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Mar. 6th, 2014 08:33 pm
Private costs, public efficiency
I didn't realise how long it'd been since I started the process of requesting to have my medical records sent from one doctor's office to another. It's not just that the holidays intervened, it's that every time I have to deal with my ex-provider (the "ex" is for a reason, after all) it's like punching myself in the face. Back in December, they told me I needed to send them a signed letter making the request. So I did. In January, when I was thinking about making another appointment with my new doc, I decided to call and check that they had actually fulfilled the request. The useless receptionist had no idea; I would have to speak to the office manager. Naturally he never got in touch.
So Monday I called and spoke with him. He couldn't find any record of a request either and asked, "Do you have a fax machine?" At which point I barked back, "I don't have a fax machine, I live in the 21st century!" "I'm just trying to help," he retorted. I apologised to him, but what I really wanted to say was, "If you want to help, how about DOING WHAT I ASKED YOU TO DO in the first fucking place?" Finally he admitted they could accept a scan, which would've been nice to know, say, three months ago. We don't have a scanner at home (I'm not that 21st century yet) and I was out half the week, so it's only just today that I managed to send that off. (Getting the scanner to cooperate was a whole nother tale of woe I don't wish to think about.)
So now, as I wait to hear how the scan didn't arrive/was wrong in some way or--more likely--hear nothing and have to follow up yet again, I'm wondering, Why is this my responsibility anyway? Why can't someone from the new provider--who is being paid generously to supply my care--take the lead in fighting my old provider for what they need to provide my treatment? I guess the answer is that they'd have to hire a FTE to do nothing else but. The most galling things of all, of course, is that they're legally my records, why does anyone have to fight for them at all? Why can't they simply be held in a secure third-party database that will release them at the stroke of button from me?
(Don't tell me "security concerns". One of my other former providers--who was equally foot-draggy about forwarding records--got hacked last year, so it looks like what I'm being served is a rancid combination of insecurity and inconvenience. But, you know, let's just privatise everything because commercial enterprises are so much more efficient than the public sector.)
So Monday I called and spoke with him. He couldn't find any record of a request either and asked, "Do you have a fax machine?" At which point I barked back, "I don't have a fax machine, I live in the 21st century!" "I'm just trying to help," he retorted. I apologised to him, but what I really wanted to say was, "If you want to help, how about DOING WHAT I ASKED YOU TO DO in the first fucking place?" Finally he admitted they could accept a scan, which would've been nice to know, say, three months ago. We don't have a scanner at home (I'm not that 21st century yet) and I was out half the week, so it's only just today that I managed to send that off. (Getting the scanner to cooperate was a whole nother tale of woe I don't wish to think about.)
So now, as I wait to hear how the scan didn't arrive/was wrong in some way or--more likely--hear nothing and have to follow up yet again, I'm wondering, Why is this my responsibility anyway? Why can't someone from the new provider--who is being paid generously to supply my care--take the lead in fighting my old provider for what they need to provide my treatment? I guess the answer is that they'd have to hire a FTE to do nothing else but. The most galling things of all, of course, is that they're legally my records, why does anyone have to fight for them at all? Why can't they simply be held in a secure third-party database that will release them at the stroke of button from me?
(Don't tell me "security concerns". One of my other former providers--who was equally foot-draggy about forwarding records--got hacked last year, so it looks like what I'm being served is a rancid combination of insecurity and inconvenience. But, you know, let's just privatise everything because commercial enterprises are so much more efficient than the public sector.)
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