News My hate has now moved on to the hospital.

My hate has now moved on to the hospital.

My wife had to get an ultrasound done on her lymphnodes (sp). It was specified on the sheet signed by the doctor. My wife even reminded the lady. They do the ultrasound and what did they do? They thyroids instead of the lymphnodes. When the doctor called they said "We no longer do scans of the lymphnodes." WHen the doctor told her that it was specified on the paper and that my wife even told her, the bitch said "Oh yea, I know. but the lymphnodes aren't in our procedures!" SO WHY THE HELL DID YOU TAKE HER AND DO SOMETHING YOU WERENT SUPPOSED TO?!?!?!?! So now they're going to charge the insurance company. Whats fucked up is that we're not sure if the insurance company wiill cover another ultrasound. So guess who has to call the insurance company...again!! ME!

Believe me that I'm writing a fucken letter to the head of the radiology department on this one. The hospital's goal is to make sure every patient is satisfied, well, I'm gonna make sure that we're satisfied. Thats like going in to fix your radio at the dealership and they change ur oil instead knowing thats not what you're in for.

I'm sorry man. that is really stupid on their part.

Thats what I'm saying. They even read it and everything! My wife went through 3 people who all looked at the paper and not one stopped at any point in time to say they don't do that type of procedure there. This pretty much topped the insurance issue I had though.

During lunch, I called the insurance company. They said as long as there is a medical need for the ultrasound, then they'll cover it again. when i explained what happened, they were too confused as to why they would of even done it. At least they're covering it again. But I'm still writing a letter because what they did was wrong on all levels. If the insurance company were to investigate this, they can get in some serious trouble.

But the person who was doing the ultrasound should. And the registration people should know what they can't and can do in case people do call in. I mean, are they going to tell everyone, "Hey come on in and we'll take care of you" and once they get there they say, oh no we don't do that here. I mean they're wasting everyone's time.

If the registration people don't know, then they should and should be trained to know. If not, they might as well hire monkey's to do their job since its just that easy.

what hospital was this?

is there another one nearby that you can go to, instead of that particular hospital? sounds like it's run by a bunch of idiots.

Actually, we're going to another hospital near work. This was the Arlington Hospital Center in Arlington, VA. The doctor recommended that we go to Fairfax Hospital instead.

yeesh...i'd always heard at least decent things about Arlington from some of the docs i work with.

hope things get a little better for you with all the medical stuff.

die, E.

well..good news so far. I sent an email through the hospitals website to get the name and mailing address of the person in charge of the radiology department (did this last wednesday). I got a phone call yesterday from the Assistant Director of the Radiology dept. She asked what had happened (I did not specify the reason i wanted to write a formal complaint in the email) and I told her what went down. After looking up my wife's order on the computer she said she would have to speak to the manager of the Ultrasound dept to find out why the person didn't do what was on the order. So my wife gets a phone call today from the manager and she was very apologetic about what happened. She explained that since the person didn't do what the doctor asked for, she now had to miss work to drive 40 minutes west to get the ultrasound done with another imaging place (earliest appt they had was in Centreville...it was important to get this done so she had to make the appt for next friday). The lady felt so bad that she said she would redo the order for my wife if she came in THIS friday. AND they're working with her schedule so she doesn't have to miss work. They're also not going to charge the insurance company again. She said they'll just redo the entire order.

So i'm a happy camper now...lol. I guess I can now say that they live up to their motto about wanting their patients to be happy.

that's why i'd always heard good things about them. glad to hear things are working out for you two.


just a random FYI(to you and anyone else reading this thread/keeping up with your hospital related issues
mistakes DO happen, quite often. those of us in the medical industry are working diligently to try and reduce the amount of mistakes, as well as improve the recovery from those mistakes. you and your wife got lucky - you are dealing with a hospital that apparently genuinely cares about patient/hospital relations. what makes a hospital worth the time isn't just the medical care provided, but the customer care as well - they want you leaving happy, and feeling like they've done everything they can to help you.

i'm sure Eric can add to this since his wife is also working in the medical field(right? is my memory working well today?).

yay! my brainmeats are working today! :rule:

exactly.

I know mistakes happen. No one is perfect in the world. But its just frustrating to deal with those mistakes. Especially when its something that urgently needs to get done. Plus, this test would have helped finalize a decision my wife was waiting to make about applying for another job outside of the credit union. The job opening has since closed so she can no longer apply.

What I told the lady last night, my main issue is that whoever is doing a procedure needs to be careful and if they can't do the whole order, then they shouldn't do it at all. I even mentioned that the doctor will no longer send patients to them because the doctor is now worried that her orders will not be completely done. I told my wife that once this is all done, that she needs to call the doctor and let her know what happened. Then its up to the doctor if she stiill wants to send patients to other imaging centers.

I guess things happen for a reason.

oh, you're justified in your frustration. your wife's health is in question, and they borked something up...NO ONE wants to deal with that.

be glad that it was just the wrong pictures taken, rather than the wrong drug administered...or the wrong surgery. sucks that she missed out on a job opportunity, though.

You're right. It could have been worse. thankfully it wasn't.

EDIT: Wifey got a phone call, they now bumped the appt up to tomorrow and the doctor in charge might do the scan. Apparently the manager told the head doctor what happened and he called my wife's doctor to speak to her to confirm that everything that was said was true. Sure enough, once my wife's doctor told him what happened and it was true what she said, the head doctor said that my wife's appt had to be pushed up and she was not to wait until Friday.

After all this is done, I'm sending a thank you email. gotta admit that they're trying their best and its only right I send patient relations an email saying they've made me happier then i originally was.