Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Hospital Questions

Tuesday afternoon my wife and I checked into the hospital to have our first baby. Yay congratulations etc, but that's not what this blog is about sorry.

Anyways in the check in process the nurses always ask you a bunch of scripted questions. All of them seemed to be fine except the first one. Or maybe the first one just stuck in my head so much that I forgot all the others.

The first question asked was "Have you tried to limit your alcohol and drug intake?"

That was it, worded that way. First of all that question is extremely presumptive. Second how do you answer it correctly if you don't do drugs or alcohol?

We answered "no" because we don't do drugs and alcohol. The nurse freaked! We calmed her down by saying that we don't do drugs or alcohol.

She said okay "yes you have tried to limit". We said no that's not correct because answering "yes" means that we do drugs and alcohol but have limited them for pregnancy. Saying "yes" puts it on the record that we admit to drug and alcohol use.

Yes, I know medical records are supposedly private and only the hospital would see a yes answer but in this day and age I don't believe anything in a database is private for very long. So a yes answer here is unacceptable to me.

So how do you answer that question properly if you don't do drugs and alcohol? Either way you admit to doing drugs and alcohol. Also lumping the two together causes problems. What if you do drink, but don't do drugs?

Maybe it's just me but I see a problem with these kind of questions.