I want to share an experience that may be
a growing problem across the nation,
though I can only verify what happened in
my town. A few weeks ago, I went to a
doctor's office (selected by my company
for insurance reasons) for a sinus
infection. I had never been there before.
The nurse said she needed to get my height
and weight. I know for a fact I am over
6ft, but she said I was only 5’10 ¾
(even in sneakers). I hadn’t weighed
myself in several months but the last time
I did I was about 175. I was shocked when
she zipped that little weight bar right
through the 20s and skipped past 30,
bringing it all the way up to 38 (188
lbs!) before stopping and moving it back
to 183 ½. I became very worried that I
had shrunk 2 inches and gained almost 10
pounds in a few months!
Then she checked my temperature, blood
pressure, pulse, and listened to my heart.
Then she left and said the doctor would
be in soon. So the doc comes in. She was
ok, just looked in my ears, mouth, etc.
And asked me some questions. She wrote a
few prescriptions, but never mentioned
anything about height/weight.
I thought I was done, but then the first
nurse came back in and asked me how much I
weighed a year ago and whether I had
gained weight recently, because my bmi is
25.8, which is overweight. I am in pretty
decent shape, so I was pretty ticked off
to hear this, especially since I just came
in for a sinus infection. She told me I
am 18 pounds over my target weight of 166
and showed me this chart and wrote all
this stuff on my ticket. Well, for one,
she used the 5’10" height column, which
is at least two inches too low and almost
a full inch less than what she measured
me. I was letting her go through her
little lecture, and then she said she was
referring me to this weight management
program that is affiliated with their
office. She said I would need to go there
once a week for weigh-ins and bp checks.
Ironically, the true doctor never
mentioned anything to me about my
weight!
A day later, I had a friend measure me
using a height rod at a local gym's scale
and I came out right at 6'1". I also
weighed myself there and came out at 178,
which is about what I would have expected.
That’s 6 pounds less than she weighed
me (even though her scale definitely
balanced at 183 ½ because I was
watching).
I talked to a colleague about this, and he
had a similar experience at the same
clinic, with the same nurse! We found
several others who had the exact same
thing happen to them, but had thought
nothing of it. Every time, this nurse
said their height was anywhere between 1
and 3 inches shorter than they thought--in
most cases it was about 2 inches (mine was
2 ¼” too low). And the same thing on
weight--the scale she used (the balance
beam type) showed a weight that they
thought was anywhere between 4 and 8
pounds too heavy (mine was 6 lbs. Too
heavy). We then figured out that a couple
of inches and several pounds can make a
big difference on your bmi. My real bmi
is 23.5 (normal), but using her numbers it
was 25.8 ("overweight").
We later found out from another health
facility in town that this woman (the
nurse) actually gets paid $65 for each
person she refers to this "affiliated"
weight management clinic, which is
actually in the same medical park! She is
obviously writing down artificially low
heights (you can't actually see the height
rod while being measured), and I would bet
that her scale has been rigged as well (i
understand this can easily be done).
In all of our cases, we figured out that
it was the same nurse--she is an
attractive woman, about 30 years old, very
tall (probably 5'10" without her heels),
long blonde hair, and memorable for
wearing a disgustingly bright orange
stethoscope. I think the fact that she is
very tall might prevent people from
questioning height measurements that are
too low. I usually get measured a little
taller than I actually am by a short
nurse, but this one was eye to eye or
probably even a little taller than me in
her shoes.
Just wanted to share this, in case the
same thing happens to you--it could be an
up and coming trend or just an isolated
incident. Has anyone ever heard about
this kind of scam before? Beware!! It is
always important to pay attention to what
height/weight the nurse writes down,
because it becomes a part of your health
record.
