Posted on 04/26/2016 10:27:40 AM PDT by beaversmom
By
Published April 20, 2016
I write this from the hospital. Seems I have lung cancer.
My doctors tell me my growth was caught early and I'll be fine. Soon I will barely notice that a fifth of my lung is gone. I believe them. After all, I'm at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. U.S. News & World Report ranked it No. 1 in New York. I get excellent medical care here.
But as a consumer reporter, I have to say, the hospital's customer service stinks. Doctors keep me waiting for hours, and no one bothers to call or email to say, "I'm running late." Few doctors give out their email address. Patients can't communicate using modern technology.
I get X-rays, EKG tests, echocardiograms, blood tests. Are all needed? I doubt it. But no one discusses that with me or mentions the cost. Why would they? The patient rarely pays directly. Government or insurance companies pay.
I fill out long medical history forms by hand and, in the next office, do it again. Same wording: name, address, insurance, etc.
I shouldn't be surprised that hospitals are lousy at customer service. The Detroit Medical Center once bragged that it was one of America's first hospitals to track medication with barcodes. Good! But wait -- ordinary supermarkets did that decades before.
Customer service is sclerotic because hospitals are largely socialist bureaucracies. Instead of answering to consumers, which forces businesses to be nimble, hospitals report...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I was quite sick years back (cancer). I’d be in and out of the hospital on a regular basis. I started declining blood tests because there was no need to monitor anything closely. I’m a very informed patient. I asked if I was home whether they’d be calling me in for blood tests and they said ‘no’. So I said ‘let’s pretend I’m home then’.
FYI, if (prayers that I will always be healthy) I ever get sick, I am going to my dog's vets. He gets awesome care from the docs and awesome care from customer service. He has bone marrow cancer and is doing OK. He's happy and chasing bunnies and squirrels.
Seriously?? Did you really find it necessary to bring New York values into this? You really are a classless person.
Maybe more than 1 EKG. Probably one Echo.
I read that as a literary device.
It's a bit frightening, but I think Obamacare and the future of advanced cancer medicines are in opposition to each other. Government healthcare doesn't want to pay for targeted therapies, IMRT and immuno-oncology.
Sounds like the VA. . .
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2685965/posts?page=11#11
Long story but shows just how incompetent, uncaring, unprofessional and downright cruel VA hospitals, especially the Long Beach VA hospital, can be.
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