I've been to a couple doctors recently and even asked about this at my last visit.
At a visit a few months back for a work physical, I assumed they would just measure whatever they wanted, so I was caught off-guard when they asked me my height. I just reported it in meters and the fellow laughed, said "right on" and noted it down. (Then he converted it to foot-inch for the paperwork and got the conversion wrong -- I wasn't about to correct it!) Yesterday at my primary care physician, I asked whether their records were kept in metric as I had heard. The nurse said she thought all hospitals use meters and kilograms, but that private practice varied -- their office uses only inches and pounds. On 17 February 2014 20:51, Carleton MacDonald <[email protected]> wrote: > When I was a member of Kaiser Permanente here in the D.C. area they > measured > people in kg and cm. My employer removed that option a number of years > ago > and my "old school" family doctor uses colonial units only, as does my > veterinarian (though both have scales that measure either way). > > In 1984 and 1986 my two sons were born at Kaiser Hospital in San Francisco. > Evan was 3690 g and Jeffrey was 4390 g, and that's how Kaiser recorded > them, > even then (very likely to avoid medicine dosing errors). I still have no > idea what they were in pounds and ounces. When people ask (doing baby > comparisons), I have to honestly say, "I don't know." > > Carleton > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf > Of Pierre Abbat > Sent: Monday, February 17, 2014 22:38 > To: U.S. Metric Association > Subject: [USMA:53570] doctor > > I went to a doctor for the first time today. I stepped on the scale, which > read about 100 too much. The thermometer read in °F. > > I'd like to persuade her to metricate. An obvious point is that BMI is > metric; we were talking about BMI. What are some others? > > How hard is it to metricate a doctor's practice? Do they have software > packages, and does one simply flip a switch somewhere? Is it in > /etc/profile > or ~/.profile, or in a configuration file for the program? > > How do doctors who have metricated handle patients who have not? > > Pierre > -- > I believe in Yellow when I'm in Sweden and in Black when I'm in Wales. > > >
