Noted: Ann Sheehy, an internist and associated professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, admits that hospitals do sometimes change a patient’s status retroactively, sometimes days into the hospital stay. However, she says, that’s because it’s not entirely up to the attending physician. A doctor, on seeing the patient, might write down “inpatient” only to be told after the fact by administrators that by law the right code was “observation.”
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