V.I.P. Patient, more special than every other patient in the hospital?
After giving me all the medical details of the case, the last thing my supervising doctor in the emergency room said to me was, “Oh and Payal, it’s a V.I.P. patient.”
A first year resident with a naive view of medicine, I went to my senior resident and asked, “Cindy, what is a V.I.P. patient?”
In a matter of fact tone, she replied, “V.I.P. meaning very important person. The patient is probably a celebrity or related to a hospital executive.”
“Weird, aren’t we suppose to treat all the patients like they’re all V.I.P?”
Cindy raised her eyebrow, chuckled and said, “Yes wise guy, just make sure not to mess up the orders.”
I triple checked the orders and found myself being extra cautious with this V.I.P. celebrity patient.
That was my first time encountering the term and even now, nearly half a decade later, hearing V.I.P. patient always stops me in my tracks.
V.I.P. patient implies that there are patients considered to be very important people. What’s everyone else then? Chopped liver?
Is there room in medicine for doctors to treat relatives and friends of executives or celebrities differently than everyone else? Aren’t doctors always making the best decisions for all their patients? Did my father receive substandard care because he did not know any hospital executive and was not a celebrity?
These questions led me into a rabbit hole and what I discovered was an interesting phenomenon.
Although one would assume that a patient with V.I.P. status would receive extraordinary care, in reality, that is not the case.
Dr. Gershengoren describes “VIP syndrome” and says it is a cycle of patient demands that results in unsound clinical judgement in an effort to meet unrealistic expectations.
Either doctors under treat or over treat these patients. Doctors may end up under treating these patients because they are hesitant to ask invasive questions that deal with sexuality, drug use and psychiatric history. The history is an integral component of a physician patient encounter but knowing the patient’s V.I.P. status deters doctors in asking these questions. Doctors don’t want to offend these patients and they also don’t want these patients complaining to hospital executives about the care they are providing. On the other hand, some doctors may end up ordering more, unnecessary tests on these patients in an effort to do a more thorough work up. These tests may not be in the patient’s best interest and may also lead to conflicts within the treating team.
The terminology seems unfair and classist, and I don’t believe it has a role in the hospital.
I leave it to you to think about, especially the physicians in the field, shouldn’t all patients be treated as V.I.P. patients and shouldn’t everyone receive the same extraordinary care?
