Taking Charge

I will have a CT PET scan on Dec 28. I will meet with the surgeon on January 4. The biopsy from my endoscopy was positively identified as cancer. We are not surprised and it was clear that I would have had the same surgery just to remove the growth, cancer or not. Now, however, I have to hope that we have caught it early enough to prevent it from spreading anywhere else in my body. The CT PET scan will tell us if it has spread.

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There is a lot of organization dysfunction in the medical community. I've seen hints of it in routine exams and testing, but, now, I am seeing it up close. After two days of efforts, my physician's nurse could not get a CT PET scan scheduled. After working the phones for a few hours and getting nowhere, I finally appeared in person in my physician's office and hand carried the work order to Stanford Radiology only a quarter mile away.

I appeared at the nurses station in the area where CT PET scans are done and insisted on meeting the people who are doing the scheduling. They were wearing Santa's elves hats and clearly doing as little as possible. They suddenly looked guilty. I noticed that a guilty face in a elf hat is funny. There was a two inch stack of faxes waiting to be read on the fax machine (undoubtedly including four copies of the same work order I have in my hand).

They quickly scheduled my CT PET scan on December 28. This is a nuclear medicine test to see if the cancer I have in my esophagus has spread to the rest of my body. Every day that I don't know the answer to that question is a major problem for me.

I wonder how long it would have taken to get that test if I didn't appear today at Stanford. My experience isn't unusual. Each of the doctors that are working with me roll their eyes when I explain the scheduling problem. "Oh, yeah", they say, "they are famous for not following through, and I have had no more success than patients when I try to expedite the process. You really need to insist on getting the results and hand carrying them to the next location". Stanford ranks right up there with the best of medical centers. Wow!

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Heads up to physicians: Don't accept the dysfunction that currently exists in handing off work orders and test results from offices to clinics and back. Your customers are dealing with high intensity expectations and nothing short of seamless and timely communications is acceptable. The current situation does not inspire confidence in the medical community. The erosion of confidence in any part of the medical system doesn't help your customer's ability to stay confident and heal.