My other comment.

Just today, after jumping through more hoops than I want to discuss, I was finally approved for a test ordered by my physician. It was a chest CT without contrast. (Necessary for pre-op evaluation for anesthesia for upcoming surgery.)

Upon signing in at the facility that was to perform the CT, I was handed 3 forms to sign. (Let me add that I have been a patient at this facility for many years - not a new patient.)

One form was to consent to have the facility bill my insurance company for the test and my agreement to pay should the insurance company not provide payment. (OK)

One form was to consent to allow the facility to perform the CT. (OK)

The third form was to answer some YES NO questions and sign specifically consenting to contrast for my CT. This form was strictly and solely for CT contrast.

I got up and told the receptionist that I was NOT having contrast with my CT. She said YES, she knew that but it was required that ALL patients having any CT, even without contrast, MUST sign this form in order to have a CT, even without contrast.

Why in the world would I sign a form explicitly stating that I consent to contrast when I do NOT consent to contrast? And if I don't sign the form, they won't do my CT.

I complied, answered the YES NO questions, and did sign the form, however, I wrote in BIG handwriting all across the form, that I was NOT consenting to contrast and signed it under my notation.

This makes absolutely NO sense to me. Why force someone to sign a consent form for something that is NOT going to be done? They already HAD a separate form consenting to having a CT, which I signed without question. What more did they want other than consent to something not happening.

I am considering writing them a letter demanding that they stop this practice, but without a copy of the form I was required to sign, I feel a letter would simply be dismissed as a mistake.

I love hearing everyone's stories and opinions because I prefer to see things from multiple angles.

If you ask any nurse what the worst part of his/her job is the majority will saying charting and paperwork. It frustrates me beyond belief that I cannot give my patients the attention they deserve because I have to chart every little thing. When I was a hospice nurse I loved being able to spend a minimum of 30 minutes with each patient. That changed when Medicare demanded more documentation "to prove" that hospice was necessary. Sorry to go off on a tangent but I became a nurse to help people not to fill out pages of forms.

I was once told by a charge nurse that if it was not charted, it was not done. That was suppose to be very limited and specific. I knew exactly what was meant by the statement.

BUT, in today's electronic charting, just the opposite is happening. Things that did NOT happen are now being charted that they did indeed happen because a box needed a check mark.

And this is being done to satisfy the government and insurance regulations and have fees covered. Yet another example of how erroneous one's chart becomes under the new guidelines and regulations.

Personally, I think each and every doctor and nurse should be supplied with a clerk that is assigned to them and will do all the "paperwork" at the dictation of the medical personnel, so that the medically trained people can do the job they trained to do. This clerk should enter only and exactly what they are told and not take it upon themselves to enter items on their own.

I guess that would have its own set of problems but at least that would allow the medical personnel to devote more of their time to the patient. And it would be much too costly to implement. But when you think about the amount of time of more highly trained people doing it, instead of a trained clerk, it would actually SAVE money. An hour of a doc's time is a lot more costly than an hour of time for a clerk.

Narcotic Agreements
 

If you go to pain management or any doctor now a days. They request you to sign a narcotic agreement. If you have signed one of these, that is how they are getting your information on pain meds. It is all in the narcotics agreement

Hopeless,

I don't know about office practice but emergency rooms that employ a scribe to their docs tend to have much higher efficiency. :)

The "If it isn't charted, it wasn't done" was one of the first and most stressed statement I heard in nursing school.

Unfortunately that goes several ways: If you tell your MD a symptom and the MD doesn't document it, it's like you never mentioned it and do not have that symptom.
In the world of e-charting, you are correct in errors being made. This of course stresses the need to obtain copies of your records and send in corrections. My daughter went to an allergy/asthma clinic and I was quite shocked when I got her records and it stated her tonsils were "normal and without exudate"...she had her tonsils removed 5 years prior to this appointment and her tonsillectomy was noted in her history.

Today, I have been informed of another horrible change to healthcare. My son went to see an ortho for follow-up on his accident as well as a previous issue with his knee and his shoulder. He was informed they could only see him for one body part at a time. Seriously??? Yup. Seriously. A second ortho office has the same practice guidelines. Unheard of!

Believe, I found that out last year before being diagnosed for CRPS. My husband had an appointment on a day that my foot was turning a very deep purple. He was willing to give up his appointment for me in case there was something that our PCP could do for me at the time. As soon as he walked in he looked at me, looked at my foot, asked me to leave since I was not on the schedule, and told my husband that he could only be seen for one thing. If there is more than one reason for being there, make another appointment for a different day. Only one thing per appointment. OK, I could understand if he was busy, but we were the only two people in the office at that time.

I ended up calling my Ortho to have a venous doppler scheduled in case of DVT while still in his office. It was scheduled 2 days later. We still go to my PCP's office but we make sure that we no longer see that doctor anymore. The rest of his staff is very friendly and courteous. If it wasn't for how nice everyone else at his practice is, I would have went to a different office after that day.

Wow, only ONE condition per visit? That is ridiculous. The body parts do not work independently of each other. I am amazed that as soon as I think I have heard most of the medical ineptness, I hear of something even more absurd.

The closest I ever came to being told anything remotely similar was once when I went to a new dermatologist and I had a piece of paper with a few questions. The minute he saw that I had a piece of paper in my hand, he said I can't address your questions, pick one that is most important to you. (Most of my questions were quick and easy but he never even gave me an opportunity to ask.)

That is exactly what I did. I picked the one most important and never returned to his office again.

The dermatologist I found after that encounter, will address things they notice that I am not even aware of and will address everything else, too,...my issues for which I came and the ones THEY noticed, and all in ONE visit.