Catch me if you can!

They must have a bunch of nitwits working there. For two weeks no one questioned the presence of this stranger who suddenly popped up without an introduction from anyone? For anyone living around there, avoid that hospital!

At least this was in a hospital.... A coupla weeks ago there was a story about a fake doctor conducting breast exams.... in a bar!! Seriously!! That story was a handful......

Susi, in a perfect world those 'introductions' happen. NOT in a busy workplace that runs 24/7. Hell, even when I started working at a Casino, we were never introduced first hand to security, food/bev, or other dealers or even Managers..It's usually something you do for yourself in a workplace, any workplace I've worked in anyways. Which has been a lot.

kind of a funny story. i wouldnt be too upset, being he never was alone, or did anything actually intrusive by the sounds, just want to ....hang out? Strange disorder, bet the guy is only a danger to himself if that. Still, if he had been there long enough, that could have changed. i wouldnt bring te mighty hammer down on the hospital just yet, outside of not checking on the guy a little sooner.

As an emergency room nurse I find your comment very insulting and you are clearly misinformed as to what we do when treating patients. "Patient care" is not a joke to those of us providing it, it's sad that you see it that way. I will be away from my family on Thanksgiving to provide the patient care that you think is such a joke.

It often seems like docs are not thinking much when they treat you. This is because:

1) They've pretty much figured you out at first glance because they're really, really well informed.

2) They don't explain their thought process, because you wouldn't understand. You're more likely to argue with them because you have no idea what they're talking about, even when you think you do.

3) Remember back in high school there was maybe just one kid who was the smartest, most successful scholar/athlete--and who was probably musically talented and well-balanced besides? That's the kid who went to medical school.

4) Most often, he knows your body is going to get well on its own. Or else he knows you're not going to get well because you couldn't possibly afford the testing/treatments you really need. So he gives you something to relieve a couple of symptoms for a few days.

5) You see incompetence and greed because you can't imagine the complexities of human physiology and pharmacokinetics.

typical clueless patient who continues to think that doctors make money off of writing scripts. Here's a news flash, genius. I don't get paid to write prescriptions. I get paid whatever your insurance company thinks is fair and reasonable. That 800 bucks a month you pay for your insurance? Doesn't go to me, sister. It goes to the insurance company. Then, the insurance company makes my day fun and exciting by denying tests that I think may be helpful in establishing a diagnosis.

Doctors are not your enemy. We are the 'front line' when it comes to your contact with the health care system, but the outrageous cost of health care is not because I'm making a mint off of you, trust me. It's health insurance companies making a mint off of you. You just don't get p*ssed at them because you don't interact with them as your 'first contact'.

You, by your post have informed the world that you are an ignorant fool!

"Patient Care" isn't a joke and neither is "healthcare." Try working in the field sometime and you will come to realize that it is the "Insurance" companies who are the problem. They dictate the "care" you receive. Once again, we don't need healthcare reform, we need insurance reform.

Ben Round you are the smartest person i have never meet

lol

I don't think anyone, including myself, intends to disparage the good doctors out there, like you.

- And, Yes, Virginia, there are real "good doctors".

Unfortunately, those brave few souls are so out numbered by the sheer number of incompetent ones that they system seems to keep refusing to weed out, that people tend to loose faith in ever getting the help they need. Those are the ones these people are frustrated with. I'm sure they frustrate you, too, having to work with them, and cover up their mistakes, or deal with the consequences of their inaction or improper actions.

But, at the end of the day - it's still just your job.

Patients don't get to "go home" at the end of the day from their ailments.

These people are frustrated because this is their lives are hanging in the balance. People live and die depending on their care, and the quality of their life depends greatly on being accurately, appropriately, and quickly diagnosed and given treatment. All too often, hard cases quickly fall by the wayside and get ignored in favor of the easy ones.

What this world needs are more good doctors -like you- willing to fight for their patient's lives.

What harsh and ignorant judgments on the healthcare profession. Apparently you "critics" have never had any meaningful interactions with healtcare professionals. Why would young men and women devote 12+ years to study and work grueling schedules to become doctors? Not to mention the debt load acquired to become educated in medicine. Maybe I'm one of the fortunate ones who is relatively healthy, but do receive healthcare from a major teaching hospital in Virginia. Every doctor I have had dealings with is truly concerned and compassionate about the care I receive. It is uplifting to see the young men and women in training to become like their mentors.

And yes, much is dictacted by the insurance companies. The CEO of my insurance company received $10 million in compensation in 2009! That is absurd! Nobody should make that much money from insurance premiums. This is one major factor in the high premiums we pay. Insurance companies are concerned with maximizing profits (i.e., limitint claims). They need to butt out and leave the decisions to the doctor and patient. The other is the cost of equipment leased by the hospitals (not the doctors). People need to become informed with accurate information.

Well asp you can take all the offense you want, You aren't a DOCTOR AND you weren't the one with cancer being told you were fine for over a year! AND my daughter is a nurse too so as I said, before seeing a DOCTOR you had better know what is wrong with you!!!!!!

My son almost died of Meningitis because a doctor diagnosed an intestinal infection???? My mother was given Nasal sprays for Asthma when she had Thyroid problems? You BETTER know what's wrong with you!!!!!!!

I see all sides of this. I have known and been treated by some of the most fantastic doctors, nurses, and nurse practitioners i have had the honor to meet. Dedicated, caring, individuals that would give anything they had to make you better.

I have also been subject to gross incompetence, rampant egos that sublimated any concept of actual patient care, and a whole lot of let's stick needles in and see what we get, but if i don't like the results i will ignore it. I will say that i have rarely met a nurse that was not competent. doctors are humans too, and they also have human failings. No one is perfect and i don't expect them to be, but it is very hard to deal with when that imperfection decides to make itself known when it's YOUR health that is subject.

i won't go into many details, but when i say gross incompetence, i mean it. Docs who are responding to this: did you ever have someone come in with absolutely textbook low blood sugar crash symptoms begging for help and literally passing out in your exam room, but instead you just thought you'd try to send them to the psych ward? For 'nerves and hysteria'. It took ten years and two more doctors to finally tell me that i had diabetes, and i had been asking for a test for it and asking about my blood sugar for fifteen years!!~ That's only one of my life stories of medical mismanagement.

Finally, i agree wholeheartedly that the insurance companies are what is responsible for escalating healthcare costs in America. That and soaring malpractice insurance. Insurance companies are in one business, and one business only: MAKING MONEY. If healthcare were not profitable for them, they would not do it. Healthcare should not be about profit!!!!! yes, docs and other medical personnel need to make a fair wage for all that they do. yes, hospitals need new equipment. We also need to have comprehensive community wide preventative care for all people....it SAVES money for everyone! it also saves lives by catching things before they become too big to fix.

I went to my family doctor and she asked me what my problem was.

I told her I had a small but painful tear on the cartilage of my left knee on the inside front area, just shy of being behind my knee cap.

She gave me pills and scheduled an appointment to see a specialist.

I went to the specialist and he asked me what was wrong.

I told him I had a small but painful tear on the cartilage of my left knee on the inside front area, just shy of being behind my knee cap.

He took x-rays, gave me pills and scheduled an MRI..

I got the MRI results and went back to see the specialist, he told me I had a small but painful tear on the cartilage of my left knee on the inside front area, just shy of being behind my knee cap.

He recommended a steroid shot, or artificial lubricant injection. I asked about the effects of both or either. He said that the steroids could cause more damage. I asked him why recommend them then? He merely said it was an option..

Would he have let me take that option without a waring of further damage if I had not asked?

Probably....

Why...?

Because I do not understand or......

imagine the complexities of human physiology and pharmacokinetics.

But the one thing I can understand is greed....

Brilliant! I knew something was up. I ruined my back 10 yrs ago and most of the so-called dr's I see have this attitude. Of course never having to live with cronic-pain and disability help this attitude. Disability is a real joke to you, try it! I haven't had a nights sleep in 10yrs never a moment w/o pain.

Dr's claim they can't see pain, but any blood pressure test will tell the tale, My b/p has been 10 to 50% over depending on my pain level. Yet Dr's can't figure it out? I wonder how many fake Dr's are out there.

Fake illness=Fake doctor. That actually makes a lot of sense.

Problem is there are so many quacks out there you might have just as good a chance of getting proper care if you saw this guy as one of the "real" doctors.

With most "real" doctors, if they can't figure it out in the first 5 minutes, they give up and blame it on that you must be faking it. They overbook and have 12 more easy cases right behind you that they could be profiting off of, so they shrug you off and move on, without a care in the world to the Hippocratic Oath and that they are in fact doing harm. They won't crack a book to save a patient's life, even when the internet is right at their finger tips.

Bob, I find your generalization of people with disability appalling and insensitive. I know that they say that "some people judge others by their own measuring stick", but just because you or those near you lie, doesn't mean everyone else does. There are plenty of people genuinely in need or disabled. Consider yourself blessed you are not among them.

I agree Bob, let him help all the pill seekers

Wow, cause the first thing i'd do if i wanted a little time off work was fake an illness and go to the emergency room>? You have got to be frickin kidding me.

Obviously you have no idea how unpleasant a trip to the emergency room is. You also don't realize that no matter what insurance you may have there will be costs that are going to come out of the person's pocket.

Moreover, trying to get disability??? Do you know what kind of crappy hoops people who are permanently disabled have to jump through to get it?? fine, there are a FEW liars and a very FEW drug addicts out there. I've been in the ER enough in my life to see one twice. Not really good odds for finding fakers, actually, considering how many times i've been in the ER. Maybe that is because there aren't very many, and all of you people who are talking about fakers and pill seekers are indulging in ignorant flapjaw nonsense because you are frustrated with the system.

There are those that truly need disability. Frankly, I wouldn't find it a very fun game to play between all of the doctor's visits, painful procedures, and exposure to potentially harmful medications to paint a medical picture of disability. Someone coming in for their tenth epidural injection in six months is probably not doing the dance of joy saying "Yay!!! Disability!". So, this post is not about them.

When I was in the military the game played was come see the doctor and get all of your ailments documented so you could claim them when it was time to get your VA disability rating. Then, veteran advocacy groups (Order of the Purple Heart was merely one of dozens of organizations) would sit with you and go through your chart and come up with the best way to get your disability rating as high as possible. Ever have a headache? Ever hurt your elbow? Doesn't matter if those things were a one time only even that left you with no disability or restriction....you can claim it! I saw guys get over 50% disability and there wasn't a damn thing wrong with them, but because one day long ago they took the time out of their day to waste mine it got documented and voila!

Taxpayers foot the bill for hundreds, if not thousands, of veterans that are claiming disability (and getting paid for it) yet finding a way to play volleyball on the beach, scuba dive in Aruba, and ride their 4 wheelers every weekend. And if you're wondering if I made those scenarios up, I did not. I took them straight from cases I'm aware of that are bilking the disability system.

He was supposedly a visiting resident from a different hospital.. Therefore it wouldn't be that strange to see a new face.

An education does not a doctor make, but it helps.

In today's medical environment of on-line wanna be nurses and immigrant doctors from illiterate. The guy was probably a better provider than 97% of all providers.

Patient: Are you a doctor?

Jarod: I am today.

As a professional that works in acute care. I look for the opportunity for family,visitors,other physicians to see my patients and give me a different perspective. After a couple weeks I would of noticed someone that didnt fit the environment. That is just being observant and caring in my profession. It sounds like nobody on the unit paid any attention and was self absorbed. Hope this guy wakes up the medical community and tells us what the heck we got into it for. I agree... catch me if you can

Except impersonating a medical professional is DANGEROUS and ILLEGAL. "Not out to harm anyone"??? HE COULD HAVE KILLED SOMEONE! Because he didn't know what he was doing! IN AN ER!!! Negligence is still as deadly as intent to harm... Just because it doesn't look to you like he "intended" to harm anyone is NOT a defense for this guy. That's why REAL doctors are required to have malpractice insurance--they don't INTEND to hurt ANYONE!! He needs serious jail time, and civil suits from whomever he "treated".

How can you feel sorry for him? catciao is right, impersonation is dangerous and illegal,etc. The kid obviously needs a doctor; a mental health professional that is.

And, not to mention the scrubs he was wearing....is he a thief too?

Any doctor who tells you that he or she knows it all is a liar. I'd much rather have the doc who needs to look up stuff occasionally, or knows where to go for the answers than the guy who refuses to believe that his knowledge base is infallible.

He needs time sharing a prison cell with Big Willy to ponder what he has done.

So as long as no one gets hurt or killed, we should let people impersonate pilots? or police officers? or firefighters? Medical professionals are accountable not only to the medical communities' boards of ethics, but also to the general communities that TRUST THEM.

Just because no one got hurt THIS ONE TIME does not make it OK to KEEP DOING IT. You're pushing your luck buddy. That's what makes Russian Roulette such a dangerous, dangerous game. Just because that gun didn't have a bullet in it THIS ONE TIME...your logic is ABHORRENT.

Juan, what are you smoking? One-third of physicians are "fake?" Where do you live?

Juan Viejo this just goes to show how uneducated you are.

To be a practicing physician in the US, you have to graduate a legitimate medical program in US or foreign and obtain your MD or DO degree. Next, you will have to pass the USMLE, or the COMLEX for DO students. Different steps of these tests pretty much requires you to not only know basic medical school sciences year 1-2, but also clinical rotations year 3-4. If you can't pass this test, you will not be board certified in anything. Also, most foreign physicians obtain residencies here in the US in order to practice here. Believe me, faking medical school is impossible in this country.

Med student, you have much to learn young padawan. You've assumed that Juan Viejo here actually cares about being educated about how we become physicians. His viewpoints will stay the same no matter how hard you try. It's like treating some patients. No matter how much you try and convince someone that they need insulin to treat their ever growing out of control diabetes, they're convinced you're trying to poison them and there's nothing that you can say that will change their minds.

Witch doctors don't count.