I went to a local hospital this week to pick up some CD's containing recent diagnostic imagery. I duly reported in, and was directed to a small office, where someone would meet me with the CD's. After a few minutes, a very pleasant young lady came in, handed me a brown envelope, and assured me that everything I needed was inside.
Being a trusting sort (NOT!), I opened the envelope. pulled out the printed records, and glanced at the first line. One word jumped out at me. It read, "HYSTERECTOMY".
I blinked, and looked again. Sure enough, it hadn't changed. I looked up at the nice lady, patted my (over-ample) belly, and said, "I may look pregnant, but I assure you, I'm not - and I've never had this surgery!"
She blinked in her turn, glanced at the paper, and turned beetroot-red. "Oh! OH! I'm sorry! I must have picked up the wrong envelope! Wait just a moment!"
I waited, grinning. The envelope had not had any name on it, so I presume they'd simply filed them in roughly alphabetical order based on the printed records inside. In due course, she returned, still slightly pink, and handed me another envelope. This time, the right records were inside.
I asked, "Do we need to look at the CD, to make sure it doesn't have happy snaps of a hysterectomy instead of my spinal scans?"
Her blush deepened. "Er... I - I don't think so?"
I left it at that and departed, still grinning. When I got home and told my wife, she almost collapsed, she was laughing so hard. We're both looking forward to finding out what images another doctor might see on the CD when he reads it!
Ah, the joys of (mis)filing systems . . .
Peter
That's hysterical
ReplyDeleteI see what you did there
DeleteI’m glad she had the intelligence to not argue about what sex you are, if only our Supreme Court Justices were that smart.
ReplyDeleteAs expensive as "health care" is, I cannot fathom how incompetent they are from an administrative standpoint.
ReplyDeleteNot talking about medical errors, just about an inability to do the basics when it comes to recordkeeping and administrative tasks.
Even worse than the legal profession and that's saying something.
I'm still recovering from a hip replacement so I could give several very recent real world examples, but I'm sure we've all had them.
If I was as bad at finishing the paperwork and filing the reports related to my job as the administrative side of the medical profession is, I'd be living under a bridge somewhere.
At least the lady had the good grace to be embarrassed, instead of denying her error and insisting that the paperwork was correct.
ReplyDeleteSoahree, I just don''t find this funny.
ReplyDeleteLemme see, which leg was it that I'm supposed to amputate?
From the heads of departments down on through the surgeons, nurses to the adminstrative staff, hospitals are making a greater number of errors.
The surgeon's scalpel slips and he thinks:
[maybe the patient won't notice it, I can tell him that the problem he's having is all part of the healing process, in any case, I'll be covered by my insurance.]
and usually the attitude when an error is discovered is defintiely not embarressment, but annoyanceanger at someone having found them in error, "Come back next week; maybe we've have located it by then."
Hospitals: attitude, service, and skills - definitely on the downgrade.
At least this gal wasn’t ‘Call me DOCTOR’ Verma, likely she’d try to convince you that, yes indeed, you are pregnant and she handles all manner of patients who identify as whatever sex they desire, and you should accept the fact that no mistake was made, the disks are correct, and you did have a hysterectomy.
ReplyDeleteWhile most of the time the professional staff in a hospital is properly educated, licensed, certified and experienced...most of the time...the ancillary support staff are generally whoever applies for the job and shows up. No special skills, training or even minimum academic accomplishments. Sometimes even the IQ is questionable. That's just the way it is, and it's that way in every hospital I've ever been in. Occasionally you will see some really sharp ones. But for the most part, no.
ReplyDeleteYes, it has a funny element.... right up till they kill someone because they looked up the wrong medical history. There is plenty of room in the medical field for humor, but not one iota when it comes to competence.
ReplyDeleteGIGO - it applies to everything not just computer programing.
ReplyDeleteWhat, no claim for compensation of emotional distress?
ReplyDeleteMy True Story: "Um, doc? I've never broken my arm." "Oh, that's a mistake. Same last name as you but the corpsman corrected it." (points to some completely illegible scribbling) One ship, three sailors with the same last name and two also had the same first name. Fun times.
In a previous life, I had occasion to take a patient's physical big-fat-manila-folder of findings to the records department. Think of the warehouse scene from the (first?) Indiana Jones flick. Misfile that puppy and you ain't never gonna find again.
Actually, this is not a laughing matter. It has happened a few times now with my mother in law, both in medications and in tests ordered.
ReplyDeleteI trust the medical community about as far as I can throw my house.
The hubris, incomprehensible incompetence and audacity are beyond measure.
Mixing up medical records is actually a crime I believe. I am sure it violates hippa at a minimum.
Exactly! The 3rd leading cause of death in the US is MEDICAL MALPRACTICE!
DeleteSo are you ready to start working on the belly ? I saw that Wegovy now has been released in a pill. I am 6'1" and need to lose 50 lbs of my 254 lbs. My 55 year old female cousin lost 50 lbs on Wegovy last year to take stress off her heart patch that she got at 3 days old.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.wegovy.com/obesity/is-wegovy-right-for-me/wegovy-pill-results.html
Its representative of how shitty the medical field really is!
ReplyDelete3rd biggest cause of death in the US? MEDICAL MALPRACTICE!!
Stupid bint didn't even bother to look and double-check! Just picked it up and handed it off. HIPPA my ass! What if those were meds? Someone pops the wrong pill, heart goes Afib, they're dead. Bint didn't double-check the packaging, ooops. 3rd leading cause of death is the people allegedly caring for you, and you were just witness to it.
Sigh. We are so fucked it isn't even funny....