No-show, no-call

[George K]

I'm pissed.

Mrs. George has a spinal cord stimulator (since 2018) for chronic back pain - failed fusion, etc.

Any time she needs an MRI, it's a BFD, because the magnet can screw up the stimulator. So, to get an MRI it needs to be coordinated with the manufacturer of the device so they can test impedances, turn the device off and test afterward.

A month ago, she scheduled an MRI for this AM - at 6:30. It was the soonest available date. She called the stimulator company to let them know, and they confirmed everything: date, time and location. We got a confirmation call from the hospital, telling us to be there at 6:30 for a 7:00 scan.

So, we got our asses out of the house at 5:30 this AM, got downtown at about 6:05 and parked. With the walk, we arrived at 6:20. She was taken promptly at 6:30. At 6:45, we were told that the rep was not there, and we were asked if we could call.

I called the company's "therapy support" line, and my call went to voicemail. I explained what was going on and left my phone # for a callback.

No callback.

It's now 7:15, and by that time, I had called another couple of times - all going to voicemail, but I left no message. I then called "Tech Support" and got to speak to a human being. He saw the scheduled scan and said he would page the rep to get back to me.

No callback.

I spent the next hour leaving voicemails, and called tech support again to ask them to page the rep.

No callback.

Finally at 8:15 we decided this is bullshit and decided to leave.

On the way home, at 8:40, we got a call saying that the rep got the schedule as being 8:30, not 6:30, and she had just missed us. The timestamp on the parking lot receipt says 8:35.

I'm pissed.

First of all, it's going to be at least 2 weeks before this can get rescheduled.

But, mostly, I'm pissed that the company fucked it up. Getting a screwup of 8:30 vs 6:30 is human error and totally forgivable.

WHat's NOT forgivable is the fact that not one person returned my calls. Had they simply said, "Oh! She thought it's 8:30! Can you wait?" we would have certainly waited another 15 minutes.

But no.

I'm pissed. Out of bed at 5AM, drive downtown chicago, pay for parking, wait for almost 2 hours and drive home without the courtesy of a return phone call. There's no excuse for a company not to return a phone call when patient therapy is involved.

Have I said, I'm pissed?

[Jolly]

Welcome to the New Medicine.

[George K]

@Jolly said in No-show, no-call:

Welcome to the New Medicine.

Nah, I'll just blame this on incompetence (some intern probably entered the time incorrectly) and lousy procedures (you MUST return a call from a patient, regardless of time of day). We're meeting with the rep tomorrow AM to check impedances. Hopefully, that'll be good enough to schedule the MRI.

By the way, a "strongly-worded" email was sent to the company via their web page.

"Contact us!"

Sure...

[Mik]

Yeah I’d be pissed too. Unforgivable. It wasted your time and money and the hospital’s time, resources and clinical staff. That’s a chunk of change to provide no health benefit.

[Aqua Letifer]

I'd raise more shit, honestly. Unforgivable is right.

[Horace]

That would be infuriating.

[Axtremus]

Sorry that your time has been wasted, @George-K, and for the hassle to have to reschedule many things.

Not sure if it’s an isolated incident; my impression is that the medical service industry has been very bad at being “on time” for a long time.

[George K]

@Axtremus said in No-show, no-call:

my impression is that the medical service industry has been very bad at being “on time” for a long time.

Late surgeons was one of the most annoying things I encountered. I can understand when things run late at the clinic, or you're stuck at another place behind a slow surgeon. However, there's zero excuse for being late for the first case of the day.

Well there are a couple of excuses. I would say to offender...

1. Did you have an accident on the way in this morning?
2. Who was bleeding that made you late for a 7:30 start?
3. Good afternoon!

But, I have to say that my experience with tardiness, as a patient, has been not all that bad. It's rare for me to sit in a waiting room more than about 10 minutes past my scheduled time.

This was a totally forgivable scheduling error. The lack of communication was unforgivable, IMO.

[George K]

Followup...

Met with the rep this morning to check impedance to allow MRI to be performed.

She said the screwup was that the scheduler was in California, so when he heard "6:30" he thought it was 8:30 central time. We knew we were in trouble when Mrs. George scheduled it and he didn't know how to pronounce "Huron" street. I guess he never heard of the Great Lakes in school.

When I said that tech support said they would page her, she said that they sent an email, which she couldn't retrieve while driving to the 8:30 meeting.

I emphasized the fact that communication was abysmal, and she was apologetic. I can tolerate a human mistake, but I can't tolerate incompetence or a lousy system. She had no real response - after all, what could she say?

[Rainman]

The tech for the stimulator told me that MRIs are no problem. I went in for an MRI a few days ago, and when I mentioned to the tech what the stimulator tech told me, he said that in some cases, they are able to work around the stimulator, but that overall "this will be your last MRI."
I know you hate the system when it F's up, my selfish interest is to find out all I can about the stimulator as it looks like I will have one implanted as well.
Hope Mrs. George is enjoying some success with her back stimulator? Did she feel anything different during the MRI?

[George K]

@Rainman said in No-show, no-call:

Hope Mrs. George is enjoying some success with her back stimulator? Did she feel anything different during the MRI?

The stimulator's been there since December 2018. It drastically reduced her need for pain meds - cut them by about ¾.

SHe's had more than a handful of MRI's since the stimulator went in. Never a problem - other than the clusterfuck this week.

It's rescheduled for Jan 11.

I mentioned to the tech what the stimulator tech told me, he said that in some cases, they are able to work around the stimulator, but that overall "this will be your last MRI."

It depends on the scanner. Some are "stimulator-happy." When she scheduled it, she mentioned that she has the simulator, and they said that only certain locations have a scanner that will be OK.