More crap from MDA Houston again today, believe it or not. The Patient Advocate called me at 3:30pm (mind you their review board meeting that they are supposed to be reviewing my case in this afternoon is from 3-4pm) to tell me that they did not receive the CD. I saw the nurse on Tuesday while I was there with the CD in her hand, on the way to mail it via FED Ex. So I called the nurse to tell her that they did not receive the CD. Faye (nurse at MDA Orlando) said that she had already received that message and that she was able to track it and verify that it had in fact arrived Wednesday morning at 9:18am. I called Kimberly the Patient Advocate to give her Faye's number so that they could communicate.
Within 30 minutes, Kimberly called to tell me that she now was in possession of the CD and would put an expedite order on the reading of the CD. Can you imagine how outraged I am at this point? I totally laid in to her, and she had the nerve to tell me that she just found out about my case two days ago. Nobody had let her know about the complaint I opened when I was in Houston last week. Had I called her, she would have ensured that the reading of the films would have been expedited. Mind you, I did open a complaint with the office manager, who was sent in by the doctor I saw, who also told me he was putting an expedite order on the reading of my PET scans 9 Days ago. So I asked her, was it my responsibility to call her to let her know that I opened a complaint or was it the office manager's role? how is it that 30 minutes ago she didn't even know she had the CD that had been delivered the morning before? She said that they attempted delivery on Wednesday morning to her, but she happened not to be at her desk. Since there was no one to sign for it, it went back to the mail room. So I guess you don't get messages when you have a FEDEX delivered and you are not there to receive it?
Any way you look at this, it is horribly inept, unprofessional and beyond words.
I'm sure you can imagine how livid I am. She complained that I was venting to her when she was just trying to help me. She acknowledged that there was a lot of negligence in the handling of my case, but all she can do is ensure that the matter is handlied properly from this point forward.
I told her that I could not believe MDA Houston could be ranked #1 in the nation or that they were in the business of saving lives. I told her that the doctor himself acknowledged that I am currently on borrowed time, as I have already outlived the average life expectancy of someone with Recurrent Cervical Cancer, and yet no one has considered my case urgent.
I also asked her how they could not have made an exception and found someone capable of reading a paper film rather than one copied on CD (or realized that they did not have the correct format in less than 7 days). Surely someone in MD Anderson was capable of reading the film the old fashioned way.
Anyway.. as you can imagine I am disgusted with them.
And.. they have me scheduled to go visit their Phase I clinic on Dec 21st. As if I have the luxury of waiting until then to discuss possible trials. I guess they knew when they made that appointment time that it would probably take the Review Board this long to discuss my case.
Beyond frustrated.
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