The doctor ordered ECG for the patient. That requires lying in but all beds (I counted ten) in the emergency room were occupied so we had to wait. A nurse came and started working on the patient's left hand. She looked for a good vein then took a heplock from the tray. Heplock for ECG? It is definitely not needed.
"What is that for?" I asked. She injected the heplock and started drawing blood sample.
"Ay, it is automatic, ma'am, here in the emergency room." She answered.
"Automatic to draw blood sample even if it is not required?" I asked further.
"Yes, ma'am. We do that so that the blood sample is already available while the patient is still under observation. In case the doctor suddenly requires blood sample then it is already done. We don't need to keep coming back to the patient." She explained.
"That is a heck sure way of selling heplock and charging a patient." I wanted to say but just kept in my mind. Blood tests are not connected with ECG so I do not understand the logic. "So it is already available when needed" is bullsh*t.
It was almost eight in the evening. I was anxious to go home so I did not pay much attention to the release papers. They told me to go here and there to settle our dues so I did. When I checked the receipt, I remembered the wasted blood sample and of course, the heplock and other supplies that I paid for nothing. The amount may be small for individual charging but that is still money. How much will that be from everyone who goes to the emergency room every day? And wait, there are two charges for heplock? What is the difference between that with small letters and all caps?
I reviewed the release papers and noted that there was indeed no lab test done on the blood sample. That is a confirmation that they wasted the heplock, the blood sample, the cotton buds, alcohol and medical tape which were charged as "supplies". Aside from the commercial aspect, I wondered about the environmental impact that this nonsense piling of medical waste would bring. If it was not late, I may have asked who approved that automatic blood drawing in the emergency room even if it is not required.
I am writing this and still can not comprehend such SOP. Anyone who can give a convincing reason? It has been years ago before the pandemic when I was previously in an emergency room and this was not an SOP during that time. Is this true now in all government hospitals or is it also being done in private hospitals?
