A Patient in Need of a Red Cell Exchange?

Factitious disorder presenting as sickle cell disease: a case report

“…Several of these encounters, including those of the index patient, transpired during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when hospitals were grappling with overwhelming patient volumes in emergency departments and intensive care units, as well as unprecedented staffing and blood shortages. 14 The ramifications of this behavior are not confined to wasted resources. Rather, there is risk of deleterious effect from the interventions (e.g., blood transfusion and tPA) that are commonly utilized for complications of “SCD”.…”

“…20 At another California hospital, the same patient presented six times using four different aliases. 14 Only a centralized system that requires linkage to a unique national identifier might decrease the likelihood of this occurrence.…”