24.JUNE.00
Another
HMO Statistic?
It's been
a long week culminating in a most distressing situation.
On the
Thursday, the 21st I received a letter from my HMO doctor dated the
13th. It was postmarked on the 20th. He claimed to have called and left
a message on my answering machine a month ago to inform me of the radiologist's
report on my mammogram from last December 9th. He wondered if I had
followed through and gotten additional views because there was one area
which was possibly suspicious, although everything else was otherwise
normal.
Let's review...I
had a mammogram on Dec. 9, 1999. I called the radiologist in January
to inquire about my results because I had not heard anything. I went
through a long and complex phone loop reaching no humans, until I finally
found an answering machine. I left a message saying that I assumed that
since I had not heard from them regarding my results, that everything
was probably OK, but to please give me a call. No one returned
the call and I foolishly assumed that nothing could be wrong or they
would have told me, although I could not be 100% certain. The usual
process with tests, in my experience, is that someone calls you if there
is something wrong and does not call you if it is OK. I know, I know...I
should have checked again.
Regardless...I
ask this: why did it take over six months for someone to inform me of
this? There was no call on my answering machine last month, for whatever
reason. Doctor's dial wrong numbers, too, you know. I have actually
called back to report it when doctor's offices err because I worry that
the call might be important to someone. Believe me, if I had gotten
a message I would have immediately done whatever necessary to follow
up on something as important as this. Besides even that supposed notification
was still a full five months after the mammogram.
You can
imagine my fear and my fury. I immediately called the doctor who was
not in that day, of course. So I had to go through a couple of underlings
in order to leave a message to have him call me ASAP. In the meantime
I called the radiologist and went through the paces with them. I got
the office manager who of course blamed it on everyone else, including
me. They claim they sent the info the day after the mammogram. And I
can care less about her excuses about how this error is all due to some
mix-up in their petty little office procedures. Puhleeze...this is my
life we are talking about.
I made
an appointment to have the additional films done, and you know what...they
reminded me to be sure to get a referral for this from my doctor or
they couldn't do it. So it was back to the other office phone loop to
try to find the right person to do that for me. And can I tell you how
annoying Muzak is in moments like these?
I finally
got the on call resident and even she couldn't agree to anything. All
she could do was take my phone number. The next day the doctor called
and left a message on my answering machine that the referral was done,
and he hoped everything would turn out all right...gee thanks! And if
it doesn't? Do I then become an HMO statistic and a life lesson for
him?
I can assure
you that my life and my well being is the last thing anyone cared about
in either office. The only thing that was really clear is that they
are going to protect their asses at all costs. They even bordered on
being rude to me for complaining. One claims it was the HMO doctor's
responsibility and the other claims it was the radiologist's responsibility
to notify me. Then later on up the food chain someone claims they were
having trouble getting things transcribed. Guess what? None of those
excuses works for me, and none of them is going to make the situation
any easier to handle should the worst come out of this whole ordeal.
Everyone
is trying to assure me that what they are seeing could indeed turn out
to be nothing. It's suspicious, but maybe an accidental overlap of nodes
or tissue, and not otherwise significant. And they will tell me immediately
after they read it Tuesday morning so I don't have to wait. More than
anything I hope that they are right, it's nothing.
No matter
what, though, no one should have to sit around for five days with all
the anxiety which goes with thinking about the worst possibility, knowing
that if it turns out badly, six months have been lost.
God help
them if they are wrong .