, Jillian W. Wong2 and John Koo3
(1)
Department of Dermatology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
(2)
Department of Dermatology, University of California, Davis Sacramento, CA, USA
(3)
Department of Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
Abstract
Mr. Hemingway is 45-year-old business executive with a very busy work schedule. He was seen in your office yesterday morning for a concerning flat, uniformly brown mole that had been expanding from 3 to 8 mm in diameter and darkening for 6 months. A 3-mm punch biopsy of the lesion was performed, and you distinctly remember having placed the skin specimen in its properly labeled container before sending it to the pathology laboratory. This morning, you received a message from the administrative assistant in the lab stating that no specimen was found in the container for Mr. Hemingway. You called the manager of the lab and asked for help. Sadly, after an exhaustive search of the lab, Mr. Hemingway’s specimen still could not be found. You also performed a similar search without finding the specimen.
Mr. Hemingway is 45-year-old business executive with a very busy work schedule. He was seen in your office yesterday morning for a concerning flat, uniformly brown mole that had been expanding from 3 to 8 mm in diameter and darkening for 6 months. A 3-mm punch biopsy of the lesion was performed, and you distinctly remember having placed the skin specimen in its properly labeled container before sending it to the pathology laboratory. This morning, you received a message from the administrative assistant in the lab stating that no specimen was found in the container for Mr. Hemingway. You called the manager of the lab and asked for help. Sadly, after an exhaustive search of the lab, Mr. Hemingway’s specimen still could not be found. You also performed a similar search without finding the specimen.
You now call Mr. Hemingway directly to explain and apologize for the loss of his skin specimen. He sounds very upset, “Doctor, this is completely unacceptable. Do you have any idea how busy I am? I had to use up my lunch break and cancel an important meeting to be able to see you and have that procedure done. Now you’re telling me that you are not able to find my skin specimen? What kind of a show are you guys running over there?”
You attempted to mitigate his anger by offering to perform another biopsy free of charge at his earliest convenience. To this he responded, “No thank you. What if that specimen would have revealed skin cancer, and now it’s lost? I am going to call my insurance company and ask them to get a refund for the procedure that you did yesterday. And then I will write a letter to the dermatology board to request an evaluation of your competency. Doc, rest assured that you will never see me in your office again.”
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