Friday, January 8, 2010

This is surely what will put me in an early grave..

Monday I posted about our referral to the MUSC epilepsy center in Charleston. After some thinking, it seemed like a 3 pm appointment on a Friday was kind of late. So on Wed. I put in a call to them...turns out the appointment that we were driving 4+ hrs for was scheduled for 45 minutes! UH....N-O...not gonna cut it for this kid.
So, I began negotiating, trying to get an earlier appointment with more time and earlier in the week. No doin'! After much debate the receptionist told me that if our pediatrician called and asked to speak directly to the doctor that maybe he might work something out. Well, I called the pediatrician on Wed. and asked them to put in a call. Today, we went for a follow up appointment and found out that the call had never been made. So they got on it today and they got the same run around! The girl calling, a good friend of ours at the office, put in 5 different calls trying to wrangle a different arrangement and even after a request to talk directly with the doctor she never got through. They said that 45 minutes was the standard appointment for first timers and they only did them on two days, each week! After her 5th call, they offered an appointment with another doctor (who is new to the area) and not even listed on the epilepsy center's website! We said no, of course! As of 4pm, we are still no where closer to a resolution.
Some of you may not know about the MANY battles like this I have had in the past. Trying to get approval for things, visits with specialists out of our area...etc, etc, etc. I keep a special costume for this in our hall closet. It looks like a big bull..... you know..... for the china shop! Meaning, I don't give up or in very easily... actually NEVER! So, I started brainstorming and stumbled upon this doctor's email address! HA HA HA!!! I guess you can picture what I did next. Yup....VERY long email directly to him...begging for his help in my most sincere, desperate voice! We will see how this pans out......
I get so frustrated with bureaucracy! It seems like we have enough problems dealing with all the medical issues, insurance, state agencies but then every one else has to get in on the "pain in the butt" wagon, too! I have a very low tolerance for this kind of mess! If you are a doctor, out there, reading me.... think about your patients as individuals not just charts on your desk. Isn't that why you became a doctor? Especially for special needs children....their cases are NEVER ordinary and NEVER simple. FORTY-FIVE MINUTES AIN'T GONNA CUT IT, FOLKS.....

3 comments:

The Henrys said...

I totally understand what you are saying in this post. I'm so glad that you found his email and sent him a letter. I have found that by doing something unusual as that can have better results.

I try to give all of my patience and energy to my children and when I have to deal with things like this, I don't have much left for them.

It just seems to me like there should be some organization to help us with this stuff. I never knew how much of this we would have to deal with. It is overwhelming!

Hang in there and let me know what you find out.

Debbi

Katy said...

You've got more faith in the neurologists than I do!

April said...

Way to keep at it!! It's not easy to fight those battles when we fight so many at home every day...