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

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