Redundancy

Is redundancy another world for inefficiency? Honest to pete, this past week has been a run-around to top all runs-around because people simply DO NOT LISTEN. Here's the process:

I went to the ortho surgeon who redid my right knee surgery as I completed physical therapy and needed to be released from care, perhaps more so the insurance companies can pay the bills than for any other reason. Our post-surgery/post-therapy conference included an in-depth conversation about my left hip/back, the area I hurt when I fell late at night Dec 15 and ended up in the ER in the wee hours of Dec 16. The knee surgeon explained that we can only deal with one procedure at a time, but now that the knee seems to be healing nicely, it's time for the referral for the back/hip surgeon.

Yippee was MY reaction: my back, although much better than it was, is not good. Sometimes, I can stand; mostly, I can sit; seldom can I sleep through the night because I cannot find a comfortable position that allows both the pain in my right knee and the pain in my left hip/back area to calm enough to allow uninterrupted sleep. The knee ortho told me that the back ortho would contact me to set up the appointment, and I received the call from Esther the first of this week. She asked a few questions and included a request for the bone x-rays from the fall that resulted in the trip to the ER before the new doc would decide whether to take me on as a new patient.

I explained to her that the fall resulted in a trip to the ER at JFK at the east end of the Valley. I told her that the bone ex-rays did NOT show a fracture, but the ER doc did not order an MRI. I added that I had knee surgery at JFK the following Tues (the trip to the ER was in the wee hours of the previous TH) and asked if she needed either those films or a written report.

No, she responded. All she required was the ER doctor's report of the bone x-rays done at JFK in the wee hours of Dec 16, but I should also pick up the bone x-rays and bring them with me if/when the doctor decided that he would take me on as a new patient.

Not a problem, I told Esther, and I made the phone call to the knee surgeon's office after I finished the call with Esther. I asked for the nurse, explained that although I had knee surgery Dec 22 with the knee doctor, I had bone x-rays at JFK the week prior -- and my knee doctor had both the bone x-rays and the written report from the attending ER doctor. I requested that the written report be faxed to the referral back/hip doctor, and said I would drive to the east Valley area to pick up the bone x-rays when they were ready for me to do so. She confirmed by repeating to me that she exactly understood what I needed and did, indeed, fax the written report to the referral doctor.

The written report for the knee surgery, NOT the written report from the ER doctor re: my injury to my left back/hip area.

Okay, so it's already screwed up, but then it got tricky. The knee doc's nurse called to confirm that she had faxed the ER doc's report to the back/hip doc, but she had the bone ex-rays at the office and I would have to pick them up from her. No, I contradicted her, you faxed the report of the KNEE surgery to the back doc, not the report from the ER visit re: my back/hip. This conversation was followed by a reminder that the back doc needs a copy of the ER doc's written report re: the bone x-rays of my left back/hip area, as well as the films at my first appointment, scheduled for the first week in March. This was followed by a recorded phone call from the knee doctor's staff the next day that the films I requested were available at the doc's office -- which is a 50-mile-round trip for me that I made yesterday to pick up said films.

I called to confirm that these are the bone x-rays from JFK of my left back/hip area, NOT the surgery films from my knee surgery at the same facility a week later. Yep, they assured me, they have what I requested, so come on down. No one in the knee doc's office could find the films when I asked for them, but spent almost half an hour looking for them. Finally, one of the office staff took my phone number and said that someone would call me Friday to clarify where the films are so I can fetch them.

That call came this morning: there are no films because ... I told the nurse that I needed the written report/films from the KNEE surgery performed at a different hospital in a different community, a conversation we never shared about a surgery that never happened at a facility in another locale. Because this was not the nurse with whom I originally had the conversation, I clarified that I did NOT have had that conversation. I then explained, again, that what I need to pick up from either her or the nearby hospital is the x-ray series of my back/hip taken in the wee hours of Dec 16, 2010. After putting me on hold, she came back on-line to tell me that she cannot find a record of my back surgery on that date at that facility.

After counting to 10, I asked a different question: will you please tell me where to pick up copies of x-rays taken on Dec 16 at the ER at JFK? Her response: I'm not sure what you are asking me; did you have surgery at that facility on that date? No, I replied, I did not -- I was in the ER for another reason and need a copy of the x-rays taken at that time.

The bottom line is that she's going to request those films from that facility under my name taken on that date -- and I can pick them up Monday. I completely avoided telling her that I absolutely do NOT want/need the films taken during my knee surgery the following week, so maybe, just maybe, I will arrive at JFK next Monday and pick up what I need for appointment with the back surgeon. If I don't get the back/hip x-rays, perhaps I can order the x-rays I've been trying to get for the past week by dealing with the radiology department directly -- myself.