Government run health care

[cassiesmom]

Can I just rant for a minute?

My primary care physician is affiliated with a big tertiary hospital system. I had to change doctors when my former primary care physician's practice (and all the physicians affiliated with the four hospitals in that system) dropped out of the UnitedHealthcare network. I chose based upon geography.

One specialist is with a different hospital system - again, based on geography and the network.

The other specialist is with yet another hospital system - when I started with him he was in the provider network, but they are dropping out effective 11/1/09.

And I get prescriptions at Walgreens, which is affiliated with none of them, of course.

None of these talk to each other. It is up to me to remember to tell each one what the other one said, and try to keep everything straight. Walgreens is actually a huge help in getting this done. This is a gol-durn pain! Health care reformers --- puhleeze make this easier for me!

[Cinder & Smoke]

None of these talk to each other.

It is up to me to remember to tell each one what the other one said,
and try to keep everything straight.

They don't TRY to talk to each other;
nor do they bother to read the NOTE, Letters, and Reports that get passed around.

I have a Cardiologist, a De-Fib Doc (my electrician), and a Kidney Doc.
All in different offices; all practice in the same Hospitals;
and theyall KNOW each other ... heck, they used to do Rounds together
when I was hospitalized.

What one does effects the Other Docs' parts of me ... they NEED to know
what each other is 'doing to me'.
When I see one of 'em, he/she writes a report on the office visit and SENDS
it to the other two. Sounds great --- everybody reads the same page.

And what happens to said report?? A Bean Counter opens it, reads it and
makes the decision (based on who knows what) to either FILE it in my
history file OR send it to the Doc for his/her personal review.

Can't tell you how many times I've visited Doc #1 and asked if he's seen
anything from Docs #2 or #3. The answer is almost ALWAYS that
"NO, haven't seen anything 'lately'."

THEN we peek into my file ... and #1 stumbles upon the Report his office
got and FILED AWAY a month or two ago from #2 or #3.

What's wrong with this picture?

[Edwina's Secretary]

You guys are making the case for getting technology into medical records! Less mistakes, greater ability and ease to share information.

By the way...I do love easy quizzes. I have been asked above UI...Unemployment Insurance.

Unemployment Insurance is a tax employers pay based on their experience rating. As in medical insurance, the more claims made against an employer (people who worked for the employer during the base period and then make a claim for unemployment for reason beyond the employee's ability to control) the higher the rate of tax paid by the employer.

Employees do not pay into Unemployment Insurance. Employers do.

And, in periods of high unemployment, as we are currently, the federal government supplements the funds that are paid out to the unemployed.

And that ain't no spin...

[blue]

BS! Spin.

[cassiesmom]

You guys are making the case for getting technology into medical records! Less mistakes, greater ability and ease to share information.

My primary care doc is at Loyola University Medical Center. Almost completely paperless office. What took me some getting used to is that she types her notes into the computer while we are talking. I'm looking at her and she's looking at the computer. But it's pretty cool - she can look up my lab results and write orders (time for your mammogram, Elyse; I'll put an order in now [click click click], and you can make your appointment with the scheduler when you check out) as we are talking. They can even e-mail prescriptions directly to Walgreens for me.

At the dermatologist's office - she had a little device in her hands that looked like a computer game. Bigger than a PDA, but not as large as a laptop computer, and she was using a little pencil-like thingy to touch her notes right onto the screen. Zero paper there too. I have a prescription that was printed off of their computer, so it is on plain paper instead of Rx pad. I hope Walgreens will be able to accept it - we'll see!

I wish they could talk to each other electronically and I could read all their notes. I doubt that will happen anytime soon, though. I just have to remember to tell my primary care doc what the dermatologist said next time I go. I earned that responsibility by deciding not to go to a derm at Loyola. If I had, it would all be in the computer already. Oh well.

[Daisy and Delilah]

My primary care doc is at Loyola University Medical Center. Almost completely paperless office. What took me some getting used to is that she types her notes into the computer while we are talking. I'm looking at her and she's looking at the computer. But it's pretty cool - she can look up my lab results and write orders (time for your mammogram, Elyse; I'll put an order in now [click click click], and you can make your appointment with the scheduler when you check out) as we are talking. They can even e-mail prescriptions directly to Walgreens for me.

At the dermatologist's office - she had a little device in her hands that looked like a computer game. Bigger than a PDA, but not as large as a laptop computer, and she was using a little pencil-like thingy to touch her notes right onto the screen. Zero paper there too. I have a prescription that was printed off of their computer, so it is on plain paper instead of Rx pad. I hope Walgreens will be able to accept it - we'll see!

I wish they could talk to each other electronically and I could read all their notes. I doubt that will happen anytime soon, though. I just have to remember to tell my primary care doc what the dermatologist said next time I go. I earned that responsibility by deciding not to go to a derm at Loyola. If I had, it would all be in the computer already. Oh well.

With this age of cutting edge technology, Elyse, you would think communication would be easy. Can anyone understand how it is so hard for all of these people to be on the same page? Is there not a way to have a universal data base for all things medical for a particular social security number? If not a SS #, some other point of ID?

I have seen, in my experiecne with doctors, they are not really interested in what the other doctors say anyway. Can this ever be fixed properly? It's the million dollar question I guess.

[caseysmom]

Thats what I like about Kaiser, everything is on the computer and even I can see a lot of it and I can email any of my doctors.

My podiatrist has been wonderful, he even gave me his home number.

[blue]

The more training I get in computers, networks, and comp security the less I like my medical records being all computerized.

Ive seen people turn a user name into a IP address, and into a home address. Heck, if your user name is tied to a photo I can find it.

[TINFOILHAT]What else can I find from just a user name?[/TINFOILHAT]

[Edwina's Secretary]

Thats what I like about Kaiser, everything is on the computer and even I can see a lot of it and I can email any of my doctors.

My podiatrist has been wonderful, he even gave me his home number.

We have been thinking of switching to Kaiser during open enrollment this year. I have heard such good things about them. I especially like the ability to email and check things on line.

Do they usually have onsite pharmacy or mail order?

Computerize records cannot be any less accurate or confidential that paper records.

[Daisy and Delilah]

Can I just rant for a minute?

My primary care physician is affiliated with a big tertiary hospital system. I had to change doctors when my former primary care physician's practice (and all the physicians affiliated with the four hospitals in that system) dropped out of the UnitedHealthcare network. I chose based upon geography.

One specialist is with a different hospital system - again, based on geography and the network.

The other specialist is with yet another hospital system - when I started with him he was in the provider network, but they are dropping out effective 11/1/09.

And I get prescriptions at Walgreens, which is affiliated with none of them, of course.

None of these talk to each other. It is up to me to remember to tell each one what the other one said, and try to keep everything straight. Walgreens is actually a huge help in getting this done. This is a gol-durn pain! Health care reformers --- puhleeze make this easier for me!

Amen!!!! Elyse, you're so right. This is what bothers me every day.

We try to keep them straight and most of mine act like they really don't care what I'm trying to do. Nothing except paying the bills of course.