For non emergency cases, doctors used to
- patiently listen to the patients’ expression of symptoms.
- examine pulse rate.
- check with Stethoscope.
- dilate pupils
- ask the patient about his diet,bowel movement.
- check the tongue and throat.
- Check tummy.
- ask for medications taken.
- ask those who accompany whether the patient had previous history.
- ask for family history.
Only then the Doctor starts diagnosing.
Now, after hearing hastily the symptoms, and in certain cases ask the patient what medicine he/she had taken the last time,starts writing a string of medicines and recommend a plethora of tests.
Tests such as CT scans and ultrasounds add to hospital bills, but doctors said that such tests given right after patients showed up in emergency rooms only helped with diagnosis in roughly one of three cases, the study — published in the Archives of Internal Medicine — said.
There is also research showing that the radiation from multiple CT scans might increase the risk of cancer over the long term.
To see whether such scans were really helpful, researchers led by Ami Schattner of Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot, Israel, followed all the patients who showed up at the emergency room of a teaching hospital and were subsequently admitted.
“Basic clinical skills remain a powerful tool, sufficient for achieving an accurate diagnosis in most cases,” Schattner and his colleagues wrote.
“Physicians may count more on their clinical faculties when making decisions about patients.”