Posts by Rachel Hill45

2 posts shown.

Info Desk [Paperwork, ordering, wait times, procedures, booklets, prescriptions...] in Health · Oct 19, 2011

Lisa Nelson70 said:@Kenneth Jackson77: I waited over six months just to get some basic screenings scheduled—it wasn't like the Department of Health and Human Services ever reached out to me or anything... I basically just had to play phone tag with various hospitals myself to see when the first opening was available, and then I just sort of took a gamble on where to actually book the appointment.

I used to handle all my own scheduling—back before they implemented this centralized ordering system—but since I haven't actually needed any checkups in the last few years, I’m completely in the dark about how this new setup is supposed to work. Honestly, it doesn't make any sense to me; now I'm looking at a two-month wait just for an appointment that, in the past, I wouldn't have even had to book.
Anyway, I’m not exactly dying from being stuck in bed—though I was really hoping to dodge this whole thing—but I guess that’s why they started moving toward this centralized ordering system in the first place.
Thanks for the info. 🙂

I was wondering—just out of curiosity—if it’s actually possible to snag an appointment for some kind of checkup tomorrow if I'm looking at a city a bit further away? 311 milesI guess it comes down to the specifics of your situation—do you actually have a right to claim travel expenses, or am I stuck waiting in some line somewhere closer to home?

I think there might be some info regarding this in that link I shared in my last post—basically, if you’re able to get that screening done in the city where you're actually registered (meaning, wherever your primary care doctor is that issued the referral), then you really ought to do it there. If you go elsewhere, they probably won't cover your travel expenses. I guess the only exception would be if the wait times in your home city are absolutely insane—like, months or even years—in which case, it would seem pretty ridiculous if they didn't approve your travel costs.
Look, I’ll say it again—this whole centralized ordering system is just one big mystery to me.

I was thinking about asking my primary care doctor to just send me straight over to a physiatrist—it feels like that might be the most logical next step.

I suppose I agree—it might actually be in your best interest to "crank up" the symptoms just a little bit. Good afternoon—I'm here to pick up a referral for a physical therapist. It feels like my symptoms have taken a bit of a turn for the worse lately... [insert symptoms]

If you find yourself in a situation where your doctor is being insistent that everything is perfectly fine—even when your gut tells you otherwise—just tell her exactly what you wrote here. These kinds of conditions—they don't really improve, I guess. You either stay stagnant or things just start sliding downhill. It’s more about prevention than actually finding a cure at this stage. Right now, maybe it isn't such a huge deal, but once I hit sixty, I don't want to be sitting there completely helpless.

I can't quite wrap my head around why such a huge chunk of the medical community just... completely overlooked the importance of preventative care. It’s a bit baffling, honestly—you'd think after everything we know now, it would be a given. Maybe they're just too caught up in treating symptoms to look at the bigger picture? I don't know. It feels like a massive missed opportunity.

I guess you should probably make sure to cite all those expert opinions you managed to gather—it might be worth bringing them all into the conversation.
Regarding physiatrists—I know there’s a really solid one over at Amtrak. You might have to wait a little bit for an appointment, I guess, but once you're in, she goes over absolutely everything. She doesn't miss a single detail. Plus, if your diagnosis actually calls for it, you can get things like MRIs, pool therapy, or electrical stimulation—it's not just the usual basic exercises they try to push on everyone.

If all else fails,

A friend of mine has an absolutely stellar doctor.

Maybe I could just switch over to his practice? 😁 Based on your experience, it sounds like there’s a massive difference between the two.

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Info Desk [Paperwork, ordering, wait times, procedures, booklets, prescriptions...] in Health · Oct 14, 2011

Benjamin Thomas24 said:I'll apologize in advance if someone else has already asked this—I just received an email confirming an appointment for my tests, but the timing is actually no good for me. Can I just send an email to request a change, or will they actually acknowledge that? Or am I better off just waiting it out and trying to book everything all over again through the portal?

I've actually dealt with something pretty similar myself, so maybe this might be worth looking into—might help you out.

A quicker path to hospital treatment—or at least, how I’ve been looking at it lately.

I managed to track down the latest report from Medicare regarding health statistics for June—you can grab the PDF right here if you want to dig through the data yourself: http://www.medicare.gov/health-statistics-june.pdf

To be specific—if you find yourself stuck waiting more than two months for an appointment at a particular hospital, you can generally expect a call from the Department of Health and Human Services. They’ll likely reach out to offer you the option of having that necessary exam or procedure handled at a different facility instead. The whole idea behind implementing the National Waiting List—which acts as the single centralized registry—was to trim down those wait times and, I suppose, prevent the headache of patients being scheduled for the same thing multiple times.

I guess what I took away from all this is that, in those specific instances where... So, I just noticed that the appointment date they gave me is more than two months out from when I actually placed the order—which, honestly, feels like a bit of a stretch. I guess it’s just how things are moving lately, but still, waiting that long seems excessive.The system—specifically the Department of Health and Human Services—tends to offer patients an earlier appointment at some other clinic or hospital, I guess. It’s basically their way of trying to prevent everyone from flooding the local facilities all at once when a certain date opens up.

I was wondering if this practice is actually being implemented in reality—and whether it covers every single type of screening, test, or procedure out there.

To be honest, I've been scheduled for an appointment in two and a half months—which feels like a massive stretch to me. It isn't even for some major, complicated surgery or anything; it’s just a routine follow-up. I don't recall ever having to wait this long for a checkup before, so the delay is a bit surprising, I guess.
Since I’ve already scheduled an appointment at one location—which I assume means I'm officially on the waiting list now—will the system automatically flag an earlier opening at a different clinic for me? I think the new rules say I'm actually not allowed to go around booking multiple appointments at various places myself anymore.

I’d really appreciate any info anyone might have—I haven't had any luck getting through to anyone at the main administrative hub of the hospital I've been assigned to today. 😢 😕

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