An unpleasant diagnostic test known as broncoscopy grew so popular for a time among doctors at North Monroe Hospital that some of them made up a ditty about it. ``He bronchs them once, he bronchs them twice, he bronchs them once again,'' the doctors crooned. Dr. Henry Jones mentioned the popularity of this procedure and the song when he gave a deposition in a lawsuit against the hospital and its owners, Hospital Corporation of America. Other doctors also worried about the apparent zeal with which this and other tests and procedures were done at the hospital. Dr. George Ellis, in another sworn deposition, said some doctors who had received hospital favors overused bronchoscopy, a potentially risky procedure in which a tube is threaded into the lungs to look for disease. ``I think they performed bronchoscopy when it was unnecessary, and I think they did it too often on patients,'' said the radiologist. He complained to hospital staff and said he soon saw his own referrals disappear. Dr. David Raines told of one of his patients who went to the North Monroe emergency room with chest pains. The man was admitted and referred to a cardiologist. The cardiologist sent him to a pulmonary specialist, then an ear, nose and throat doctor, then a rheumetologist. Each specialist performed a series of hospital tests. ``He was aggressively investigated, which was obviously a financial thing,'' said Raines. Hospital officials declined comment, citing pending litigation.
