re easy child UG! a partial explanation for some of the weirdness

dreamer

New Member
I just got a call from some doctor I havenever heard of do not know, but whose name is similar to the pediatrician all my kids had until she retired approx 3 years ago. That office wanted to know WHY they got copies of reports from local ER for easy child ? Since easy child is not a patient of theirs. Turns out the ER sent the reports of the ER visits to some wrong doctor? with a similar name to the OLD pediatrician and NOT the current ob gyne.
So, this docs office said due to not knowing me, or easy child they could not send the reports anywhere. I called ER and informed them of their screw up----alas, they were saying they are sympathetic, and the person I talked to LOOKED at the records and said "OMG, your child is in life threatening danger" BUT..(always a but) becuz I cannot confirm who YOU are, I cannot send the reports out per YOUR say so. BUT due to these records, I can fully see how your child cannot do so for herself!!!!!! BUT..you CA call the ob gyne and have ob gyne request these from us......um, yeah, right EXCEPT becuz they are not getting it how ill easy child has now become...the nurse at ob gynes office is refuseing to accept hearing one word from ME. The nurse is not hearing how ill easy child is and standing on ceremony that since easy child did just have an 18th birthday, she has to call for herself.
I had THOUGHT that once ob gynes office GOT the ER reports, they would SEE how ill she has become and thus then either call us or accept MY calling them....
This is just insane especially inlight of easy child herself asked her doctor her first visit if there was anything she could sign for ME to be able to communicate and make decisions etc----and so we DID sign those things right there in that same docs office that day. I keep telling the nurse, it is in my PCs files....I keep telling her easy child is barely conscious.....

So- now the ER is aware they sent the reports to the wrong docs....and now I am aware ob gyne has NO CLUE just HOW much easy child deteriorated.....UG! ACK.

How helpful, the ER person on phone said, oh, you are stuck between a rock and a hard place, your child is at deaths door....and you are not getting thru? and she HUNG UP. (after she wished me luck)

Yes, I have 2 calls in to OTHER docs to see if we can get in somewhere else. somewhere NOT associated with this doctor or this hospital.

It is just blowing my mind. I am flabbergasted.
 

klmno

Active Member
Geez... again... I think I'd start asking the person's name at the beginning of every converstaion and writing it down for future reference. Do you think you could get by ACTING like you were easy child who is calling? Can you take easy child to ER to pick up copies of those records and hand deliver them to the dr?
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
Would the doctor that received the reports forward them to the ob gyn? Would you be able to get easy child to the doctor's office and just crash through the doors? Can you report that nurse for malpractice? Or the doctor, by extension, since your daughter is not receiving the appropriate level of care? Maybe an article in the paper or a segment on local news? If the nurse won't let you through, and the ER can't/won't help, I would be making as much noise as possible to anyone who would listen to me.
 

dreamer

New Member
seems the reports are simplynow stuck in limbo? The strange docs office ER sent them to says by law (??) they cannot send them ANYWHERE, not even BACK to ER. ER says since they already sent them out once, they cannot now send them out again, UNLESS PCs doctor calls to request them ?????? I was hoping once PCs doctor saw them, she would SEE how ill easy child is and WHY easy child CAN'T call for herself.....
easy child cannot talk, now, due to throat, and cannot walk due to weakness....and the levels of persons AT docs office prohibit getting thru.....It is a gigantic clinic with multi desks of reception to pass thru and then multi layers of staff at every step----
I have calls in at 2 other docs- while they see if they can "squeeze" her in, BUT they are both several HOURS from home. which unless they get her more stable, is gonna be a problem all of its own if she has to go back and forth mush as ill as she is.....the only way it will be good is if they DO get her under control somehow. But becuz she is NOT a patient at the other 2 places already, they are not accepting simply taking her in, especially since she is already so ill.
 

Andy

Active Member
What a nightmare! I am sorry to bring this up, but I work in a health facility and have been told in the wonderful world of HIPPA, you can not release records to anyone (even another facility) without a release from the patient (or patient representative). I hope this is not the case and the wrong facility can atleast send them where they need to go. They should atleast be sent back to the ER to start the process over. And ER should atleast have written documents that can be copied and forwarded to correct doctor. It was really hard for me to get my twin sister's records following an accident - she could not move so I had to get the release form, take it to her home for her signature, and back to the hospital to get the information she needed for the automobile insurance and to claim short term disability.

To me, it looks like someone looked at her record, noticed a record from when whe was a peds patient and automatically forwarded it to that facility instead of looking for the order of where to send it. They just looked at the first document in the chart and did not read the end with the most current info.

This place is absolutely a nightmare!!! There has got to be somewhere in the doctor's office that you can register a complaint. Take your daughter to any registration desk and demand the 1st opening available with any doctor - most places have a walk-in doctor for the day. Tell them the ER is requesting she see a doctor and since your doctor's nurse chooses to refuse ER directions, you are requesting a different doctor NOW!!!

Ohhh, I am just raging with you!!!
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Dreamer...do you know a notary public that would come to the house and notarize a medical power of attorney? If not, then simply print off a simple MPOA off the internet, put easy child in the car with her ID, drive to a bank...yours preferably...and they can notarize it there. Then take easy child home. Then you go to the doctors office, give them a copy of the MPOA....make copies...and they will talk to you.

This really is absurd. Cory is over 18. Heck he will be 22 in a few weeks. I have only run into a few snags with this sort of thing but normally he gets on the phone and says please talk to my mom, I dont know much and the phone gets passed to me and all is well. I know when he started with the psychiatric group he is with now he signed all sorts of OK's for them to talk with me...I was even in the room for all his testing and meeting with the psychiatrist.
 

Andy

Active Member
P.S. Start a journal of documentation of EVERYTHING that has taken place (phone calls, ER visits, ect.). You may find it useful someday. I would use it to contact the director of the clinic and ask why your daughter is being signaled out to be refused life saving medical help.
 

Sara PA

New Member
Ask the ER what they plan to do about the fact that they already released your daughter's records to someone who was not authorized to have them -- the wrong doctor. Don't call the ER, call the hospital administrator. When they want to know why you want to talk to him, tell 'em it's about their violation of the HIPAA laws and the ER's behavior that is endangering your daughter's life.

That's a load of digested hay that they can't send the reports to the correct doctor. Tell them to send the reports to the patient's current OB like they were suppose to do the first time. Their mistake of sending them to the wrong doctor doesn't count as "sending the records once".

Oh, and that person who was telling you that your daughter was so ill was violating HIPAA by telling you that. She shouldn't have been discussing anything about a patient with you.
 

Andy

Active Member
:tongue: I never could spell - I told a co-worker that I can always look it up in the dictionary to which she laughed and see, "But YOU never use a dictionary either!" This probably wouldn't be in a dictionary anyway.

O.K. HIPAA - I hate it anyway it is spelt. Its purpose started out with good intentions but went way too far. Just because one person in what 100,0000,0000 has a problem we all have to adhere to this. What a waste of staff time. Or as this clinic is doing, it is used so staff don't have to do their job.
 

slsh

member since 1999
I absolutely agree with Sara - absolutely. They violated HIPAA by sending records to wrong doctor in the first place. The whole point of forwarding these records is continuity of care - which cannot happen if they don't send to the correct doctor. Call ER and tell them to send to OB/GYN on the record - they're not having to take your word for anything other than the fact that they committed a very serious HIPAA violation by sending records to an unauthorized person in the first place.

Goodness, Dreamer.... this is just a nightmare. Hope other docs are calling you back.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Sara wrote, "pisst.....guys....it's HIPAA -- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act."

I think another point here that Sara was trying to make - the "A" stands for "Accountability" and right now, they're not showing any evidence of it.

I would be making them accountable, under the Act.

Marg
 
F

flutterbee

Guest
Honestly, at this point I'd call one of those ambulance chaser, personal injury attorney's. They will come out to your house if you are too ill to come in (and easy child is). Let him write the letters and make the phone calls.

Letters from attorney's usually get some action.

I don't normally advocate that route, but at this point I think you're out of other options.
 
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