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I'm loving my new job as a Nuc Med tech. It seriously rocks. However, now that I'm back in the game, I'm reminded how little some doctors know.
Friday we had a patient scheduled for a bone scan. Easy enough, I do bone scans day in and day out. I can practically do one in my sleep. So, the guy comes in early afternoon with his paperwork. Like a good little tech, the first thing I do is check the order. It reads:
"Whole Body Bone Scan (Ceratech)"
*insert screeching brakes and record scratchy noises here*
The doctor (or more likely his PA or NP) has ordered two COMPLETELY different scans. For bone scans, we inject the tracer, wait 2-4 hours, and then take about 30 minutes' worth of pictures (including a whole body scan). Generally we do them for cancer staging or injury that other scans haven't picked up (since we're looking at the metabolism of the bone cells, we can pick up fractures that X-ray can't see).
A Ceratech scan is used to find out if there is an infection somewhere. We draw blood, send it off to the pharmacy so they can tag it with the tracer, reinject the tagged blood, wait a couple hours, and then image. Obviously a much longer process than your garden variety bone scan, and not one we're going to start at 1pm on a Friday.
So, I called up the doctor's office to verify the order. The doctor wants the Ceratech scan. Super. Guess who gets to break the news to the patient who already looks like he doesn't feel good? Thankfully, the patient took it in stride and has been rescheduled for Wednesday.
Seriously, doc. Pls to learn what scan you actually want? kthxbai.
tl;dr version, doctor ordered two completely different tests and actually wanted the one that was going to take waaaaaaay longer so the patient came in for nothing and we wasted a Tc dose that could have been used elsewhere.
Friday we had a patient scheduled for a bone scan. Easy enough, I do bone scans day in and day out. I can practically do one in my sleep. So, the guy comes in early afternoon with his paperwork. Like a good little tech, the first thing I do is check the order. It reads:
"Whole Body Bone Scan (Ceratech)"
*insert screeching brakes and record scratchy noises here*
The doctor (or more likely his PA or NP) has ordered two COMPLETELY different scans. For bone scans, we inject the tracer, wait 2-4 hours, and then take about 30 minutes' worth of pictures (including a whole body scan). Generally we do them for cancer staging or injury that other scans haven't picked up (since we're looking at the metabolism of the bone cells, we can pick up fractures that X-ray can't see).
A Ceratech scan is used to find out if there is an infection somewhere. We draw blood, send it off to the pharmacy so they can tag it with the tracer, reinject the tagged blood, wait a couple hours, and then image. Obviously a much longer process than your garden variety bone scan, and not one we're going to start at 1pm on a Friday.
So, I called up the doctor's office to verify the order. The doctor wants the Ceratech scan. Super. Guess who gets to break the news to the patient who already looks like he doesn't feel good? Thankfully, the patient took it in stride and has been rescheduled for Wednesday.
Seriously, doc. Pls to learn what scan you actually want? kthxbai.
tl;dr version, doctor ordered two completely different tests and actually wanted the one that was going to take waaaaaaay longer so the patient came in for nothing and we wasted a Tc dose that could have been used elsewhere.
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