About a year ago July, my doctor moved to a new practice. We followed her. Briefly. I wasn't impressed with the new office's staff--they didn't strike me as the most competent--so we went back to her old practice.
Had a doctor's appointment on Monday to get a refill on my thyroid meds. I thought I was going to have to pay for another blood test, and was steamed. My last one was only six months ago, but my old doctor's new office only called in a six month supply of my thyroid meds. And I had to fight with them to get them to do that much.
So, the nurse practitioner said she didn't need a new blood test for another six months--she just needed my last results. I went to my old doctor's new practice (Mercy Primary Care in Joplin, MO--just because they deserve their name drug through the mud), filled out a request to have those results sent to the nurse practitioner's office, and went home. I called on Wednesday to make sure those test results had gotten to them. They hadn't, so the office called Mercy Primary Care, to see about getting those results faxed over. A few minutes later, the nurse receptionist called back, and said that MPC had said it was going to take two to three weeks, and I couldn't pick up my results any sooner, because they wouldn't release them.
Umm...what?
So, Wednesday was spent fighting with that office. And it turned out that the people at Mercy Primary Care either didn't listen to my request for my thyroid test results from October of last year, or didn't understand my request for my thyroid test results from October of last year--they told me that they weren't going to give me my medical records because they'd been destroyed by the tornado last May, and were being cleaned up and reconstructed.
Umm...no. And that refusal to cooperate is illegal.
It did get resolved, but...
Mercy Primary Care can fuck the fucking fuckety fuck off. It might fucking satisfy any fucking regulations about equal opportunity employment, but it's NOT a fucking good idea to fucking raid sheltered workshops to fucking man the fucking front desks in a fucking doctor's office!
The idiots answering the desks and filing the paperwork can fuck off just as hard. People need to know their fucking limits, including knowing that they're too fucking stupid to leave the sheltered workshop and answer phones for the fucking doctor's office that was fucking stupid enough to fucking go trolling the fucking sheltered workshop for employees that can't fucking do their fucking job because they're too fucking stupid to listen to the patients' requests for their fucking test results from five fucking months after the fucking Act of God that leveled the hospital the office is attached to.
I deal with this enough from my students. I have no tolerance for the same lack of attention to directions from "professionals."
15 minutes ago
Since it is not likely that MPC does the lab tests in their office, your new Nurse Practitioner should be able to get the results herself from that lab that did the tests.
ReplyDeleteActually, they just sent me upstairs to their in-house lab. Like I said, it's since been resolved with a few firm phone calls up their corporate ladder.
DeleteUgh, you have my sympathy. I know my dad often has to go through the paperwork tango to get things he needs. (He's had two cardiologists retire on him....)
ReplyDeleteSadly, I think this kind of thing is only going to get worse as the level of government "oversight" (read: interference) in healthcare increases.
You're probably right--it's why I'm against mandatory Medicaid, and why we pay out of pocket for our care.
DeleteI feel your pain. For us its not the Dr's office but the damn insurance coverage we have...Medicare. Sucks donkey B.S. I can't get in to see an Orthopedic, and my wife can't see an kidney Dr. All we can do is well care. Thing is I need to see an Ortho so I can get work comp back in MN to pay for future visits for my OJI. My wife has stones and needs to be evaluated. I told her if it gets bad again we just go to the ER has that gets covered
ReplyDeleteRob, can you believe they want to give this "coverage" to everyone?!
DeleteTricare can FO for denying me my Colcrys(Coltrazine) because it's a name brand and leaving me gimping around with gout for 4 days. May they get bureaucratically stonewalled next time they are in pain. Hell, I hope they get gout, and have to treat it with ObamaCare(less), the fuckers.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you all should learn about how to handle your personal health care.
DeleteDon't blame health care for your inabilities.
I started learning about health care at age 19--my first job in health care......
I do think the Obama Health Care plan has the same problem.....ignorance is bliss.