As you all know, I’ve been taking my own jabs at The Resident which you can read here and here. Today, our resident radiology expert Shannon Redmon offers her insight of some of the show’s inaccuracies.
Welcome back, Shannon!
As a huge fan of Matt Czuchry since his Gilmore Girl days, I must say that his new show, The Resident, is quite entertaining. Too bad several episodes include inaccurate medical information.
For example, two MRI scenes have aired on this series and both are misrepresented as to what happens in a real hospital.
In the first scene, Drs. Conrad and Pravesh are viewing an exam in the MRI control room. No one else is around. No technologists, radiologists or even patients. The reason this is out of character is because most surgeons view the images from their workstations or with a radiologist in their office, not in the technologist control room.
Digital radiographic photos can be accessed from computers all over the hospital. All doctors need is their login and the patient’s name to access any record in the system. Why would both surgeons trek all the way to the MRI room to look at the images? They can pull them up right from where they are sitting and in the operating room before surgery.
The second MRI scene shows Nic, the well-rounded nurse, marching into the MRI room to confront a billing lady who convinced a doctor to order an MRI on a patient with a penile implant – a metallic based penile implant according to the dialogue in the scene. When nurse Nic enters, the patient is already in the machine. She stops the exam because the patient has a metal penile implant which could be “ripped out” by the powerful magnet.
If this patient were going to have any issues from the MRI, then the damage would already be done. MRI magnets are always activated. The patient with a metal implant would not even be allowed in the room. MRI technologists have strict vetting procedures in place to conduct on all patients. These policies keep at-risk patients from harm and are emblazoned into the brains of all technologists. They would have been the ones to prevent the test from being completed, not the nurse from an outside department. This scene makes the MRI tech seem inept.
Also, where does the billing consultant get so much authority? If any employee confronted physicians and nurses the way she did, she’d be tossed out on her head. No surgeon is going to stand there and let a consultant from billing tell them what to order or how to treat their patients. This woman strongly encourages all staff to upcode patient exams for more money. Without proper documentation or a legitimate reason, upcoding is illegal and hospitals can be highly fined for healthcare fraud in violation of the False Claims Act.
Although I cringe when I see such inaccurate scenes, I will continue to watch for two reasons. Because I love Matt Czuchry and … I love Matt Czuchry!
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Shannon Moore Redmon writes romantic suspense stories, to entertain and share the gospel truth of Jesus Christ. Her stories dive into the healthcare environment where Shannon holds over twenty years of experience as a Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer. Her extensive work experience includes Radiology, Obstetrics/Gynecology and Vascular Surgery.
As the former Education Manager for GE Healthcare, she developed her medical professional network across the country. Today, Shannon teaches ultrasound at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College and utilizes many resources to provide accurate healthcare research for authors requesting her services.
She is a member of the ACFW and Blue Ridge Mountain Writer’s Group. Shannon is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. She lives and drinks too much coffee in North Carolina with her husband, two boys and her white foo-foo dog, Sophie.
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