Dealing with Hospitals

[bountyhunter_ga]

Boy this is big stuff, We all have had problems with the large chain hospitals. No one else has the means or money to do the operations
or have the equipment needed to perform same.

This no reason to belittle the patient"you" or make you feel like your just not important enough for them to talk to. The closer I get to receiving a new kidney the farther away I get from it happening.

Emory Hospital has really sent us on a wild goose chase with non information, not answering calls and now its taken three weeks to get medical records transferred to another hospital. Are these people just that busy or do they they really just don't care.

Yes I'm a little mad, I'm not used to getting the runaround by people in general. I didn't realize how insignifficant I was really aim until this happened to me. The hospital makes you feel like a piece of meat waiting to be thrown into the cage of cats. Who's in charge anyway, the hospitals, doctors ,I hope not Obama .

[jbeany]

Sometimes, I think the problem is that no one is in charge.  "That's not my department."   

[staceyand joe92]

I am having the same problem with my transplant center. They don't return calls to my potential donors and it is very frustrating. I have people lined up to be tested and the transplant center continues  dragging their feet.  My coordinator is also very short with me on the phone. She must have better things to do. 

[Romona]

I had a lot of problems getting thing to the right people. My nephrology group were my biggest allies. I started getting things sent to me. I would deliver the results to him and he would hand deliver toTransplant.

[bountyhunter_ga]

Good morning all, as of last week we got all of our records transferred from Emory to Piedmont Hospital. Emory lost the first request why doesn't this surprise me.

If I only do one last thing in my life I would like to see people treated like humans not lab rats.

I will be sending in my grievance to Georgia Medical Care Foundation or not in Georgia you can use Joint commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations both are the web as listed.

Stand up for yourself,and lets fix the system we have and not venture into the future of medicine under Obama.

[RightSide]

The worst thing that happened to me with a big hospital:

The hospital actually misplaced my medical records and couldn't find them!  Doctors, nurses, receptionists, were all running around frantically trying to find my medical records.  It took a couple of hours before they found them.  Meanwhile, that meant that my medical care was delayed by hours--and so were all the patients who were supposed to see the same doctors after me.

Unbelievable that a hospital in the year 2000 didn't have computerized medical records. But even today, medical records are kept in a big folder, not in a secure online database.

Doctors are very conservative.  My own Ear-Nose-Throat specialist won't accept CT scans stored online and displayed on screen to any degree of magnification.  He insists on hardcopy films.

[cariad]

I am puzzled why you think Obama has anything to do with your recent troubles, bountyhunter. What you are going through is unfortunate, but I have been dealing with transplant hospitals for 33 years now, and can tell you that in most respects, things have gotten much better, especially under Obama.

When I was living in CA, the coordinator at USC received my records, then lost them. No one bothered to call me and tell me that I was not being contacted for an appointment because they had not reviewed my records yet, because they were missing. They were never recovered - so somewhere out in the world, all of my most personal information is floating around. When I finally got an appointment, nearly 4 months (!!!!) after initially phoning them, the first thing the nurse coordinator said to me was "We're going to be judging you, you know. To decide if you will be a good candidate for transplant." I sneered at her in shock and disgust, and she seemed to realize that perhaps that statement was in incredibly poor taste, so she added "I can't imagine why you wouldn't be." To which I responded, sharply. "No. Nor can I."

It took until November for USC to list me, because they neglected to tell me that I needed to return for a final blood test. Unacceptable. I phoned the same nurse coordinator in December to tell her I was transferring to Cedars-Sinai. She all but begged me not to leave them. This was 2007, so I guess I should ultimately be blaming George Bush. 

Hospitals are all different. While I have obviously not been to all of them, I have been to over a dozen in my life. Hands down the best is UCSF. The surgeons answer the phone there, and they are really nice people. That is not to say I have not had problems with them, but if you expect perfection from a transplant hospital, you will waste a lot of energy being angry and frustrated. My current hospital is also one of the better ones I've been to. It makes such a difference to like and trust your hospital.

I am glad that when you became unhappy with your local hospital, you decided to do something about it. I waited too long to leave USC. Good for you for being proactive!

 

[greco02]

I have years of experience in medical records.  There are a multitude of reasons records don't get where they need to go and it is all but impossible to figure it out sometimes.  Electronic records are very very expensive plus someone has to either enter or scan the info into the data base.  Once done then anyone who has access can view everything they need.   Paper records can disappear, but electronic records have their own special set of issues.   I have recommended that everyone keep their own PHR (personal health record).  It is time consuming and more often than not you have to pay for the copies but it is worth it to have what you need on hand.  Good luck. 

[bountyhunter_ga]

Well I guess we started something here. I betcha under Obama's new health care plan people will be eliminated by age or someone's personal opinion of the patient , this is to be seen. and your right bush was always at fault for everything just like the cops are being to mean when they put a drunk in jail, or the human  society has to put down dogs running wild. No one really knows until they are in the drivers seat.
The system looks very bad to us going through this, lets fix what we have now, we don't need the world post office health care plan.
It take the people in our country to fix things politicians never fixed anything, they only make more complicated to understand for all of us.

Stand up to these giants and you will be heard set down and let someone help you and you will be lying down for good. These people work for you dammit, and it starts with you

[bountyhunter_ga]

Try this on,  Obama Health Plan: Give Organs of Rich to Poor
by Scott Ott for ScrappleFace · 191 Comments · ShareThis·  Print This Story
(2007-05-30) — Democrat presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL, unveiled a universal health care plan yesterday, which would boost taxes on the rich to fund care for the poor and would mandate involuntary organ donations from healthy, wealthy Americans to their ailing, impoverished counterparts.

“Taking money from the wealthy to fund care for the rest of us is no real sacrifice,” said Sen. Obama. “The rich know how to make money and they’ll just go out and get some more. In Obama’s America, if the lower middle class suffers, the upper class should feel their pain. That’s the philosophy behind my health plan, and in fact, it is the ideology upon which this great Democrat party stands.”

Mr. Obama said that during his first term in the White House he would institute a lottery system for transferring the well-maintained lungs, kidneys, livers, spleens and “other giblets,” from well-to-do citizens to the bodies of “the people who need them, and in fact deserve them, the most by virtue of their inadequate income production.”

At the same time, Congress would establish the Obama Universal Care Health Initiative Endowment to fund development of artificial, mechanical organs that the federal government would then sell at a premium to the rich as replacement parts for the natural organs they gave to the poor.

The Illinois senator said his health care proposal is “revenue neutral” because once it’s implemented, “that will be the best gear to describe the pace of U.S. economic growth.”

[monrein]

We are all of course fully aware that ScrappleFace is deliciously satirical.  Sure hope so.

[plugger]

Guess I'm the victim of government-run, government-paid-for health care - the VA.

Oh wait,

BEST MEDICAL CARE IN THE US
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_29/b3993061.htm

I just recently had a heart attack, treated by the VA, and the worst I can say about them is they seemed to be overly cautious.  Actually, I'll convince them yet it was only heartburn - their EKGs and labs are lying!

As far as I'm concerned, the VA can have the whole lousy system.

[paris]

I have been working with three transplant centers for three years. My biggest advice is to make yourself known as an individual.  Make a connection with everyone you talk to. Ask for names, etc.  The more defensive I get, the less that gets done.  The receptionists and nurses now know me by name at UNC transplant center.  Because I try to be understanding of their situation also. They see and talk to hundreds of people each day. I am not the sickest person they will see. But, I can be the friendliest, kindest person.  Not easy when you are feeling horrible and want someone to fix it quick. But, I have seen some extremely ill people in the past few weeks, so I am trying to be more patient. And yes, I had reports missing and calls not answered all last year.   It happens in the best of hospitals. 

Anyone on Medicare is a part of government paid for health care. 

There is a section for opinions on Obama, if anyone wants to voice their thoughts in the proper area. 

[Inara]

Stand up for yourself

Agreed.  The squeaky wheel gets the grease!

BTW, I LOVE Paula Deen, too!  My brother is always cruising down to her restaurant to make me jealous.  He'll call me and say, "Yeah, Paula just asked how our meal was....she's awesome."  Sometimes I hate my brother