the other residents. I can see why you are bothered by it.

[Rapunzel]

In Jon's program if a resident who is scheduled for call cannot make it for reasons of illness or such, then that resident who called in sick owes whoever covered call that day/night for him/her TWO call days. (So, when my husband took a call day off because he was violently vomiting he owed the resident who filled in for him two of her own scheduled call days). I think policies such as that one make people REALLY have to need/want that call day off before they take it.... So, Crystal, if Matt were working at Jon's program Matt could then expect to take two of his call days off in the future (to be covered by the resident that called in sick on his/her scheduled call day).

Jennifer

[peggyfromwastate]

I think the plan at Jennifer's school sounds awesome! I can't believe that anyone would actually say death in the family if it wasn't true. That to me seems a really sick thing to do...

[Amiens]

So I had a chance to talk to Matt about this more. It's really interesting but the residents that were on-call- one was 1st call ("L") and belonged to the UW program, the other resident was 2nd call and belonged to another anesthesia program. They BOTH called in saying they had a "death" in the family. Matt said "It looks awfully suspicious that the two of them both had a funeral to attend" We were joking today- "Yeah I can't work today, I have a funeral to attend in Whistler. It was the person's last request that I go skiing"

I feel awful for the third call person ("M"), because he had to cover call last Friday (due to the irresponsibility of the 1st and 2nd call residents), and had to turn around and be 1st call again on Sunday. Now that really sucks to be q2.

Matt is sick with a stomach bug, and is going in tomorrow because he is the 1st call person- he said if things get too bad, he'll give himself an IV of fluids and antinausea. "M" is 2nd call tomorrow with Matt, and Matt thinks he is a really good guy, so he would hate to see him get screwed again- It would have meant "M" would have done q2 of 1st call three time in a row. BUT "L" is third call! So Matt joked about calling "M" and saying- "Hey call in sick tomorrow" Then "L" would get dished up what he served out on Friday. However, Matt is a good guy, would stoop to another's level. Besides what goes around comes around, and "L" will get his day whether it is in an evaluation or a scheduling of sorts.

Crystal

[SueC]

That does suck that they would do that to their fellow residents! My husband will call in sick if he needs to, but on a rotten rotation, he tends to go in anyway because he doesn't want to screw over the other fellows.

[DCJenn]

My husband's residency program basically said, "if you're sick enough to stay home then you're sick enough to be at the hospital." They would and did send people home but often treated them with fluids, etc before they were sent home.

The military is a little different though- there's no such thing as calling in sick- or calling in, period. That's called AWOL and that's a huge problem for the person who called in.

J.

[migirl]

he tends to go in anyway because he doesn't want to screw over the other fellows

This basically sums up my husband's attitude about missing work, i.e., he won't under practically any circumstances. Last year he was on a hellish general surgery rotation when he came down with a nasty GI bug, and even though he felt like crap he still went in because he didn't want to screw up the schedule for everyone else. I think that's terrible that people could be calling in to miss work and making up excuses without thinking about how it might affect their coworkers. I've never heard of a policy like the one they have at Jennifer's program (making up two calls for every one that they miss), I actually think that sounds very fair. It prevents abuses like this one (if, in fact, it was deliberate).

[Rapunzel]

Something that bugs me about this from a patient perspective (myself and my kids) is that I really, really DO NOT want a physician seeing or caring for me or my kids when they have a communicable illness - especially a stomach virus. When Jon was in med school and on his pediatric rotation his attending was rounding with him on cardiac patients and in between she was vomiting from a stomach virus. HELLOOO! You don't want to give a baby whose just had heart surgery a stomach virus - and I don't care how careful you are (wearing masks, washing hands) it's just irresponsible to even potentially expose an already vulnerable person (ie a patient) to another medical problem.

Jennifer

[Cumberland]

I totally agree with you Rapunzel. I think the tricky thing is that people develop 'faker's disease' on holiday weekends. If you are really sick, I say by all means stay home, but it sure would be nice to do some checking up on the people who seem to get sick the day after a holdiay.

[Amiens]

Yet another update on this interesting scenario-

I had said earlier that I wanted to give the resident in Matt's residency the benefit of the doubt, and not judge too harshly. Apparently "L"'s aunt-inlaw committed suicide and it was a messy situation, and so he and his wife had to go to Orange Co., CA for the funeral.

It's sad that this couple had to deal with this, but on the side- Must be rough having to be in sunny CA when it was raining.

About being sick and calling in- Matt has only called in 2x his entire med school and residency career. I agree- that I wouldn't want a sick doc working on me.
Crystal

[mommax3]

During his last year of residency, my husband puked his way out the door one morning at 5 and worked all day, giving himself IVs throughout the day to keep going. He would literally have to excuse himself from conversations during his work day to run to the bathroom. I thought it was asinine, but he didn't think anything about it. He was on a rotation that was largely administrative responsibilities, though, so he didn't have much patient contact that day, which was a blessing.

He also had a suicide in his family during residency, his teenage cousin, and although upon returning, he went straight from the airport to the hospital, he overheard an upper-level resident imply to others that he had made the whole thing up, which made him feel horrible on top of the grief he was already dealing with. So I definitely agree about giving people the benefit of the doubt!

Sally