Monday, February 22, 2010

My pet peeve...Incompetent, stupid people - the Shreveport type

Where do I even begin here...Lets see...

I called this morning to "find out where we were in the Meridell transfer process".  I was trying to start out nice and cordial enough, but needed to do something to get the ball rolling.  So I talked to person number 1 who had no idea what I was talking about...then disconnected me in an attempt to transfer me to person number 2.  I called back, was able to talk to person number 2, and she had no idea - even looking at his record.  So they transferred me to the voicemail of the overseeing therapist and I left a message...then called back and proceeded to leave several messages throughout the day with no returned call.  I called and called and called all day long. 

So then I started calling Meridell, and after some phonetag was able to get in touch with the guy we worked closely with last time, Jerry.  He is top notch, and remembered us...remembered that I stayed with my parents in OK, was super sweet and sorry that we were back on this track again, but he was fantastic.  He was honest and said that the way the hospital here has approached them and the way they were going about things was screwy.  They totally bypassed the insurance route and admissions process and just called the admissions line at Meridell.  Weird.  Brentwood has the form to submit to the insurance, and then the insurance handles it from there...but they honestly are flat out too lazy to fill out the paperwork.

So I got the paperwork from our insurance liason, filled it out for them essentially , gave them a blank copy because THEY are supposed to be the ones to fill it out, and I even typed up a THREE PAGE WORD DOCUMENT giving them additional information to help make it easy for them to fill it out.  Ummmm yeah.  So I had all that and I just needed to get 2 minutes from the therapist to drive all the way over to her to give it to her. 

The day was going by with no phone call to set up a time to do that, so luckily Norman called the hospital administrator and got someone to listen.  The administrator had a patient rights advocate call me, and she proceeded to get an earful.  She was shocked and frustrated at what had been going on, and was apologetic...blah blah.  I told her that I was absolutely regretful of our decision to take him to that hospital, that the staff is incompetent, I never get a phonecall returned, and nobody in that building had an ounce of professionalism and they should be embarassed for what they do there.  I also told her that it is horribly inappropriate for the doctor to never talk to or meet with the parents of a minor child, and that we expected some change.  We expected someone in that building to pick up the phone and DO something.  I told her I even had done the work for them as far as this form is concerned and that they were too lazy to come downstairs and pick it up. 

Well, by 4 pm I received a phonecall from the therapist and I drove to the hospital to give her the paperwork.  And we proceeded to sit on the couch and I went over it all with her.  Everything.  How HARD IS THIS?!  Then she basically made a phone appointment with me in the morning to make sure I was available to be reached for her questions when she filled out the form in the morning. 

Then she tells me that on Saturday (this past Saturday) they wrote up the discharge paperwork for this coming WEDNESDAY. 

So lets sum this up.  They double the medication that makes him bounce off the freaking walls...do away with the medication that helps stabilize the activity level...get him to a non-functional point where he won't look anyone in the eye, cannot hold a short conversation, literally cannot sit still at all, and in fact tried to crawl UNDER the chair during our family session, and they are going to discharge him in two days, 10 times worse off than when we took him in.  And because they did not contact Meridell from the get-go, we are that much further down on the wait list. 

Tomorrow the hospital is SUPPOSED to fax the form in to the insurance to get approval on the authorization to transfer him, but will they do it? I don't know...if I have anything to do with it they will...because I will call them 18 times again tomorrow like I did today. 

THIS.SUCKS.

1 comment:

samskat said...

So where does this leave you in getting him to Meridell? Is there another facility in TX where you can take him short term until Meridell has room for him? Sounds like he needs to get the heck out of that hospital!! Praying for you guys.