One Hundred Days: Day Thirty-Three
It would appear the fear of litigation is so prevalent that some medical groups discourage anything beyond the most superficial relationship with your Doctor. I’d always been led to believe that Doctor and patient working together can increase the success of the outcome of any medical procedure or process.
Access to your doctor and the feeling that your Doctor is reachable to discuss any issues takes a lot of stress out of the recuperation journey.
My personal experience with Proliance Surgeons and SOC (Seattle Orthopedic Center) has not been what I would call the best patient experience when it comes to reaching my Doctor! My perception is that after our five week relationship the corporate structure is keeping doctor patient contact to a minimum!
In order to reach Dr.Reed prior to my surgery I had to email the surgery scheduler who kindly printed the email and made sure the Dr. had it prior to my pre- surgery meeting with him! The reason I wanted my notes in writing was that I anticipated that I might be too stressed to remember what I wanted to say just before surgery!
After surgery I apparently was “too out of it” to hear what Dr.Reed said, though James did speak with him, however I had had a couple of specific question which James did not ask! I called SOC requesting a telephone appointment with Dr.Reed to hear first hand about my surgery. I got the impression from the people I spoke with that this was an unreasonable request especially as I was scheduled to see Dr.Reed for the post surgery consultation the following week. After being very insistent Dr.Reed did call me and I did get my questions answered, but that was four days after my surgery!
During my second post surgery appointment, when the stitches were removed, Dr.Reed gave me exercise instructions and said if I had any questions about the exercises to please call him! So I called about nine days later.
The call was returned by someone whom I thought called himself a PA! I asked him if he was familiar with Dr.Reed’s Alphabet exercises, and he said he was. I said I was not pushing the exercises, but thought maybe I should be more aggressive even though without really pushing I was slowly regaining rotation in my ankle….. I also wanted to know if “pushing” the limits would loosen the screws?
No chance of screws being loosened….and yes I should push two notches beyond what I could bare and hold for thirty seconds! Really I said my surgery was only three weeks ago……. Oh well, he said in that case better not push! Obviously he had not looked at my records! Scary…….knowing what might happen in a similar scenario…….maybe to someone else……..I am always very vigilant, especially if not speaking directly to my own Doctor!
Access is the issue……. and from the survey from Proliance Surgeons I filled out….judging by the questions, I bet they know this! But how to solve it …
The surgery, the care during the follow up appointments by the technician Kiyoshi and Dr.Reed’s limited time spent with me in person I’d classify as top notch! It’s very interesting to me, though I admire Dr.Reed professionally but with such limited access………are we really working together? That’s how I feel today…. maybe I’ll feel differently down the recuperation road!
I hope this does not come across as a rant…… or just a bitchy patient who is being blocked from chewing up the doctor’s time……. well it’s not…… I am looking for a solution on how can patients feel confident they have access to their Doctor when admittedly there are limited resources, and the fear of litigation is prevalent by groups like Proliance Surgeons?
My experience with Dr.Nancy whom I mentioned in a previous post was very different yesterday; knowing there was no hope of reaching Dr.Reed I emailed her with a question and received the answer within sixty minutes!
MILESTONE: One-third of the recuperation journey…… HOORAY!
Previous posts are below ~ the more recent ones are on page two of this elegant list by Listly.
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