Bureaucracy Phone Tag
Feb. 5th, 2015 02:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
willowispA week ago today my podiatrist found out that a growth on my foot was a melanoma. She was so concerned that I know about this that, since I wasn't home when she called and she was leaving the office, she left her cell phone number on the answering machine. When she returned my call later that evening, we decided it best to contact Oncology within my medical provider to see what they believed would be the best option. At that point the podiatrist was figuring she could do the surgery.
On Monday Oncology got back to her. They advised that she contact General Surgery to do the operation and gave her a list of names. One she recognized from our former conversations, so she told me to call the practice. I would find out later that she had called the GS and they had told her that no referral would be necessary.
Side note: I did have an active referral to the same surgeon to consult about my possible mastectomies.
I called GS and explained the situation, and the scheduler said that I needed to talk to Orthopedics/Podiatry since the melanoma was on my foot. She gave me the number, which I called immediately. The very nice scheduler I spoke with there heard "Melanoma" and told me they couldn't do the surgery, and transferred me to the proper office... which happened to be GS. The second scheduler was far more helpful, found the order (We now believe she saw the breast consult referral and thought it was one from the Podiatrist), but she wanted to make sure so sent a message to the nurse who works with the surgeon.
The nurse called back to clarify some things, but she could only find the breast referral. She said she would call the podiatrist to figure things out. I waited around until it was time to leave the house, then I called and gave the folks my cell phone number. I had not previously because I tend not to have me cell phone with me and charged, but in this case I did.
The call must have come while I was driving, because when I got there I had a missed call message, but no voicemail. I called missed number and it was GS, and there were no notes as to who had called. Except that suddenly there was a note that the nurse had called and left a voicemail. As soon as I got off the phone it buzzed, and there was a message. The GS nurse said she'd talked to the podiatrist's nurse, who had told her to disregard the referral until she could talk to the Podiatrist to find out what was going on, and that further communication should be with the podiatrist's nurse.
I did not receive a call from the podiatrist's nurse during the day, or at least if I did she did't leave a message. I tried calling after getting home from The Yarn Store and just caught the nurse, who was very confused because she didn't realize she was supposed to call me. Since the podiatrist had already left for the day, she said she would try to find out on Wednesday what was going on.
On Wednesday I found out that the podiatrist hadnot told anyone to belay the referral, and that there had been no order because when she called GS they had told her none would be needed. I once again called GS and left a message. The GS nurse returned the call and said that the podiatry nurse had just faxed over the pathology report and the GS would look it over on Thursday and would decide if she would do the surgery.
I had a followup appointment from my surgery on January 19th today (Thursday) and the GS office is downstairs from the followup appointment. I went downstairs afterward to see if there was any news. The nurse was with a patient but said the surgeon had not had a chance to look at the pathology report yet.
I finally just got the call from the GP nurse, who has scheduled an appointment with the surgeon next week to discuss the operation. I just hope that this is a pre-surgery consultation and not one to decide if she'll do it at all. And only a week has elapsed since my podiatrist left her cell phone number so I could be informed and get things rolling as soon as possible.
On Monday Oncology got back to her. They advised that she contact General Surgery to do the operation and gave her a list of names. One she recognized from our former conversations, so she told me to call the practice. I would find out later that she had called the GS and they had told her that no referral would be necessary.
Side note: I did have an active referral to the same surgeon to consult about my possible mastectomies.
I called GS and explained the situation, and the scheduler said that I needed to talk to Orthopedics/Podiatry since the melanoma was on my foot. She gave me the number, which I called immediately. The very nice scheduler I spoke with there heard "Melanoma" and told me they couldn't do the surgery, and transferred me to the proper office... which happened to be GS. The second scheduler was far more helpful, found the order (We now believe she saw the breast consult referral and thought it was one from the Podiatrist), but she wanted to make sure so sent a message to the nurse who works with the surgeon.
The nurse called back to clarify some things, but she could only find the breast referral. She said she would call the podiatrist to figure things out. I waited around until it was time to leave the house, then I called and gave the folks my cell phone number. I had not previously because I tend not to have me cell phone with me and charged, but in this case I did.
The call must have come while I was driving, because when I got there I had a missed call message, but no voicemail. I called missed number and it was GS, and there were no notes as to who had called. Except that suddenly there was a note that the nurse had called and left a voicemail. As soon as I got off the phone it buzzed, and there was a message. The GS nurse said she'd talked to the podiatrist's nurse, who had told her to disregard the referral until she could talk to the Podiatrist to find out what was going on, and that further communication should be with the podiatrist's nurse.
I did not receive a call from the podiatrist's nurse during the day, or at least if I did she did't leave a message. I tried calling after getting home from The Yarn Store and just caught the nurse, who was very confused because she didn't realize she was supposed to call me. Since the podiatrist had already left for the day, she said she would try to find out on Wednesday what was going on.
On Wednesday I found out that the podiatrist hadnot told anyone to belay the referral, and that there had been no order because when she called GS they had told her none would be needed. I once again called GS and left a message. The GS nurse returned the call and said that the podiatry nurse had just faxed over the pathology report and the GS would look it over on Thursday and would decide if she would do the surgery.
I had a followup appointment from my surgery on January 19th today (Thursday) and the GS office is downstairs from the followup appointment. I went downstairs afterward to see if there was any news. The nurse was with a patient but said the surgeon had not had a chance to look at the pathology report yet.
I finally just got the call from the GP nurse, who has scheduled an appointment with the surgeon next week to discuss the operation. I just hope that this is a pre-surgery consultation and not one to decide if she'll do it at all. And only a week has elapsed since my podiatrist left her cell phone number so I could be informed and get things rolling as soon as possible.
