I’m a nurse, and I know that the charge nurse is not always there.
I have an aside, here, that I hope opens people’s eyes about hospitals.
Yesterday, my postperson delivered a large manila envelope to me, and had me sign for it, as it was certified mail. It was of course addressed to me, and had the correct address on it.
Inside, was a form letter from the radiology department of the hospital where I went for treatment of my heart attack, over a year ago, stating that they did not have room to store my x-rays from another facility and were returning them to me. No name was on the form letter, no signature. The CDs enclosed had someone else’s name on them, the last name was similar but spelled differently.
I called the radiology department librarian who had presumably sent me the letter and the CDs by certified mail, and explained that there was an error. The young lady who answered said she had no idea what to do, and transferred my call to medical records.
The medical records librarian said that it wasn’t her problem, the radiology department librarian was “always doing that.” She said she couldn’t help me either, and would transfer me back to radiology.
I said, never mind to that, connect me with the hospital administrator. The secretary to the administrator was horrified, and said she would investigate and call me back. She did, and started to tell me something about the other patient. I immediately cautioned her that the other patient’s information was confidential, and I had no right to it, and that she should stop. She did. She asked me to just drop the CDs in the mail to her. I refused, stating that was not secure handling of records, and that the hospital should figure something out.
She said she would call me back again.
The next call was from someone in “Risk Management” who said that a courier would pick up the records. She asked me if I had opened the envelope. Of course, I told her. It had MY NAME ON IT. Again she said she would have the records picked up, and said, “And that will take care of everything.”
“Not quite,” I said. I told her that this was causing me a bit of concern about MY records. “I can assure you that your records are safe,” she said. I just laughed. “Pardon me if I don’t believe you,” I said, and told her what the medical records librarian had said about the radiology department librarian was “always doing that.” I reminded her that I had nothing to gain by telling her the truth.
Today is the weekend, and I have not heard further. I didn’t expect to, since the administrator’s office and the legal department don’t work on weekends.
This is just to let everyone know:
DON’T TRUST THE HOSPITALS! I received excellent care, and I have had no other problems with this hospital, but from TOP TO BOTTOM, hospitals are a mess.
This was a paperwork error. Can you imagine what other errors occur? I could tell you stories that would curl your hair.
Question everything. Never leave a loved one alone, who cannot speak for themselves. Do not let anyone in the room if you don’t know who they are. All hospital personnel must have identification, and produce it on demand.
Just confirms my worst fears about our small town hospital, my whole family has made a pact, if we have to go to our hospital, get stabilized and get the hell down the road to the hospital we have had great care from.
Yeh, well when the charge nurse is not there, I ask where is she, and when will she be back? I learned to be pretty insistent. Eventually, I came to know a lot of the charge nurses and asst. managers of each floor by name. Always very polite, reasonable, and firm. Always wrote thank you notes to those who helped me.
I also had my cardiologist’s number and my primary care physicians number in my cell phone. Hardly ever had to use them, but they never failed to call me back within 3 minutes when I needed them.
As someone who has worked extensively with medical records, I can tell you that this law isn't always followed to a T, nor is it practical, but if you don't stand up for your rights in this case, they will continue there lackadaisical attitude towards this law in other cases ("they are always doing that"). So although, you personally, may not be affected, it is the principle of the matter for others down the road. Believe you me, if the medical records department is not called on it now, they will continue in it's practice.