If I told you, I’d have to shoot you. Well, probably not, but I could be fired from my volunteer job at the Stanford Emergency Department.
Last night I experienced a series of firsts. Some trivial, some interesting, some fascinating and many protected by confidentiality. In this blog entry, I’ll discuss the two I cannot really go too deep into because of confidentiality.
The most interesting to me, was that I helped take care of a Silicon Valley luminary last night. I didn’t even know it. When I arrived at the ED I walked my usual figure eight. Each horizontal of the three horizontal rows are Peds, standard adult and Gyn patients, and trauma patients. In one small room was an older man and his wife. He had a “red” Stanford blanket. The red blanket means Stanford VIP. After getting coffee and water for various other patients, I spoke with them. He was hungry, and after checking with the nurse, I brought him a turkey meal from the night locker.
In my early days volunteering at the ED, I often brought meals. Then, the administration got more frugal and locked the refrigerator. The one key was only available in the basement. This meant a trip down to sign out the key, back upstairs to get the food and deliver it, followed by a trip back downstairs to return the key. Crazy. I think that was around the time when they ran out of plastic spoons, and they were giving patients forks to eat their jello. Frugality gone insane.
I suppose a trivial first was that it was the first time I’ve delivered a meal in a while. After lowering the side of the bed and ensuring he didn’t fall out as he sat up, he ready to eat his meal. We chatted about nothing in particular for a while. Later I returned as he was about to be moved to a bigger private room. He asked what I did when I wasn’t volunteering. I said I was a software engineer. He mentioned that he was in computers at one point, too. Really, what company.
“Ever heard of <blank>?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s me.”
Sure enough, I had noticed their nametags, but hadn’t connected them to being Mr. and Mrs. <blank>. During a break, I checked out the Wikipedia article on and sure enough, there he was standing there. He invented a few famous sayings and laws, but of course, I can’t tell you his name or his inventions or discoveries or I’d have to kill you.
I ran into medical confidentiality, too. There was a family of three men who came into the ER with an obvious physical deformity. They all looked distinctly similar, and it seemed that the younger one had it worst. He was the patient. On the face of it, I assume it was a genetic disorder. Often I’ll let a patient know that as a volunteer they do not have to share any medical information with me, but I am curious and interested in discussing their issues if they are willing. Almost all those I ask are interested and willing to talk. Some are not, and our conversation moves elsewhere. Of course, I only ask those patients that I have already built a rapport with. Although I was curious and had built up enough rapport that I would normally broach the subject of the reason for their visit, since the family seemed to have a similar disorder, it felt intrusive to ask them. After they left later in the evening my curiosity got the best of me, and I asked the nurse what disorder the family had. She refused to answer due to HIPAA, which protects patient privacy. Fair enough. I clearly had no medical need to know. I’ve tried to look up the details by their physical appearance, but so far I haven’t figured it out. Even if I did, I can’t tell you or I’d have to kill you.
