Since 2005, my father has been dealing with Lupus. It's a disease that has no plan. It tears you apart in large and in small ways. So many symptoms come as a result of this collection of diseases that it often makes it hard for doctors to secure a proper treatment to fight back. On Fox's House, Lupus is often the word used for the mystery cases House and his team have when they can't find a solution right away.
A particular problem that I have with hospitals large and small, coming from my experience of taking my father around to his various appointments, is the number of times that we have to give X-Ray's, Cat Scans, MRI's and blood tests with each new hospital (or doctor's office) we go to. I could understand if you need to update in order to assess the present condition of the patient you are dealing with; the problem is that if a person did an extra just a few months ago, why not consult the other hospital's (or doctor's offices) for those same records to determine whether or not you actually need to get another set of X-Ray's, Cat Scans, MRI's and blood tests.
My mother works many tireless hours working night and day as a programmer. In addition to basically taking care of the bills of the house, she also has to contend with the various medical bills that arrive at her door. A good cost-saving measure, and a means of getting a sense of a patient's history over a number of years, would be to get all of the results one can find from every hospital (and doctor's office) the patient has been to.
There are many understandable complications that can cause hospitals and doctor's offices to put the breaks on sharing such information; there's so much paperwork the office staff have to put together and not all of it might be relevant to the needs of the hospital or doctor's office that requests it. It also costs a lot to make hundreds of copies of one patient's history and therefore it's not beneficial financially to a hospital or a doctor's office in the first place.
As big a pain in the butt as it is for hospital's and doctor's offices to send patient information to each other, it would be such a great relief to the pockets of the people whose insurance doesn't magically cover everything. My mother, although she has insurance, constantly worries about the fact that she can't keep up with the cost of the many Cat Scans, MRI's, blood tests, X-Ray's and blood tests that my father has to endure because no one is willing to share.
Times are hard.
Saying "it is what it is" works with everything else.
It doesn't work however when it end's up emptying out your wallet, or your means of eating and having a place to sleep.
1. Your docs work for you; if they will not comply with your wishes, fire them & move on. 2. It is possible for them to fax results to one another 3. You need a team approach with lupus; choose 1 doc to be the master planner all others report to. With us, it was the kidney doc (cuz kidneys were the most severe thing in danger & this doc was a fighter!) 4. You have the right to a copy of all your records as well as your testing. Ask for it. Take them with you to appointments in case a fax fell thru. Bottom line is you need to lay down the law, set up a system, be the back-up for your own team. I speak from experience on lupus as well as another condition. BTW, we have found the docs at Rush University to be pretty darn good when working as a team & in communications with others.