I bet it has been a little worrisome and a little frustrating that I haven’t posted a blog yet to let everyone know what is going on.
Yeah. That’s exactly how I feel.
On Friday, when we were at the hospital, I was told that the radiologists would read the studies that we had done, and our physician would have the results available to him by Friday afternoon. Since I work in a hospital, I know that to be true; radiologists usually read studies within an hour of their completion, and once the results are dictated, any physician can access the report from just about any computer.
Monday morning, I was patient. I knew I would wait until at least noon before I bothered calling. When I did finally call at 1:30pm, I was told that the doctor hadn’t had a chance to look at the results yet, and we would be called as soon as he had.
Fast forward to nearly 5pm, when we finally get a call. The nurse tells me that his labs are back (which were drawn LAST Monday) and that they are all normal. He has no allergies, his CBC and Metabolic Panel were both well within the normal range. “Great,” I said, “What about the other tests?”
“We don’t have any other results,” she tells me. “We’ll have to wait until you’ve had the EEG and Upper GI.”
Are you kidding me?
“We had those done on Friday,” I told her. “I was told that you would be able to get the report by Friday afternoon.”
“You’ve had both of them done?”
“Yes! Both of them!” I was beginning to get more than a little irritated.
“Well, they must be in the computer then. I’ll pull them off and have Dr. L look at them tomorrow and call you with results.”
“Great, thanks. Bye.”
I wasn’t very polite at this point. It’s not really that difficult to check to see if there are results back on your patients before you call, it just takes an extra two seconds. This was nothing but pure laziness.
Today, while at the mall in order to get out of the house and combat some stir-craziness, I got another call from the doctors office. The same nurse says they have the results for the Upper GI. I can tell she’s reading it. “It says that he has a very, very mild case of reflux, but is otherwise normal. Now, when is his EEG scheduled?”
I seriously had to pick my jaw up off of the floor. “Scheduled? He had it FRIDAY. It was ON FRIDAY. WE’VE ALREADY DONE IT.” How do I keep my patience, keep my temper?
“Oh. We don’t have the report for that yet. Someone will call you when we have the report.”
Is this seriously what people have to deal with? Is this standard operating procedure? Because it’s pretty freaking sad, and incredibly frustrating to say the least.
Let me be completely honest. I’m not sitting here biting my nails, waiting for them to tell me whether or not my kid is gonna die. He’s fine. I don’t have a bad feeling in my gut, I haven’t noticed something so terribly bad that I’m terrified. The frequency with which his little ‘twitch’ has been occurring has gone down to maybe once or twice a day. But that is really not the point. The results are in, and they are available, and my Pediatric office is too incompetent to get the results out and where they need to go.
I’m truly ready to find a new office. It’s time.
