KOK Edit: Your favorite copyeditor since 1984(SM)
KOK Edit: your favorite copyeditor since 1984(SM) KOK Edit: your favorite copyeditor since 1984(SM) Katharine O'Moore Klopf
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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Getting the Health-Care Bureaucracy to Care

So, annoyed with the front-desk staff in the office of Ed's primary-care doc dragging things out regarding the newfound colloid cyst in his brain, I had Ed try calling the doctor's office instead of me doing so again. This may have gotten people moving; we'll see.

Whoever he spoke with there had him call the hospital to get the appropriate person there to fax the records from Ed's trip to the emergency department on to Ed's doc. So first, the hospital faxed a consent form to our house. Because Ed's out in the field installing cabinet doors today, I filled it out, faked his signature, and faxed it back to the hospital. Then I typed up the following note as if I were Ed, faked his signature, and faxed it to the doctor's office so that whoever gets the hospital medical records will know what the heck they're about. Let's hope this works and Ed gets a referral tomorrow or the next day.
Hello, Dr. C_____.

You will soon receive, by fax, medical records from Huge Teaching Hospital. I was treated in the emergency room there on Friday, February 6, 2009, for a gash that I sustained (while at work) to the left side of my forehead; I required stitches. To check for additional injury, the hospital staff had me undergo a CT scan. I had no internal injuries to my head.

However, I received a call over the weekend from the hospital informing me that the scan had shown that I have a small colloid cyst in my brain. I was told that I should see a neurologist as soon as possible. I need you to provide a written referral to a neurologist, preferably one who has privileges at Huge Teaching Hospital, so that I don’t have to travel across the county or into Queens for treatment. I would like to have the referral very shortly, despite a woman who works in your front office having told my wife that I would have to wait until my February 27 appointment with you (for a physical exam) to request a referral. From what I have read since the weekend, a colloid cyst is not something to be taken lightly.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Couldn't they book an early appointment for Ed?

Good luck with everything, praying for you.

Please keep us posted.

Anonymous said...

Kathy, keep on them, every day, if necessary. Insurance has managed to create an absolutely paralyzing system that slows down medical care to a crawl, if it doesn't manage to stop it being rendered completely...I believe that's the meaning of "managed" in the term "managed care."
Thought about you guys a lot last night and today.

Anonymous said...

Wait till you see the provisions in the "stimulus" health care bill. A Health Coordinator in the GOVERNMENT will DECIDE whether your husband or any other person needing expensive procedures will get those procedures. This is especially alarming for middle-aged and older people. What will be the cut-off age for expensive procedures? I see Dr. Kervorkian being real busy!

This health care bill is courtesy of Tom Daschle, who should have been working on his tax returns instead of cooking up this mess.

Katharine O'Moore-Klopf said...

But Anon, insurance companies are already making such decisions—and have been for years now.

libhom said...

Insurance companies are notorious for trying to delay cancer treatments until after the person is dead. I don't know if this is an actual cancer diagnosis, but you definitely need to fight like hell.

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