My son called from the emergency room before dawn and said, “Dad, the doctor is refusing to treat me. He says I’m faking it for drugs.” When I got there, the doctor’s s…

Vance’s jaw tightened.

“Did you run labs?” I asked. “Did you order a CT scan? Did you document a proper differential diagnosis? Did you perform a complete abdominal examination with assessment for rebound tenderness, guarding, rigidity, or peritoneal signs? Or did you take one look at a young man with tattoos and decide he was a junkie?”

He crossed his arms. “I used my clinical judgment based on fifteen years of experience. Not every patient with abdominal pain needs extensive imaging. Hospitals don’t survive by ordering CTs for everyone who claims they’re in pain.”

“Clinical judgment requires clinical assessment,” I said. “Show me his chart.”