I'm convinced that medical people don't communicate worth a damn.
I'm not talking so much about doctor - patient communications, which have improved over the last ten years (sometimes too far; instead of telling you what they're going to do, some now say Well, here's the range of options; which do you want? Even the vet for my daughters guinea pig said that). No, I'm talking about doctor to doctor, and practice to practice communications. They don't tell each other things that they need to know, and they don't tell you what they're going to want from the other practice.
Case in point: this morning, I had a pre-surgery appointment with the fellow who's supposed to put in the dental implants. He was quite tense, saying that we had to get this done very soon, because otherwise the bone that was so expensively grafted would begin to resorb. This is, incidentally, the guy who made the schedule we're working from. So, why is this suddenly a tight schedule? Well, could it have anything to do with a) a one week vacation he's taking in the beginning of February? and b) a one -week conference he'll be attending at the end of February? and c) his office scheduling a lot of implant activity for January and February? Could be..... but why is this suddenly my problem?
Not to mention that he asked if I'd had a certain procedure done at the general dentist's; as this was the first he mentioned it, we said No, we hadn't. Really? Oh, we definitely need that, can't move ahead without it -- and by the way, your general dentist has been pretty sick lately, not sure if you might not have to go elsewhere. Really? And you didn't know about any of this back in November or December? We come up to your time crunch and suddenly you need it?
There's a definite market for someone to facilitate this kind of planning, this kind of communication. Someone who can say 'here's what we'll need, here's what you'll need to do, these are the deadlines'. Yup. Good idea. My problem is, I tend to think its something that I, personally, ought to be able to fix. I know thats unreasonable -- but I think Well, someone should fix it -- why not me?
Insanity doesn't run in my family -- it sits, reads a magazine, hangs out for a while.
2 comments:
I hear ya on this whole messy communication stuff....once you have more than one Doc, watch out!! I have dealt with multiple Doctors/Specialists/Occupational therapists....and the list goes on, for many years. I have to admit, after my second-oldest son's accident, which left him with Brain Injury, we had a team working with him for 3 years....those were the only ones I've EVER seen communicate with each other and value my input. We had regular Team meetings and although I still had to participate WAY too much, at least I didn't have to make sure info got to everyone.
So, I totally sympathize....it's not easy and even if you tried, I wonder if you could solve this dilemma :( However, if they keep making this your problem, maybe a copy of this article will clear the air...NOT!
I think of it as something that will always be someone elses problem. My oral surgeon isn't affected when someone else doesn't get what they wanted from him, for example. I know that to sell the idea of a mediator, its got to be something that a medical office sees as beneficial to THEM. And I would bet that by and large, they don't see it as a problem for them -- they either a) blow off the patient until they've brought what they needed to bring, b) get it themselves, or c) do without.
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