CT scan - have you had it?

Parent Cafe
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<p>A CT scan may be appropriate workup for a fall, especially an unwitnessed fall, in a nursing home.</p>

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<p>EK, I’m so sorry.</p>

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<p>Ek, I’m so very sorry. What you must be going through right now!</p>

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<p>We had a patient that had a concussion and our PNP ordered a head CT, pretty much just to be on the safe side because he seemed to be having some lingering symptoms the next day. The CT found a tumor that was in his sinuses pressing on the back of his eye. The radiologist who read the report said he’d never seen a tumor like that in his 30+ years. </p>

<p>Yes, this is an outlier, and one can certainly argue that CTs are sometimes used to “cover the provider’s butt,” so to speak (I’m sure CT use has been on the rise in recent years), but I’m sure it is also helping providers give their patients better care and differentiate their diagnoses. Certainly, it is always up to the patient whether or not they want a certain exam performed, and it’s the provider’s job to make sure that that test is medically necessary.</p>

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<p>Better care, perhaps as in the one example/testimonial above. How many cancers have the CT scans caused? No testimonials for that.</p>

<p>It is also the provider’s job to ensure that the radiation is kept to the minimal amount possible and still have a scan that is of high quality. I have heard in the news that many patients (ie: children) are receiving too much radiation during CT scans. How factual the information in the news was, is for debate as well.</p>