Most medical care takes place outside of the physician-patient encounter. Phlebotomy in the lab, “clean catch” urines, EKG’s, colonoscopy preps, mammography, and nasopharyngeal swabbing all happen when the physician is busy elsewhere. If there is a delay between the order and the completion of this task then the interpreter for that encounter has often moved on to the next encounter. Each site (i.e. the lab, the MA, radiology) then calls an interpreter for very routine tasks that are discrete, quick, and often require some demonstration.
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