Rheumatoid Arthritis Support Group
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory, multisystem, autoimmune disorder. It is a disabling and painful condition which can lead to substantial loss of mobility due to pain and joint destruction. The disease is also systemic in that it often also affects many extra-articular tissues throughout the body including the skin, blood vessels, heart, lungs, and...
Oh, it's me again, handing out reading assignments. Here's today's:
http://www.vox.com/2016/6/1/11712776/healthcare-footprint
This one should be required reading for everyone who works in the medical field.
I got home from work today to find a message on the landline from the medical assistant at my rheumy's office scolding me about a blood test. I was in the office about three weeks ago, and my doc decided it was time to throw in the towel with my current biologic and move on. Several days later, the MA left a message (again at home) telling me I had to go have a TB test done, and that they had sent the request to the lab.
A few days later I got out of the house early enough to try to go to the lab before work. (New job, no one there knows anything about my health problems, wouldn't mind keeping it that way awhile longer.) Lab tells me they don't have the papers, fax machine has been down for days, doctor's office knows this, no other way to send it, but I could have it sent to the receptionist's personal email if I like. I don't like.
Call the rheum office that afternoon, no call back. It's Friday before the long weekend. Send them a message through the patient portal. Hear back Tuesday, a week ago, that yes, they knew the fax was down, so they mailed me a copy of the lab order. Which I had not yet received.
Did they bother to let me know not to go over there??? Why the hell not? I love wild goose chases and snipe hunts, especially in the service of healthcare.
I told her at that point, in writing, that I simply couldn't get back to the lab before Saturday, assuming I had the papers by then. I did, and I went. Threw in the bimonthly blood draw at the same time, let's make a morning of it, shall we?
So, I get home today, and get a snotty little message reminding me that they can't process the paperwork for the new biologic until I pass the blood test. When am I planning on doing this? So, I open up the patient portal to send her a message. Lo and behold: there are all the results from the lab tests, except the TB one. I ended up writing her a message that I did have blood drawn Saturday, just as I said I would do, and asking which one of us should follow up about the one test for which we actually need the results. Can't wait to hear from her tomorrow. I'm sure she will call the home phone and not my cell again, 'cause it would be wayyyyy too simple to actually have a conversation.
If I could reclaim all the time I have spent in waiting rooms, on hold on the phone, calling the insurance company, calling the imaging place, waiting at the lab, trying to run down copies of MRIs and CT scans, chasing after prescriptions, talking to specialty pharmacies, and everything else, I would be a wealthy woman indeed.
http://www.vox.com/2016/6/1/11712776/healthcare-footprint
This one should be required reading for everyone who works in the medical field.
I got home from work today to find a message on the landline from the medical assistant at my rheumy's office scolding me about a blood test. I was in the office about three weeks ago, and my doc decided it was time to throw in the towel with my current biologic and move on. Several days later, the MA left a message (again at home) telling me I had to go have a TB test done, and that they had sent the request to the lab.
A few days later I got out of the house early enough to try to go to the lab before work. (New job, no one there knows anything about my health problems, wouldn't mind keeping it that way awhile longer.) Lab tells me they don't have the papers, fax machine has been down for days, doctor's office knows this, no other way to send it, but I could have it sent to the receptionist's personal email if I like. I don't like.
Call the rheum office that afternoon, no call back. It's Friday before the long weekend. Send them a message through the patient portal. Hear back Tuesday, a week ago, that yes, they knew the fax was down, so they mailed me a copy of the lab order. Which I had not yet received.
Did they bother to let me know not to go over there??? Why the hell not? I love wild goose chases and snipe hunts, especially in the service of healthcare.
I told her at that point, in writing, that I simply couldn't get back to the lab before Saturday, assuming I had the papers by then. I did, and I went. Threw in the bimonthly blood draw at the same time, let's make a morning of it, shall we?
So, I get home today, and get a snotty little message reminding me that they can't process the paperwork for the new biologic until I pass the blood test. When am I planning on doing this? So, I open up the patient portal to send her a message. Lo and behold: there are all the results from the lab tests, except the TB one. I ended up writing her a message that I did have blood drawn Saturday, just as I said I would do, and asking which one of us should follow up about the one test for which we actually need the results. Can't wait to hear from her tomorrow. I'm sure she will call the home phone and not my cell again, 'cause it would be wayyyyy too simple to actually have a conversation.
If I could reclaim all the time I have spent in waiting rooms, on hold on the phone, calling the insurance company, calling the imaging place, waiting at the lab, trying to run down copies of MRIs and CT scans, chasing after prescriptions, talking to specialty pharmacies, and everything else, I would be a wealthy woman indeed.
So did your ordeal ever get resolved?
Thanks for sharing this article.
What I've learned over the years is to collateralize all blood tests.That is, if the rheumatologist gives you a standing order, then the endocrinologist has a lab order, get one of the doctors to write it all on one lab order.
Use the same lab and the same radiology group for everything, where your records are centralized. You do NOT need to get stuff done at your doctor's office.
With blood work, get it done [routine stuff] a week or so before the appointment so you can discuss it at the appointment. You don't want to wait 6 months or whatever.....
On ALL lab/radiology orders, have the physician write "cc to patient." This means YOU get the copy of the results at the same time the doctor does. Why do you want this? How many times has the doctor's office claimed not to have received the results?
Get hard copies of the lab/radiology orders. Don't rely on showing up at the diagnostic office and expect that it's there.
Don't let anyone tell you that they need to give the results to the doctor first. YOU paid for these tests and legally you have a right to get them as soon as available.
Do you like a certain blood draw tech where you go? Get her cell phone number. Take her a rose on your next visit. Be nice and she'll move mountains.
this is a joke before someone reports me.
depot
So here we go I have something else going on and need extra bloodwork. I called my endocrinologist's office and asked her to get the doctor to write a lab order for a certain test. The front office person said that she's authorized to do it and I could pick it up in a few hours.
So I got there....picked it up....and when I got to the lab the tech said that the test was different from what I asked for. That the doctor checked off the "partial" test. So I got the lab test back, took it in the hallway, then checked off the right test and took it back inside the blood lab.
The tech knew what I'd done. But she couldn't prove it. And so she turned a blind eye.
Sometimes a girl's gotta' do what a girl's gotta' do.
My whole point here is that you have to watch these things like a hawk.....be your own case manager. And it gets tiring.