My letter to my doctor

[wolf]

UT, if "XXX" is what I think, you should have called me ... probably could have hooked you up for samples and all.

Sorry you had to go through this crap.

[WabUfvot5]

As a final insult did you have to pay upon picking up your prescription because insurance said it wasn't time yet? I kinda needed mine to live and pills didn't show in the mail. $180 to cover a stingy multibillion $ company >_<

[Undertoad]

My doctor was a woman.

And she did examine my prostate. I didn't mind. I'm a patient, it's a medical procedure to make sure I don't have cancer or other problems. My dad died of cancer at 38 so if someone wants to check me for it, please do whatever it takes.

[Cyclefrance]

Well, I hope our health system doesn't end up going that way. It has plenty of faults, but I've yet to be registered with a practice where I couldn't see a doctor within a few hours of phoning the reception (no recorded message disaster systems in place yet either).

I've had a total of five practices in my lifetime - reasonable enough as a cross-section but nothing remarkable. Some have been better than others, but nothing ever near the experience you have just detailed. These days we don't seem to have a dedicated doctor, so you get to see whichever one is available. Although it's nice to see the same person (if you get on with them), this arrangement hasn't presented any major problems.

The only real problem we do seem to have is with getting home visits. This was the blight of my father's last few years. He was virtually house-bound, and whereas the doctor would happily see him at the surgery, emergency calls requiring a home visit took an age to fulfill. But I think that is not unusual for our old folk.

Sorry that you have to suffer the way you do - trust that checking blood pressure is the first thing they do when you finally get seen - seems as though it should be an absolute must!

[lumberjim]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

My doctor was a woman.

And she did examine my prostate. I didn't mind. I'm a patient, it's a medical procedure to make sure I don't have cancer or other problems. My dad died of cancer at 38 so if someone wants to check me for it, please do whatever it takes.

did you ask for a rusty trombone?

[Elspode]

You don't even need to enter the actual medical system to find incredible stupidity. Just go to the damn pharmacy, where they control meds so tightly that you can't get them.

This latest debacle involving pseudoephedrine is just ridiculous. An individual can only legally buy approximately 75 12-hour doses per month. If, like me, you have a family of four who uses such things at least once per day per person, it doesn't take long to use that up, and then you have to make another trip to the pharmacy, or send another member of the family who is over 18.

I debated this with pharmacist last night. She insisted that if one needed such medication that regularly, you should have a scrip from your doctor. Yeah, great. That's what I need. Another damn thing to be regulated by not only my pharmacy, but my doctor. Especially something that has been perfectly legal for years and years.

Anyone seen any less meth problems yet, since this is supposed to have solved them in one fell swoop?

[glatt]

I think they are just smuggling the Meth in from Mexico now. It's being cooked there.

I saw a Frontline story on this a month or two ago. There are only like 5 or 6 manufacturers of pseudoephedrine in the entire world. It's not like most other illegal drugs that have thousands of suppliers. There are just a handful. If we just approached them and got them to limit their production for each country to what that country's legitimate use would be, the crystal meth problem would go away for good. That involves international cooperation though, and goodwill and all that stuff. The USA doesn't have much of those things anymore.

[Elspode]

There is no cooperation when there is an unlimited amount of money to be made.

If the production was limited, I'm guessing that whoever was willing to pay the most money would end up with the supply. That probably won't be a legit manufacturer of cold meds.

[glatt]

True. But right now Mexico is importing something like ten times more pseudoephedrine than it "needs." If the supply is cut to one tenth its current amount, then so will the illegal supply of meth to the US.

In well regulated countries like the US, it won't hurt legitimate consumers as much, because you can bet Wyeth will make sure it gets its shipment of pseudophedrine from the chemical plant in India. They will be tracking that container well.

But all this is wishful thinking. This administration won't do anything cooperative with anyone.

[Ibby]

LYK ZOMG U SED SMETHING ABUT MEXKO U RACIST!!111!!1!!!!one!!11!!!!eleven

Being disabled and trying to file for disability from SS and my insurance company while also being in the pain management system (a joke), you don't have to tell me much to get sympathy or understanding.
I'm very sorry you are going through this.
*Sends loving and healing energy*

[Undertoad]

My doc is a part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. On their website they say:

Our Commitment for Providing Excellent Care

The University of Pennsylvania Health System is committed to providing you with excellent clinical care and service. If you have concerns regarding your care, you have the right without recrimination to voice those concerns, have them reviewed, and when possible, resolved.

Please contact us if you feel we have not met your expectations. A Patient & Guest Relations representative will review your message and respond to your concerns. The contact us form is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All messages are read within one business day.

I have the "right" to have my voice my concerns. Gatekeepers.

Well guess what, gatekeepers: I also have the right to start a thread about it. Let a thousand web searches show that my doctor is Dr. Janet Brown at Phoenixville Area Family Medicine. (And since I've said that, for the record: I don't believe Dr. Brown is the problem. She's almost as much a pawn in this system as I am and it's likely the only thing she can do to change the system is to leave it.)

Yesterday I used the contact us form to point them to this thread, telling them who the doc was and what the practice was. Today I got an email.

Dear Mr. S,

Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns about the service you received at the Phoenixville Family Practice. The events that you describe are most unfortunate and I can appreciate how upsetting they must have been for you. Please accept our sincere apology that the service provided did not meet your expectations.

Concerns, such as yours, are very important to us and we take them very seriously. They provide us with an opportunity to identify potential problems and improve the services we provide to our patients and their families. To further address the concerns you have raised, your letter has been forwarded to the appropriate individuals for additional review and we will do everything possible to promptly respond to you. In the meantime, if you have any additional questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,
UPHS Health Care Web Team

"We have read your message and responded to it within one business day. A low-paid intern Patient & Guest Relations representative copied and pasted the name of your doctor's practice into our standard apology email."

You know I'm right.

I urge all those in Public Relations to reconsider the insult of the "auto-apology" -- it is almost as insulting as a website where you tell people "the contact us form is available 24 hours a day".

I will continue to update the thread.

[Undertoad]

And by the way -- I submitted my contact us form at 9:30 am yesterday and the response came back at 10:08 am today.

Well, they did say one business day, not 24 hours. But notice, it takes an intern Patient & Guest Relations representative over 24 hours to cut and paste an auto-apology and to enter the message into the system.

I've worked in customer support. Consider: in any other industry, that quality of support is unacceptable.

[Sun_Sparkz]

self medicate? is that like... smoking the waccy toabaccy?

cuz ive been thinking lately, perhaps this needs more credit than its given. for muscle relaxing etc. anxiety.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Sun_Sparkz

self medicate? is that like... smoking the waccy toabaccy?

cuz ive been thinking lately, perhaps this needs more credit than its given. for muscle relaxing etc. anxiety.

Not to mention making you have really amazing and brilliant insights.

And the colors, I almost forgot about those.

What were we talking about?