chemgal

I'm sorry you're having so much trouble. Wrong information is devastating. You don't deserve to be getting such a run around and such  lousy service.  You're a really nice person. Hang in there and don't pull all your hair out. Things will get better....I promise!

Thanks Stardust.

Some of the people I have talked to have really tried to help.  Others just put the blame on me.  When someone leaves a phone number with an extra digit I should be able to determine the correct number from my phone, even though my phone doesn't record numbers when a VM is left.

I should have asked the contact information for the specialist's office as soon as a referral was sent.  The person who does referrals doesn't like it when I call and ask if the referral has been sent yet though.  It never occurred to me that it's something that always needs to be done, I used to trust the health system.  That's my fault too.

When I'm rushing out the door to get to a medical appointment and someone asks for someone by my middle name (which I have never used as anything but my nickname) I should assume it's me.

This sounds so ridiculous chemgal - and I am truly sorry you keep 'falling through the cracks' in the system. One of my family members had a problem with a different government body and had almost instant success when she contacted our provincial ombudsman.  I'd encourage you to give your ombudsman a try - it is their JOB to help and from what I've heard they tend take that seriously.

 http://www.informalberta.ca/public/service/serviceProfileStyled.do?serviceQueryId=265

Thanks Kay!  Out of all the various links & phone numbers I've recieved in chains and searched for, that's one that hasn't come up!

There should be A PERSON within Health Care in your area who has a job like an ombudsman - ours is called Quality of Care (I think - these names keep changing!)  I confess I searched (on your behalf) but couldn't find anything  like that listed for your province.  

There is a patient relations line and I've spoken to them a few times now.  They sent me to someone else who said it's not their issue.

I'm now waiting to hear back from Freedom of Information & Privacy as recommended by the ombudsman so I'm now outside of the health realm.

Oh Chemgal. We used to look up physican numbers at work by College of Pysicans and then names. Does that help you? You need to know the specialists name-and at least it gets you to their receptionist.

This was the hospital itself, not the specific clinic.  I did get it sorted out, but I still don't know where all the wrong info is coming from.  The person from FOIP seems the most helpful so far, instead of having me contact someone else she is doing the work!

I had called the College of Physicians & Surgeons when I was trying to sort out my referral.  They were unable to give me the correct contact info.  I had something for the doctor but not with the correct clinic.  I do have my appointment soon now though, which is why the hospital called (I guess).

I got chemguy to listen to the message, he couldn't make out a useable number either, so at least I'm not nuts (I already knew my hearing was good).

Hi chemgal,

Well.  There is a passage of scripture which exhorts that the left hand should not know what the right one is doing.

I don't think that was supposed to apply to bureaucracies.  That said, bureaucracies seem to be better at that whole not knowing what's going on thing than most other institutions.

Sorry for your frustrations.

Grace and peace to you.

John

lol If only it was a left and right hand!  There are more than 2 parts going on.

I'm feeling better now that someone is looking into things instead of having me phone around some more.  Appointment is this week too, so hopefully I'll get some answers about my health and the bureaucracy won't matter as much.

Hi chemgal,

Well then perhaps a happy compromise is this:

Too many cooks, whose left hands do not know what their right hands are doing, spoil the broth.

Grace and peace to you.

John

When I had a family member caught up in the health care system I found it very frustrating.  One of the problems seemed to be that even when the system had a policy that said how things hung together - howit all  works - it didn't work!  We were told repeatedly that the next step in treatment was 'this' but without notification something entirely different happened!   When someone 'in' the system made a decision and acted on it the family was left to scurry around rearranging their own lives to sort out the mess.

When a health care employee does something that doesn't fit the protocols there is no easy way for patients and families to find out who is responsible without being really adversarial.  Medical staff say many things but patients don't get written information so they can try to improve the system by showing what went wrong.  

lol That's the perfect description.

There was a whole system issue.  I finally got somewhere with the government.  This was affecting numerous people, but no one had brought it high enough until now for it to get the correct people's attention.  They are going to be retraining some people and making sure databases are properly updated.

I needed some good news like this!

lol Thanks Kay!  This took quite a bit of effort to get to this point.

I find it interesting that free enterprise Alberta has incredibly messed up systems due to collectivist inclinations like creating AHS and centralizing school systems.

Congratulations on provoking a correcton in the system.

I'm annoyed it took this many phone calls and it did delay my appointment, but at least I was able to get on top of it.  Hopefully this will help out those who might already have trouble of keeping track of appointments generally.

Chemgal I'm glad you got things sorted out. It shouldn't be so difficult! John's explanation is likely far too accurate.

Jim, I have noticed that AB is not nearly as free enterprise as it would like us to believe in some areas. I think there is good and bad in that. AHS is a huge network for sure. Sometimes it is so easy to communicate that glitches. (for lack of a better word) go unnoticed. It makes me sad that corporate health care is the new normal. I suppose there are good things about that...network and all. Sadly, administratium can screw things up.

Chemgal, if you do need more ongoing care, I hope you find an advocate or case manager or social worker or someone, to help you out.

I actually have a social worker.  She's part of the team at the clinic with the speciliast I'm finally seeing.

In addition to that, after escalating things, I have two people higher up within the system I can contact if I experience similar issues.

Good to know. It sounds like you need an interpretter/navigator!

lol A third person up the system called me and told me to call her if I ever have similar problems.  All of them have mentioned how appreciative they are that I brought this up to them and in a tone that actually suggests they mean what they say.  I still don't know why healthlink couldn't get me at least fairly close to the person I needed to contact.  Thankfully Kay got me there!