Eternal Vigilance

Is it just me? Does everyone else have a dark cloud of mishap over their heads when they go to the doc?

While waiting for my CAT scan yesterday, I amused myself by reading my own admission paperwork. You guessed it, they got it WRONG. Right there on the lab order was "CT with contrast," when my doctor had clearly ordered a CT without injected contrast dye.

I scooted back down the hall and informed the admissions clerk that it was a mistake, my doctor had specifically told me that he wanted a no-contrast film. Penny got on the phone to Connie, who then proceeded to tell me a bald-faced lie:

"That's the only way the insurance would authorize the CAT scan, with contrast."

I argued with her. Why in the world would the insurance authorize a procedure that was in direct conflict with my doctor's orders? Why in the world would I consent to such a thing?

When I rattled off the name, toll-free number and extension of my insurance company's pre-authorization nurse from memory (I've been down this road before), and told her I'd wait until she confirmed the correct procedure, she quickly backed down and told me she'd get back to me.

I waited. The nurse came out to get me, to put a needle in my arm for the contrast dye. I refused cheerfully and told her that I would wait until someone called my insurance and got the correct authorization, or until someone called my doctor to confirm that the test was to be done without injection.

Bad patient. Non-compliant patient. Their annoyance with me was palpable--I was messing up their schedule. Never mind that whoever had done the pre-auth had coded it incorrectly, and to cover their mistake, now wanted me to just go along with them and have the wrong test done.

It took about a half-hour, but they eventually got their act together and got the right authorization for the right test. I lay down on the machine and held my breath 3 times. That was it. Then I left and went to Fedex to drop off packages, and Lowes to buy a door latch.

But every time this (or something similar) happens, I wonder about patients who: Don't listen to what their doctor says carefully; don't read the paperwork that concerns them; blithely follow instructions without question; don't pay attention to what's going on; blindly assume that all these medical people are smarter than they are.

Once again, the lesson is learned: No one cares more about you than YOU. You have to be the one who is in charge of your own medical follies.