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Royally screwed by medical offices

DynoReads

Entry posted by DynoReads

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This has been an absolute mess. I have to get my knee fixed, it keeps shifting. So you don't have to look that up, it moves in directions it's not supposed to, in my case both too far forward and too far towards the outside of the knee. You have to have a pre-surgery clearance no more than 30 days before the surgery - so they know the anesthesia won't kill you.

 

So I start the process May 5th, with the blood work and ekg, chest X-ray the 9th - first available appointment. The ekg was irregular, but nothing to prevent surgery. My doctor send over the ok on the 12th. The anesthesiologist says I have to get clearance from a cardiologist on the 15th. First available appointment, June 1. I see the cardiologist and he does an ekg, no problem. Most likely the previous results were because I have big breasts and the tech doing the test put the electrode on a breast muscle not my ribs. But to be sure I have to have a stress test and echo.

First available appointment for the stress test is June 7. Ok, I can do that, just have to have the blood work again. The results of the stress test aren't available to the doctor on the 7th, but the place where I had the test doesn't have any record of a problem that day. The cardiologist can't get my results to read until the 9th, so now I have to have the X-ray again. Only he didn't issue the ok for surgery like he said he would. According to his office, that isn't a problem, he'll do it at my follow up visit, July 10. So I tell them, the tests have to be no more than 30 days before the surgery, if I wait to my follow up I'll have to have another ekg. Can the doctor review the tests and issue the ok now? No, he's out of the country until July 9.

 

None of the offices involved in this mess think they did anything wrong. All of them were told it was part of presurgery work up. Since I don't have clearance I will have to have the ekg, blood work and chest X-ray again, about $4000 to repeat the tests on top of the $11,000 insurance has paid for the first round of tests. No one understands why I'm feeling royally screwed.

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wildone

wildone 18,287

Posted

  • Site Administrator

I can totally sympathize Reader :(

 

Last year at this time my Dad was 6 months into living back in my (and sisters) home town. We would take him to a doctor who would refer him to another doctor and tell us what to tell the new doctor and when to get the appointment for. None of us have medical background and we inadvertently forget something and have to go back to the original doctor. At one time there was 7 different doctors on the go.

 

I don't think it really matters where you live or how your healthcare is delivered, communication always seems to be the one breakdown that isn't taught enough to all the people from receptionist to doctor, or if it is it isn't practiced enough.My province at least is going online now on a lot of issues, so if you go into a lab for blood work, as soon as the results are done they are posted on the intranet so doctors can see. Same with xrays, ekgs, and other tests.

 

The worse part of all this is now you will have to wait until after mid July to get your surgery done.

 

Hang in there :hug:

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Puppilull

Puppilull 18,798

Posted

Ugh, what a mess. Sounds to me like they've found a nice way to make money in unnecessary tests. My hubby has had surgery on his knee twice and neither time did he do any of those tests. Swedish medical care isn't exactly shabby, so I wonder why you need all those tests. Unless they have reason to suspect something. Very strange system...

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DynoReads

DynoReads 1,197

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17 minutes ago, Puppilull said:

So I wonder why you need all those tests. 

Certain illnesses or medical conditions require additional precautions or special care during surgery, and these become more common with age. congestive heart failure requires special care during surgery or fluid will build up around the patient's heart and cause a fatal heart attack.

Puppilull

Puppilull 18,798

Posted

Still not a reason to make you do them twice. They should cover the cost if they screwed up.

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Valkyrie

Valkyrie 110,406

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  • Site Administrator

Ugh.  What a nightmare.  Hope it's all sorted out soon. :hug: 

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DynoReads

DynoReads 1,197

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WTF?!? just called to cancel my cardiologist follow up. No reason when I've never had chest pains, the ekg at the cardiologist was fine, stress and echo were being through, so no real heart issue. But the follow up was too late to be able to schedule surgery without having to repeat. Only the nurse sees in my file that the ok for surgery was faxed to the orthopedist on 6/13. I talked to the orthopedist nurse who schedules surgery on 6/16 and was told they didn't have it. WTF?

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