Mistakes: Case 3
A 3-year-old presents to the emergency department. She was diagnosed with pyelonephritis by her physician yesterday, treated with an intramuscular injection of antibiotic and sent home on an oral antibiotic. She is vomiting today and unable to keep the antibiotic down. As you prepare to admit her, you feel she should have been admitted yesterday.
Should you tell the parents that their physician made a mistake? How should you handle this disagreement?
The practice of medicine is not an exact science. Frequently physicians will disagree about what constitutes the most appropriate management in a given case. Often these are legitimate disagreements with more than one acceptable course of action. Simply because you would have managed a patient differently does not mean the other physician made a mistake. In this case, you may wish to discuss the case with the other physician and explain why you manage children with pyelonephritis differently. However, in situations where standard practice varies, the parents should not be told that a mistake has been made.