Don't be afraid to make waves, or a tsunami

donna_lee

The month of September was stressful enough with a regular CT and then a brain MRI and another CT with a possible biopsy.  I started complaining with the first two days worth of screw-ups, which included a physical meeting with 2 administrators in the radiation department (who had zero power to change anything and just gave me soft excuses), and then a full letter to the hospital administrator.  Things just got worse, the more tests that were scheduled.

This past Monday, I met with the Risk Manager, the Dept. head of Radiology, and the PR/Public Relations Director.  As the Rad. Dir said, there was a perfect storm of things that went wrong...all with me in a very short period of time.

Here is what they are supposed to remedy:

1. Access phone numbers for a patient from outside the hospital, with listings in the phone book, for a Patient to contact the Radiology Dept. directly without being shut out by a phone tree; and the cancer center having listings for the Radiation Center and the Oncology Center.

2. Go back in their schedule to ensure that no one is overlooked for getting pre-authorization for medical test from their Insurance Co....as I was.  At 4:20 the day prior to my CT, the ins. had not cleared an authorization.  When the Rad. Head started a new procedure in July, she only looked back 2 months; and my CT had been on the books since March.  Oh!!! I slipped through the cracks.

3. I politely called it a Turf War, but in my industry, we'd call it a pi..ing match.  Their Admission desks in various parts of the hospital, i.e., Radiation and Out Patient Infusion were not linked so that if you checked in at one dept. and also had to use another the same day, they fought over who was going to get first whatck a billing.

4. Reminded them of the patient's right to see a full medical billing, not these 2 lines things after insurance has paid their amount.

5. The lack of attention to the customer service end of the business of health care.  Stop trying to shoo a patient away from the Admit desk just so the next person can sit down, no gum chewing while on duty, follow HIPPA regulations and don't ask for customer info with a long line behind the patient.  And a biggie was return phone calls promptly and with information the patient has requested.

And what was truly disturbing was that I was not the only one who has encountered some of these problems.  But evidently, no one had raised as much H... in making myself heard.  I gave them "one more chance" to get their collective acts together and told them when my next CT was scheduled.  Only time will tell.

The moral of all this is don't hesitate to say something, because you probably are not the only one who has had a bad experience.  Their stock answer seemed to be that "no one has complained prior to this time."  And this also seems to be with those, like me, who need to have a test to hope for NED once or twice a year.

Good Luck, and wishing you all better treatment from the staff support side of your facility or Dr.'s office,

donna_lee

 

hardo718

God Bless you Donna!!

Bravo!!  You go girl!  And all the other kudos that can be rained upon you.  And yes, hopefully, they will think twice before messing with you again.  I always hate that line about how "no one else has complained".....and personally I think it's a crock of crap.  Most, if not all, medical facilities have surveys that patients can fill out if they don't want to speak directly, and in my experience, yes, a lot of patients don't want to take the time, usually the ones that are really fed up will.  More and more it seems there are incompetent or uncaring staff in positions that have no business being anywhere other than behind their electronic devices.  Not just hospital related positions.  Of course, it's just my opinion, but buyer beware, especially when it comes to your health or that of a loved one. 

Alright, stepping off my soapbox now and I'll carry on, with a smile on my face, a quickness in my step, and a happy heart, thankful for another day.....waiting for the next challenge.  hahaha   But good job Donna!!....I'm proud of you.  I'm a fan girl.

Donna~

APny

Good for you! I admire you so

Good for you! I admire you so much for speaking up. Way to go.

ImNotDeadYet

Been thinking about this post all weekend...

...and wanting to reply since last week. Definitely speak up and don't let them push you around! It sounds like you have them listening to you now, which is fantastic!

I think this hit home, as I have been dealing with something at my new place of treatment. (We moved to Colorado in June.) I posted earlier about the pneumothorax I received during my lung biopsy - hospital for a full week. I distinctly told the resident from Interventional Radiology that I wanted to attending physician to do the procedure. Later, quite a while after coming home, I was reading the paperwork and saw that the resident was listed as primary operator. I was floored. Needless to say, I've followed up with the patient advocate. I finally got a letter Friday telling me that the attending physician, not the resident, performed the procedure. There's even one record that I suspect they changed to indicate as much. However, I also have the record that shows the attending as the primary operator. I'm still not sure how to proceed. I spoke with an attorney who said at best, I could choose to file a complaint with the medical board. However, he said that negligence would be hard to prove. I'm not looking to collect money. I just want them to acknowledge that they didn't honor my wishes, and to be sure it doesn't happen again. (I subscribe to LegalShield, so the advice from the attorney was free, thankfully!) 

We definitely have to learn to advocate for ourselves in these situations, which can certainly be daunting. Thank you for sharing this post. It gave me some encouragement to keep pushing on this.

Gary

JerzyGrrl

Yeesh

Sorry to hear all the nonsense you've had to go through. Grateful as a fellow patient that you were willing to say something. 

Somewhere between "Wretched dangerous and most likely illegal" and "Better even than 'Best Practices'" there's that place where we need to draw the line and speak up. Part of what I used to do was patient advocacy (and family advocacy... and -- occasionally -- staff advocacy). Yet I'm repeatedly amazed at what I'M willing as a patient or member of the public to put up with, compared to when I had the medical center badge on the cool zippy cable holder clip. Am I not now a person of dignity and worth? Sure, I just have a fairly high pain threshold and forget sometimes. Ouch. That. Yes. Yeesh.

The "stock answer... that 'no one has complained prior to this time' " along with its cousin 'nobody else had a problem with that' is often SNAFU-speak for "%$*@ off, you sorry piece of %*}#." If so, it's also health-care bullying. Should the words be accompanied with profuse thanks, a coupon for free food at the caf, and possibly some administrative apologizing and genuflecting -- then it's the Real Deal and folks are listening. However, anytime ANYONE gives you SNAFU-speak grief, you have an automatic pass to call them out on it nicely  and then to take it one step higher. I'm sure you also took the high road, which is a great way to diffuse Stuff and actually get some process change in a system.

Thank you for helping to make your string of less-than-optimal experiences better for the patients who will be coming after you (And thank you to everyone in healthcare who's NOT a healthcare bully and is doing their best-est to provide folks with dignified quality care).