Comedy of Errors
Yesterday I went to Cleveland, accompanied by my friend and sister Mary (standing in for Saint H, still recovering at home). We entered into an unexpected farce almost as soon as we arrived at Taussig.
First: As we walked back to the lab for bloodwork, my nurse said, "Your labwork is already done. Are we doing something else for you?" "What?" "Your blood was drawn at 8:00 this morning." "No, I was still at home at 8:00 this morning. I just got here." "But we've got results in your record; I just checked."
When I sat down it was clear that my Mediport hadn't been accessed. Then she couldn't find the prepared label set for the specimens. It was clear that someone had grabbed my labels by mistake early in the morning. So one of the other nurses got on the phone to a problem resolution group, wiping out the first set of results so I wouldn't get charged for 2 sets of labs, and trying to find out whose blood had been mislabeled.
Second: I checked in for my C/T scan. The nurse said, "There's been a mixup in your labwork." "I know, but I think we got it straightened out." "Unfortunately when they submitted your samples just now, the paperwork wasn't marked for rush processing. We can't do your scan without knowing what your creatinine level is, so we're going to take a small sample and run it over for instant processing." As the lab is quite a distance away from Taussig, "run" is the literal truth: blood in a syringe rather than a prepped tube has to be processed within 3 minutes of a blood draw, or it will clot and be useless. The run was accomplished, my creatinine level was acceptable, and the scan was completed. Had the C/T nurse not been heads-up, I'd have had to wait as long as 4 hours for the lab results before I could have my scan.
Third: I checked in for my appointment with Dr G. The registrar said, "Your insurance is [XXX]." "No, my insurance is [ZZZ]; has been for years." I pulled out my card to show him. "Have you heard of company [XXX]?" "Yes, it's my husband's insurance, but I have my own." The registrar tried to correct my record and called in a supervisor; I suddenly remembered our trip to the Cole Eye Institute in October. My vision coverage is on Saint H's policy, so I told the registrar (at least it was starting to make sense). Upshot: whoever registered me at the Cole put an end date on my own insurance coverage and replaced it with Saint H's insurance. That was fixed, and I went on to my appointment.
Fourth: Dr G was booked to attend a conference all day on the CCF campus, but his clinic calendar wasn't blocked out and he ended up with 14 patients scheduled. Most were rescheduled, but he kept my appointment anyway.
Fifth: I needed a refill for Nexavar. My delightful nurse Shari somehow managed to call in a refill for Sutent instead, but the pharmacist caught it. Thank goodness! Their records now note that I'm allergic to Sutent to keep this from happening again. (I'm not sure that "allergic" is the right term, but "severe internal bleeding" probably takes up too much room).
The results of all this comedy: stable disease; hemoglobin levels 11.4, creatinine down to 1.0, white cell count good, all systems go. Considering that I might have driven all the way up there to have someone else's lab results, no insurance and possibly no appointment, leaving with the wrong medication, things turned out very well!
First: As we walked back to the lab for bloodwork, my nurse said, "Your labwork is already done. Are we doing something else for you?" "What?" "Your blood was drawn at 8:00 this morning." "No, I was still at home at 8:00 this morning. I just got here." "But we've got results in your record; I just checked."
When I sat down it was clear that my Mediport hadn't been accessed. Then she couldn't find the prepared label set for the specimens. It was clear that someone had grabbed my labels by mistake early in the morning. So one of the other nurses got on the phone to a problem resolution group, wiping out the first set of results so I wouldn't get charged for 2 sets of labs, and trying to find out whose blood had been mislabeled.
Second: I checked in for my C/T scan. The nurse said, "There's been a mixup in your labwork." "I know, but I think we got it straightened out." "Unfortunately when they submitted your samples just now, the paperwork wasn't marked for rush processing. We can't do your scan without knowing what your creatinine level is, so we're going to take a small sample and run it over for instant processing." As the lab is quite a distance away from Taussig, "run" is the literal truth: blood in a syringe rather than a prepped tube has to be processed within 3 minutes of a blood draw, or it will clot and be useless. The run was accomplished, my creatinine level was acceptable, and the scan was completed. Had the C/T nurse not been heads-up, I'd have had to wait as long as 4 hours for the lab results before I could have my scan.
Third: I checked in for my appointment with Dr G. The registrar said, "Your insurance is [XXX]." "No, my insurance is [ZZZ]; has been for years." I pulled out my card to show him. "Have you heard of company [XXX]?" "Yes, it's my husband's insurance, but I have my own." The registrar tried to correct my record and called in a supervisor; I suddenly remembered our trip to the Cole Eye Institute in October. My vision coverage is on Saint H's policy, so I told the registrar (at least it was starting to make sense). Upshot: whoever registered me at the Cole put an end date on my own insurance coverage and replaced it with Saint H's insurance. That was fixed, and I went on to my appointment.
Fourth: Dr G was booked to attend a conference all day on the CCF campus, but his clinic calendar wasn't blocked out and he ended up with 14 patients scheduled. Most were rescheduled, but he kept my appointment anyway.
Fifth: I needed a refill for Nexavar. My delightful nurse Shari somehow managed to call in a refill for Sutent instead, but the pharmacist caught it. Thank goodness! Their records now note that I'm allergic to Sutent to keep this from happening again. (I'm not sure that "allergic" is the right term, but "severe internal bleeding" probably takes up too much room).
The results of all this comedy: stable disease; hemoglobin levels 11.4, creatinine down to 1.0, white cell count good, all systems go. Considering that I might have driven all the way up there to have someone else's lab results, no insurance and possibly no appointment, leaving with the wrong medication, things turned out very well!
Labels: appointment results, insurance
posted by rcclive at
4:35 PM
2 Comments:
Good grief. I know I'm not smart enough to handle successive screw-ups of this magnitude. Probably most people aren't. Scary.
By
yarmando, at 9:34 AM
I've been going there since March of 2005 and this is the first time I've ever had anything happen. Perhaps I've gotten all the bad things out of the way in one fell swoop.
At least thank goodness Cleveland Clinic has checks and balances built in at every step. I can think of other places where that assuredly is not the case!
By
rcclive, at 10:33 PM
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