A recent funny story:
Taking a wheelchair patient (pt) to follow-up kidney stone malady appt. Sometimes I become the caregiver as we drive 60+ miles and rehab/nursing facility doesn't send escort with, just paperwork like medlist. In some cases, pt might have arthritis that is detrimental to filling out useless pt info form given on clipboard (the Dr. etc just did surgery two weeks before, I take pt to rehab/skilled nursing facility the day after, pt gets admitted then 2 weeks later I show for follow-up).
So we get to (very thankfully) empty office ... and early 20's Navajo receptionist gives us The Clipboard. pt and I do the we-shouldn't-need-to-update-add-anything-since-nothing's changed/ gone wrong-in-the-past-weeks. Anyway, pt starts looking over first page and since-nothing's-changed-address-is-still-the-same-etc. signs and dates it with a slow knurled childlike-like grip (arthritis) on pen. Yay! I grab the clipboard and notice (I should have known) seven more sheets underneath.
<sigh> At this point I assume the additional title of receptionist and sit down with Clipboard ready to recite from document and write down answers.
Second page questions start with boxes to check for family medical history such as 'Has anyone in your family ever had [any pathology ever (16 boxes)] and if so [relationship]. We kind of stumble through that: 'Heart disease'? 'Everyone.' 'High blood pressure'? 'All the males - including Uncle Jack who died of a heart attack at 32.'
Then we get down to Gender, which should/may have been on first page but it shows up again, this time with six boxes [not kidding] ...
"OK (reading aloud because pt is also hard of hearing), are you male, female, transge..." [looking more closely] [more boxes to X with trans-this and trans-that]
By then I'm starting to giggle, Navajo receptionist is smirking and I have to tell yell at pt, "There's more than one gender ... thing-y!"
...
'Female.'
'OK, I'll put 'F', however, if you change your mind after the appt. we can always switch it.'
---
Final kicker: After the whole trans-thing, one of the later (very private) questions was:
"Have you ever had a venereal disease?"
So, to be so PC with gender and then use 'venereal' instead of 'STD'?!
Without an answer I told the receptionist we're done and gave it back. They had the Medlist from the facility - if doc wants to know anything more he can call the skilled nursing facility and get an update.
