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Estee


On the Sliding Scale Of Cynicism Vs. Idealism, I like to think of myself as being idyllically cynical. (Patreon, Ko-Fi.)

More Blog Posts1258

Sep
4th
2020

Appointment Ad Absurdium: try not to groan · 6:48pm Sep 4th, 2020

Tomorrow's covid clearance was cancelled. Turns out that when the spinal surgery went down, everything connected with it drowned in concert. And since the radiology office made that booking... lost. Which left me scrambling to get a new clearance, because cardiology needs the test done no more than three days before the procedure -- which is on the 8th.

So I called the test center and got nowhere: I had no viable scrip. I spoke to radiology: they can't reinstate because it's no longer for their procedure. Cardiology said they'd try to get something faxed over as soon as possible, and the fact that I was willing to drive to any part of the state was helpful.

Ninety minutes of desperate scrambling, burning off cell minutes with each new hoop presented. And after it was all over, I wound up with...

...the exact same appointment.

Same facility. Same time.

Y'see, they normally would have some trouble booking us on such short notice, but as it turns out, a spot had just opened up...

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Comments ( 25 )

At this point I'm not even surprised. Tell me again how Medicare For All would make healthcare way worse than it is?

Ya know, I took the [Out of the developed/First World] "America pays the most for healthcare and gets (among the) worst healthcare" at face value because it came from reliable sources that I not only trust, but places that I should trust, but I've never really had what I'd call really bad or horrible experiences with the system personally. Reading about this stuff makes me both very happy with the healthcare professionals I've had take care of me, and also really understand what people meant when they said "worst healthcare." This kinda bullshit is ridiculous.

If this had happened to a character in a sitcom, you would have laughed. It isn't nearly as funny when it's happening to you.

Ok universe you can stop laughing now it isn’t funny.

I tried. I failed.

5348535
When it's real life, the genre is horror.

"head-desks in utter disbelief"

It's things like this that make me use only use the term BS, when I am referring to matters of Beauracratic Bull Shit. I can only hope that things start going your way soon.

And they didn't even charge you extra for getting your original appointment back. Tsk, tsk. And they call themselves doctors.

(I'm picturing the class they have to take in medical school to acquire this level of byzantine... whatever you can call it.)

5348598
Bureaucracy 101

5348662
Sometimes, the right hand doesn't know WHAT the left hand is doing.
This is because the right hand thinks the left hand is a foot & has 3 tentacles + a claw.
This, in turn, is because, the head is up the ass.

I'd say something, but it's already been said.

“My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.”
The Red Queen, Alice In Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)

It's hard to believe the way american health care is set up isn't actively malicious.
Maybe it is...

FTL

5348540
5348535

As Mel Brooks said many moons ago “Tragedy is when I stub my toe... comedy is when you fall into an open sewer manhole and die.” To the system and those who manage it, Estee’s experience is just an amusing side effect of the process... something to laugh about if it is ever highlighted and then promptly forgotten as something of little meaning as the system and money train roll on happily. To Estée and anyone with some empathy, it is an absolute farce and tragedy and an obvious sign that things need to be fixed urgently.

At least this time the funny bit worked out, even if it was another case of hair pulling frustration to get the seemingly straightforward logical result.

I'm an atheist, but I think "Jesus wept" applies here...

At least the space was still open for them to assign to you. They could have given it to someone else in the meantime, and your schedule would have been totally fracked up. While the process is still fracked up, at least you have the appointment time and date you need. The drama you went through is the saddest thing about it all...

But I do know the absurdium of dealing with hospital departments, even with Australia's very good Medicare system, it has its screw-ups:

My cousin has Peripheral Vascular Disease in his left leg, has a heart condition, and has had Hodgkin's Lymphoma in the past. So he has had appointments with the Vascular Surgery Department, Cardiology and Oncology in the same hospital, on the same date... at the SAME TIME! Took a week (and many, Many phone-calls) for all three departments to co-ordinate so that the appointments were staggered out from 10am to 3pm on that day. And while it was a mad rush-around from one part of the hospital (the hospital's facilities are located in five buildings, with a major street running between some of them), with us having to leave Oncology before they were finished after their appointment ran dangerously close to going into Cardiology's appointment time, the day was done successfully. Hardly moved him any closer to getting the surgery done on his leg, but they're booking VSD and Oncology forward an hour (VSD: 9am; ONC:12pm and CRD:3pm) so that next time we can have enough time to get from one building to the next without me running (while pushing his wheelchair) AND have time for lunch before ONC.

The only really big advantage with having everything on the one day is parking. I can get a long-term parking permit for the entire day at any parking bay around the hospital, instead of parking in the parking garage, and the parking cops ignore my car, no matter how long I stay in one spot. BIG help, even with my disabled parking permit, which normally allows only two hours parking for free.

5348535
If this happened in a Show, I'd complain that it was unnecessary and unrealistic.

5348817
Reality Is Unrealistic. Exhibit A: the Trauma Conga Line that is Estee’s life.

Hey, a win is a win. (Attitude is everything!) :pinkiecrazy:

Y'see, they normally would have some trouble booking us on such short notice, but as it turns out, a spot had just opened up...

I laughed.

Not because it's funny, but because the only other option would've been to scream... :raritydespair:

Seriously, that's some spaghetti-code level bureaucracy right there.

[facehoofs]
Just... just, wow.
Glad you got it worked out, at least.

Wow. At the same time? After all the runaround bullshit they put you through? I'd be seeing red. Fuck. You have the patience of a saint and the heart of a truly loving person to keep pushing for everything your mom needs despite all the setbacks and difficulties.

Bureaucracy, yes... but this is also what happens when you have computers deciding and "coordinating" these things, without any human being ever looking at them first to apply any common sense. Somewhere in the system, there was a flag that said "this test was requested by Office X as a prerequisite to Procedure Y" -- and when Office X cancelled Procedure Y, that cancellation propagated back through the network and the test facility's computer said to itself "Oh, Office X cancelled the procedure this test was for, so the test is no longer needed", and no one ever looked to say "wait a minute, does this patient have any other upcoming procedures this test might be needed for?"

CCC

5348598

Now now, be fair. That's not the job of the doctors. That's the job of the bureaucrats.

Most of the doctors that I've met - none of whom have been American doctors, but I'm guessing the same holds there - want to get their patients well again. Most of them also don't much worry about which patient they see right now, on the basis that it's someone who will benefit from their expertise and one benefit is (more or less) as good as another - so they have someone else handle the appointments, figure out who gets to see the doctor when, and try to ensure that the most urgent cases are bought forward first (so the doctor can concentrate his attention on the case in front of him at any given moment).

This goes double in a hospital, where there are a fairly large staff of said bureaucrats, who are supposed to handle the scheduling for all of the doctors.

The doctors probably aren't even aware of this particular mess-up. It's pure bureaucracy.

5349323

In order for that to have worked, the system would have needed to know about the new appointment. Which it presumably didn't; I'm guessing that was one of the hoops Estee needed to climb through.

RDT

At some point I wonder if my sheet incompetence is going to get me killed, considering the amount of Bullshit the world throws at people.

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