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 ...
Prayers UP!..................
NO!! God Bless Stossel.
Kindred we are.
Prayers all the way!
Another example ofNew York values.....hospitals in other parts of the country..usually red..are superb. I speak from first hand experience
X-rays? I suspect that is how they found the tumor in the first place.
EKG tests? Let's make sure your heart doesn't have some underlying dysrhythmia before surgery.
Echocardiogram? Was something wrong with the EKG? You need an echo so you can be placed on appropriate medications before surgery. It is better to get tuned up before you get on the table than crash during surgery.
Blood tests? Ummm, let's find out if you are anemic, hyponatremic before surgery. Let's also make sure your don't have any bleeding problems before the knife touches your skin.
If he only had obamacare he would be dead.
Seriously?? Did you really find it necessary to bring New York values into this? You really are a classless person.
“answer to consumers”
There are great barriers to entry (med school, hospital certificate of need), so these people and institutions don’t really have to care if you are pleased.
“e-mail”
Doctors don’t have enough time for hands-on care, so they certainly don’t need e-mail burdens added to their workload.
IS he a smoker?
Is he a cigarette smoker?
Hospitals here in NYC are some of the very best. University, Bellevue, Sloan-Kettering, NY Hospital, Presbyterian, you name it, they are wonderful. If you don’t know about hospital bureaucracy (which is what the article is about) than lucky you - you mustn’t spend too much time in them. I don’t know any doctors, aside from friends, who hand out their email addresses or cell numbers.
Stossel is oversimplifying what it takes to effectively treat serious diseases. Just because the diagnosis is lung cancer does not mean that he doesn't suffer from sufficiently serious heart disease making surgery impossible.
I survived multiple medical crises two years ago and owe my life to a team of half a dozen specialists working together to get me through. It cost my insurer a bundle and I don't resent a single dollar of it.
If those doctors live in mansions and drive expensive cars that I can't afford, I'm fine with it.
I do not know if he smoked. Was wondering, too.
prayers
Knock of that crap.
Prayers up for Stossel. A friend has lung cancer that is inoperable, but responding to treatment. Long term outlook is not great.
An “Our Father” on the way for John. God Bless him!
He might want to wait until he’s done with treatment before he says bad things about the hospital staff.
I had carpal tunnel surgery at the Hospital for Joint Diseases here in Manhattan. It was first class all the way, totally. On the other hand, the Brooklyn Hospital Center is a real doghouse. I had major surgery there about 12 years ago. While my surgeon was fantastic, the hospital was a place I would not bring my cat. An orderly wheeled me from 6 1/2 hours of surgery into an elevator, where he bumped me into the wall, causing excruciating pain. Then he wheeled me into my room and did not help me into the bed. Then a woman came into the room and started screaming I was in HER bed! Then the orderly did not help me back on to the gurney to put me into the other bed, nor did he help me get into my proper bed. Nasty Caribbean nurses. Medical waste left on the floor of my room. Food waste left in unemptied waste baskets in my room. I slept with a vomit stained (I could not tolerate Percoset) blanket for 3 days. The nurses complained I rang their bell too much, even though it was mostly for my new roommate, who had no legs and could not reach the bell. Then they did not want to release me, even to a friend doctor's care. When I wrote the state board of health, I did not even receive the courtesy of a reply.
“EKG tests, echocardiograms”
More than one of each?
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