I am getting points taken off for not moving the patient to the right location. What’s going on!?

Article

This question has been asked by some of our users with some confusion (okay and maybe sprinkled with some accusation, condescension, and irritation). We’ve received a few comments that might go like: “How dare you take points away from me! Your software clearly had massive errors and flaws! I will hunt you down CCSCASES!” (maybe this is slightly exaggerated…emphasis on slightly).


Our test (just like the real test) will grade you not only whether you did something, but whether you did it correctly within a certain time frame. So, lets take a fictional example. Lets say a patient comes into your office with severe COPD. He is having difficulty breathing. You decide you’re hungry and want to go eat a sandwich before you see the patient. You go get a sandwich and slowly start eating it. It’s a good sandwich – Come on!


Meanwhile, the patient is dying and turning blue. You finish your sandwich; You get on the phone and call an ambulance and rush the patient to the Emergency Department. The family is livid. “No one was helping us when he was having trouble! You were eating your sandwich!” You reply, “listen, there patient. You were eventually put into the right location, so be grateful!” 


This fictional patient was put into the right location, but it was done too late. If this were in real life, you would be in trouble. If this was done on the USMLE Step 3 CCS portion, you would lose points. If you receive a negative patient update like, “The patient is having more difficulty breathing;” or “The patient is not feeling well,” and you are in the wrong location; you will lose points. So, the solution is to move the patient to the correct location BEFORE the patient worsens, then you won’t lose any points. Continuing with the fictional example, call the ambulance BEFORE you eat your sandwich and get him transferred and treated and THEN eat your sandwich. Timing matters on our program (and on the real test). So, to shorten the question, the reason you are losing points is that you need to be faster about moving the patient to the correct location. 


If you’d like to try out our program, you can download two free cases here. 


Stay safe and Study Hard! Oh, and go eat a sandwich…