Ten calls. Or wait tell after July.

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That is how many calls it took to get an appointment with Gastroenterology at the hospital. Luckily I got in touch with someone who works within the office and they went back and talked with one of my doctors and are getting me on the 22nd due to everything going on.

And now I have that office number in my phone to call when an issue like this comes up.

 

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And I thought it was just the NHS in the UK had problems. Just goes to show we have to be persistent and advocate for ourselves

 

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Great job at being persistent. Probably because I was an administrator in various healthcare settings, I have been able to avoid some built-in bureaucracy. Nothing like having a doctor’s cell phone. It certainly helps if patient or spouse can be advocates for theirselves.

 

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No - the problem is quite evident here in the states. I'm under the Lovelace and Presbyterian systems and my experience has mirrored the @ThatFLGuy post.

 

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I don't Care about throwing a hospital under the bus or exposing more about where I live here in Pennsylvania.


So for anyone asking. I am dealing with Geisinger Medical, Their Danville Pa. campus in particular. They are so backed up but still taking on new patients. They then of course do not take care of their current patients.

It is a mess. I told the desk nurse that it was ridiculous that I would have to drive all the way there, demand to see a patient advocate, or hope that the Director of operations within GI whom I have a cell phone number for to return my call.

In the past, if I felt like I did early this morning I would have gone to the ER/ED but then I had a very small BM and felt better.

I told the desk nurse that all I needed was someone with medical experience to tell me if what was going on was normal for post-surgery from a Gastroenterology standpoint. Things are not right and not how they were so I need to know what to do/try.

Nobody at this hospital knows what to do with me because my case is so bad. This time I am going to flat-out ask if I should go elsewere and cut my ties with them. I am even going to call the other hospital about all this and see what they have to say about getting me back in and taking over my care. It just sucks because it is two hours from me and the weather here in Pa. is getting bad again.

 

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I am disappointed in your care. They should be able to do a video medical appointment and you would not have to drive. My urologist had his own emergency surgery and complications in the fall. Safe to say his care fell below accepted standards I suspect. He went to the big system in town. Anyways while he was recovering we did a telemedicine call for his convenience.

I would be remiss to not mention an ortho surgeon who repaired a very bad broken back on a college girl fall of 2019. He was trauma at a satellite facility close to Western NY. The girl was brought by ambulance with my daughter at her side. I am happy to say there was a full recovery, married and expecting a baby. I had showed a photo of the lower back repair to a doctor who was very impressed with the technique. If they can do it in the middle of no where they should be able to do it at HQ. What was HQ? It was Geisinger.

By the way, my complete radiation and urology care is being handled by independent physicians outside of the big institutions. My place is where doctors go for treatment.

 

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You stated, "My place is where doctors go to be treated". Did I miss that in your post? Where is it that doctors go to be treated? Thanks.

 

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My facility is Northern Ohio Regional Cancer. At this early stage of my treatment plan I am very satisfied with care and the staff.

 

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@DWLCPAJD

I don't know how much of my full story anyone has read but yeah. There has been a huge dereliction of duty as it comes to my care from day one with all of this.

Pa. blames everything on Florida doctors not doing enough during the first surgery. When I went to Penn Hershey IBD center they said that Geisinger didn't do enough testing. Yea. I need an expert on IBD to get to the bottom of all of this.

 

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Don't burn any bridges. The more hospitals and doctors involved, the more complex your case becomes and the greater the chance of miscommunication. As well, the greater the chance of people not getting back to you, at least in a timely manner when you or your new hcp needs info. Also, if you are a current patient of a given doctor or clinic, there is less chance you will be confused by them for someone else. You should remain vigilant where your self-advocacy is concerned, but there may be a fine line that will be easily crossed by an angry word.

 

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Jeffswet: very good points. Here is another thing for everyone to consider. The big systems want to capture all of the services for a patient, from birth to death. Now with the apps like My Chart it does improve communication between providers of in the same system. But if you self refer to another network your total records would not be there.

Separately have people noticed that they don’t send bills any more. They put it on the app and you pay via the app. No more paper in the mail.

 

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@DWLCPAJD

Geisinger uses My Chart and most hospitals here in Pa. do.

Even using the app some of my providers do not respond to messages in anything of a reasonable time. My PCP once did not even respond at all to a message until I called a full month later.

The set-up appointment feature also is a dud because every time I try to set up with GI I get a message 24-48 hours later saying nothing is open even if I put today through September 1st.