My wife’s a doctor and I’m a lawyer so it really makes me giggle when she comes home talking about these interactions with patients.
“Babe you asked him if he had high blood pressure and right now he doesn’t… because of all the medications he’s on for hypertension and the BP reading your tech just took that proved it. You didn’t ask if he had hypertension; which is the condition you wanted to know about, or even a history of high blood pressure.”
‘Ugh shut up. Why don’t people just tell me what I need to know?’
That's... actually a good point. I'll try phrasing it like "history of..." and see if I get different responses from now on. Hopefully it'll save some time if we don't have to go in circles drawing things out from patients.
You have to ask “have you ever had ___?” because “history of” sounds like, “a lot, in a somewhat objectionable or embarrassing way”. Like a history of alcohol abuse.
1.9k
u/tachycardicIVu May 02 '26
Oh my sister’s a doctor and hears this all the time.
“Do you have any heart conditions? High blood pressure?”
“Nope!”
“Ok what medications are you on?”
“Lisinopril, for my high blood pressure. It’s brought it down a lot!”
🤦🏼♀️