Language Skills Worksheet #6

Many doctors suffer from the curse of the run-on sentence. Each one of these statements was dictated by a licensed physician. Diagnose what is wrong with the dictating doctor's statement and write your own version of what the physician failed to communicate.

"He states no previous history of kidney stones or kidney problems but he does have a history of recurring episodes of gout in the past and also apparently has had recurrent skin rashes on the penis due to infections passed back and forth between he and his wife."

Diagnosis:

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Corrected Text:

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"However, the reliability of this history is somewhat limited because of the nature of the translations and the question of a clear understanding of what I was asking either on the part of the diplomatic personnel translating for us or the patient's response."

Diagnosis:

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Corrected Text:

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"The patient was instructed to hold her Pepcid because she was started on low sex for symptoms compatible with reflux esophagitis that were not treated successfully with Reglan and which caused her diarrhea and Pepcid."

Diagnosis:

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Corrected Text:

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"However, he states that his own doctor, Dr. W, has told him repeatedly in the past that he is not paranoid so he was thinking about calling the police on the people but he thinks maybe the police have been talking to the people and that the police were following him around to bust him for narcotics although he doesn't use narcotics, at least he doesn't use narcotics often but did admit to using methamphetamine some unspecified time in the past."

Diagnosis:

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Corrected Text:

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"He states however that he has been hospitalized for psychiatric problems within the last several days and since being hospitalized he has stopped drinking for two years, except for that eight days that he fell off the wagon when he came in here on the 19th and that he stopped smoking for the last two weeks and indeed was wearing a Nicoret patch on his right upper arm."

Diagnosis:

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Corrected Text:

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"She was apparently seen by her regular physician, Dr. K, who diagnosed flu and put her on Keflex which she started on Wednesday and took Wednesday and Thursday but was feeling bad and went to see her urologist, Dr. J yesterday, who did a urine check on her and felt that she had a urinary tract infection, a kidney infection, and switched her to ciprofloxacin, which she took."

Diagnosis:

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Corrected Text:

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