tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21166579.post1032061235006530209..comments2024-02-19T08:12:53.815-05:00Comments on The Right Thing: When doctors don't listen, patients sufferJeffrey L. Seglinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15648051034425906705noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21166579.post-1980893587362612482012-12-17T16:26:29.727-05:002012-12-17T16:26:29.727-05:00Unfortunately, no news is not necessarily good new...Unfortunately, no news is not necessarily good news. Lab test results get misplaced all too often. Because of the seriousness, the National Quality Forum added Failure to follow up with laboratory tests as a serious reportable event (a Never Event)in 2011. <br /><br />While the unnecessary visit is certainly a problem, a far greater problem from a quality care and safety point of view is the lack of results. This is very serious. <br /><br />If you do not hear about test results when you expect to, call the medical office and ask. Persevere until you get a specific answer and no do not accept "will call if there is a problem."<br /><br />Leslie Ray RN<br />Patient Safety Consultant<br />Portland, ORAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21166579.post-88266631806793713212012-12-17T07:44:54.570-05:002012-12-17T07:44:54.570-05:00When I get a test where results come later, I alwa...When I get a test where results come later, I always say "If everything is OK, will I hear nothing?" This clears the mind and prevents the medical people from making a lot of unnnecessary calls (which cost $ in the end). No news is good news.<br /><br />As for the unnneded visit, this is just sloppy workmanmship.<br /><br />Alan Owseichik<br />Greenfield, Ma<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21166579.post-9444714821999357462012-12-17T03:22:04.861-05:002012-12-17T03:22:04.861-05:00Jeffrey, I believe the patient's examples ment...Jeffrey, I believe the patient's examples mentioned and your own comments about the shortcomings were correct in their entirety. To these comments should be added that these unacceptable experiences and I'm sure many more that readers could add are simply evidence of what has happened to our medical treatment, which is now excessively busy and inefficient.<br /><br />And, in all honesty, one must take this discussion to its logical conclusion, in that from all indications, the vaunted Patients Care Act, which has not even taken effect yet, promises even worse complications. You cannot add all the many millions of new persons who will now be covered under the new act, to the existing persons already in the system and expect anything near acceptable results, since if anything, the medical profession itself is shrinking, not adding new members, since doctors can forsee disaster ahead and are leaving the profession in frightening numbers. Of course, all of this was not considered by the dreamers who have foisted this new and unworkable plan on the country's unsuspecting patients.<br /><br />Charlie Seng<br />Lancaster, SCAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21166579.post-59775680312324437262012-12-16T18:50:50.245-05:002012-12-16T18:50:50.245-05:00Jeffrey,
Surely your readers sought the assistanc...Jeffrey,<br /><br />Surely your readers sought the assistance of these medical professionals because they offered medical expertise and experience that your readers lacked. Why then would they second guess these professionals in how they dispense that expertise?!? <br /><br />I understand that it is inconvenient for your readers not to know their test results in a more timely manner but as one of your readers was told, the doctor would have contacted her if there had been a problem. Sometimes no news from the -oncologist- is in fact good news.<br /><br />William Jacobson<br />Anaheim, CAWilliam Jacobsonnoreply@blogger.com