Bureaucracy

The cranialfacial surgeon's scheduler (De) came back in town and called me on Wednesday.  She is working on scheduling our craniosynostois pre-surgical appointments and then surgery (most likely early to mid-Dec).  The appointments are with the neurosurgeon, anesthesiology, pre-op pictures and the helmet consultation.  My to-dos are to get cardiology to send over their notes and release, and get the notes from anesthesiology from the PDA fix.  

So, I began my calls, first to anesthesiology.  They sent me to the medical records office.  The not-so-nice person at medical records told me repeatedly they have "legally 10-15 working days" to release that information.  When I calmly said "Please help me. My son is going to be scheduled for a complex surgery soon and he had a very hard time with anesthesia at his last procedure. How can I get these records as soon as possible?"  Her response was "we legally have 10-15 working days to release that information".  Helpful!  

So, next I called cardiology.  Thankfully they said they would fax the cardiac release over.  (I will follow up next time I talk to De. I hope they actually did so!)  I also needed to schedule Matthew's 2 month follow up and was told "Your doctor is booked for the rest of the year and his calendar isn't out for next year. You will have to be worked in as an overbooking. Please call back in a few week."  Again, helpful!  

I've been thinking that we should go back to our original cardiologist (Dr L) for a 2nd opinion and that latest phone call just cemented my decision. It was amazing the difference. I call over to Dr L's office and gave them an update of what's happened with Matthew since we saw them last.  They booked us for an appointment early December, but said if his skull surgery is earlier and we'd like to make an earlier appointment, to just call.  No problem. It was a stark contrast to the TCH cardiology experiences of late.  

Back to the medical records. To expedite the process, Matthew and I went down there this morning, checkbook in hand.  It costs $1.39 per page, payable by check only! (Yes, to get a copy of our own medical record!)  I was expecting to pay $100 in copy charges today, but paid less than $20. The woman was much nicer, but I still didn't get the information I was looking for. Supposedly anesthesia wrote extensive notes, and all I received was a 1 sentence blurb.  Not exactly extensive.  So, I'm gong to attempt to track down said anesthesiologist and hope that he can help me get what I need.

All in all, I feel very lucky. Through this 8 month journey, we have rarely dealt with bureaucracy or unhelpful people.  It has happened, but it shocks me when we encounter it because more frequently every one has been beyond helpful and nice.  I am very thankful for that!