After tearing some hair (actually, a lot of hair), out, I finally called her internist's office, and asked them to fax over her most recent chart note.
They sent this over:
Better yet, when I called them again, they verified that it's the entirety of her most recent note. After all, the Medicare quality measures are the only things of value anymore.
It's almost, but not quite, entirely unlike what you wanted...
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to let you know that I understood and appreciated your reference, and I think it's a fantastic use of it, in contexts besides just spaceship tea!
DeletePrime example of why the government needs to stay out of patient care.
ReplyDeleteAlthough this is the worst I've seen since it manages to provide no real patient info, finding pertinent information in most notes is like looking for a needle in a haystack full of bullshit (Did the patient have their flu shot? Did you assess their level of fall risk? Did their second cousin twice removed drink more than two alcoholic beverages daily?)
The worst part is that new doctors think this is normal. Last year I was working for a green doctor, she could've passed a chart audit with flying colors but she had no idea how to actually treat the patients. She was very intelligent and had a lot of potential to be a very capable physician, she was just trained wrong. Sadly, this is the future of medicine.
I am largely satisfied with the results and Mrs. Hufnagle appears satisfied too.
ReplyDeleteI remember Mrs. Huffnagel well and her untimely, but entirely funny, death. Haha. Great show. Miss it.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I hear someone say that we need national health care "just like Medicare" I laugh my fool head off. Medicare sucks. IT SUCKS.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that half the people who say this are simply clueless and the other half are confusing Medicare (which has premiums, co-pays, and requires a separately painful policy for prescriptions or, for even more money, for actually getting decent healthcare, too) with Medicaid (which covers just about everything, usually with no co-pay).
There's a reason why Medicaid is only available to the poorest people, typically those with children or who are disabled. But when I heard someone say that Medicaid paid for them to get genetic testing for treatment-resistant depression (the testing can identify which meds are most likely to work), I about cried. Medicare will only cover genetic testing for warfarin response, even though it's believed that depression is severely under-diagnosed and under-treated in our elderly.
MEDICARE.
SUCKS.
[/monthly Medicare rant]
Yeah. My wife is on a Medicare Advantage plan.
ReplyDelete1) They've quit paying for HRT--they've simply decided that anyone over 65 shouldn't be on it, the medical facts don't matter. (Her PCP has transexual patients that they refuse to pay for even!)
2) Fosamax is holding the line on bone thinning and while her numbers haven't actually gotten better the target has dropped as she ages--if she goes into the normal range they aren't going to cover it anymore, either. Never mind that her bones went down very quickly after menopause.
At least her PCP understands the stupidity and will still write the scripts.
This explains everything:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB_tSFJsjsw
On receiving this response to your question, were you singing, "I can't get no satisfaction?"
ReplyDeleteMy comment quota has been satisfied.
ReplyDeleteThis is the best of both worlds for the doctors liability.
ReplyDeleteHe has proof he followed all the recommended treatment requirements.
There is NO proof he missed any obvious signs of problems, and no way to pvrove malpractice.
This is government at its finest!
All hail Obamacare!
Nice to see that medical tests have gone from grades to pass-fail.
ReplyDeleteIt's like when you're a teenager and you're filling out a form and you get to the box that says "sex" and you think it's hilarious to write "yes."
ReplyDeleteI'll bet the HIPAA compliance score is through the roof, though.
ReplyDelete"I'm taking the Fifth."
ReplyDeleteOmg! This tells you NOTHING. I'm happy to be living in Canada.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that the person that says 'this is a prime example of why government ... ' doesn't know much about medicine. This, rather, is what Moose points to as evidence that it is rather important for those involved in producing ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS programs have some idea of what information someone with medical training would want to access, to use it functionality properly. That list looks like a grocery store receipt.
ReplyDeleteI worked for Wal-mart Pharmacy several times, and was MOST IMPRESSED with their computer prescription processing design. It was so, so, so, well, EASY, to obtain the necessary information to process a prescription. The screens were user-friendly. There wasn't a lot of extraneous detritus. Basic stuff. Patient address, birth date, allergies, drug history, AND accurate and timely insurance information, IF the patient provided accurate information, the person that input the data carefully entered required information, etc. All information evidently indicative that a pharmacist had been consulted in the program design! Whatever people say about Wal-mart pharmacies (detrimental comments usually have to do with the clientele and management --me, a newbie, processed/filled/counseled on more than 300 prescriptions that day with two techs, one bathroom break, and a sandwich consumed on the way to the bathroom located at the other end of the store), their computer system was designed by experts.
(Some of the 'chain retail' drugstores where I've worked in the past five years still use pac-man age 1-bit amber or green screens, with programs that impossible to derive useful information except print out a label and receipt.)
Anonymous on March 7, 2016 at 3:10 PM, what does this have to do with obamacare?
ReplyDelete