I am so LIVID I can barely see straight! The elder in my charge had to leave her nice COVID free facility for a doctors appointment. At this point, she needs to be transported by ambulance. Her facility is about 30 minutes from my hometown - where her doctor is - so I met the ambulance at her doctors office. I discovered that she had just spent a 30 minute ambulance ride with a driver who was coughing and sneezing! The damage had been done and there was nothing I could do. We attended the appointment, and the doctor sent her for xrays before going back to the facility and I was told if there was a problem I would be notified. I called the facility where she lives first thing this morning to notify them of a possible COVID exposure, and the nurse says, "Since I have you on the phone, what's going on about her not healing properly?" This was the first I heard of it. I was NOT notified. I called the doctors office and was told the "report wasn't ready" and the doctor was on rounds. I asked, if the report wasn't ready then why does her care home seem to know about it? Crickets....... I am so beyond frustrated at this point. I also spoke with the ambulance service and discovered it had been 13 days since the employee had been COVID tested and that she was "checked for illness" before beginning her shift. Yeah right. I realize we are all a little cranky, but how can I get this doctors office to communicate properly to ME? At this point, if I can't count on the ambulance service to have healthy employees, am I better off just leaving her in the facility? These doctors appointments are followups for something non-life threatening. Thoughts?
I am sure the doc will get back to you. He likely called orders or instructions in to the facility. They usually schedule family call, patient call times into one slot of time in their busy schedule. Call the office and ask for a call back.
Yes, you are correct. We are in the middle of a pandemic and things are a mess. There is no way to effectively test people as often as they should be, esp. those on the front lines. The lack of this testing puts many of us at risk.
Make sure the doctor's office has your information as the primary contact info, but honestly, you need to be calling them to get the info you need. Because she's coming from a facility, there are times when the info goes straight to the facility. I've found that with my mother, too.
Anytime I've had communication problems with doctors, I write them a letter and ask them to keep it in the front of my chart. That way, when the doctor looks at the chart, he sees my letter. I did this with my first child's pediatrician, and our relationship improved immeasurably.
The nurse had already heard this about not healing properly from the doctor's office, do you mean? It seems the doctor's office can't have given any too much information to the facility either, though, if the nurse was asking you to explain!
Ugh ugh ugh... I feel for you.
*What's* not healing? Did your mother mention anything relevant?