You guys and gals aren't going to believe what just happened...

[PCIntern]

Well, you probably will...

I went up to the front of my dental office and I saw that a fax transmission had come in. so I take a look and see that it is a non-gynecological cytology report which indicates that the patient has malignant breast tumor.

The name of this patient, her docs, her address is all over this misplaced document.

So I call the number on the form and a lady answers and I tell her what just came to my office inappropriately and she says, "Oh well, that's a different department..." and trails off...

I said, "Listen, ma'am, this is a positive report for a serious malignancy and was obviously being sent somewhere for a REASON, and that the person who did not receive this information may very well be critical in the treatment for the patient and this communication should be redirected. Don't you think?"

So the lady said, "OK, fax it back to me and I'll see it gets to where it's supposed to go." I thanked her and faxed it immediately.

The question I asked myself, as Clint Eastwood once memorably asked is, "Do you feel lucky?" I hope and pray this winds up where it belongs. I have no other numbers to call to ensure that it does, and I'm sure not going to call the patient whose name I know...and the fact is that I may know that she has cancer before she does.

What a horror...what a society!

Sorry, had to vent.

[marew]

1. Now that is scary! n/t

[Warpy]

2. A follow up letter to the doctor or pathology lab

is indicated. They need to know their staff members are slacking off and aren't particularly motivated to correct serious errors.

As for the misdirected fax, that is an honest mistake. The office worker's attitude is what was criminal.

[Nictuku]

3. See if there is a phone number on the FAX

.... it would be another FAX machine, but then see if you can google that phone number to find one associated with a medical group or medical practice.

[Debi]

4. When I was visiting a friend at his advertising agency he received

a fax containing about 15 pages of medical records for a person he knew. He called the office who had sent the fax and they just apologized for 'mixing up the numbers'. I'm sure that made it all better. :eyes:

[zagging]

5. Also a major HIPAA violation

If she doesn't respond quickly enough, remind her that you are required to report it.

[kirby]

6. Isnt that a serious HIPAA violation?

How can FAX machines where stuff sits around in the open even be allowed for communication of private and confidential material?

Plus I love the 'fax it back to me'. I once had someone insist that I needed to FAX them the ORIGINAL, not a copy.

Privacy aside, I hope the intended person gets their information.

[newtothegame]

21. :)

Plus I love the 'fax it back to me'. I once had someone insist that I needed to FAX them the ORIGINAL, not a copy.

CLASSIC. Reminds me of this: Man tries to pay bill with spider drawing http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=665847

[Blaze Diem]

7. Key word here is"malignancy" and the unknowing lives it has occupied.

I refer to not only the cancer of this patient, but the state of our Nation.

Its just too discript, and applicable to explain.
-----------------------------------------------------

Sorry you have to carry this concern, now.

[aikoaiko]

8. "fax it back to me" wtf she has the original.

:shrug:

[HillWilliam]

20. Thank you... that hit me immediately as well

The woman on the other end is twice a bozo. Like faxing it back would somehow erase the documents he had in his hand? :wtf:

You wonder how some people get dressed in the morning and get out the door.

[conscious evolution]

23. It makes sense actually

She may have sent off fax's for several patients that morning.

[KansDem]

9. I had a physical last year. Numbers came back...looking good...even my pap smear looked good.

Only problem: I'm a guy...

I called my doctor's office right away and got this straightened out...

[PCIntern]

11. They scheduled you for a D & C nonetheless I'm sure...

:rofl:

[Wapsie B]

10. That is horrible.

That would definitely give me pause. As a side note, if she faxed the report to you wouldn't that mean she'd already have the original and wouldn't need you to fax it back to her?

[PCIntern]

14. "different office..."

this way she can theoretically take it back to where it belongs...

[Renew Deal]

12. This happened to me a bunch of times at a previous job,

I got a few faxes with names, addreses, SS#, and detailed medical conditions a lot. I would call the facility back when it happened, but I doubt they ever did anything about it. My compan had nothing to do with health or medicine.

[MineralMan]

13. Oh, I can believe it.

What I can't believe is that we're still using faxes to send stuff like this. I used to get faxes which should have gone to a real estate company that had a fax number with two swapped digits from my fax machine's number. I'd get these 40 page financial things, complete with someone's SS# and every other detail of a real estate transaction.

When I called the real estate office and explained what had come across my fax machine, they'd just shrug and ask me to run it over there. Of course, I couldn't do that, since I needed to be in my office.

At one point I suggested that they might want to get a different number for their fax machine, since I was getting so many of their faxes. They got really angry and told me I should change my fax number, which I'd had for years before their office even opened.

I finally solved the problem. I started contacting the person whose information was on the forms I got and telling them what had happened. After a couple of those phone calls, the mistakes suddenly stopped happening.

Why hasn't the medical profession started using email, for pete's sake. None of my doctors take emails. You still have to play phone tag with them...often delaying something for more than a day. I finally figured out that if I go to the office and insist that my situation be resolved, it works a lot better, since I'm talking directly to the witless person at the desk, rather than talking to them on the phone.

[kirby]

19. Encrypted email only please...

Medical records cannot / should not be sent to/from email. You don't want your medical records sitting in peoples hotmail / google / yahoo accounts, then showing up under someones 'Share folder' on some Peer to Peer network.

[Love Bug]

27. Sending PHI by unencrypted email is also a HIPAA violation

[HillWilliam]

22. Thank heavens my partner's ID thrives on email

since he also volunteers in Africa quite often doing HIV treatment. When my partner has a problem or concern, he dashes off an email to his ID and gets a response within 24 hours no matter where on earth his doctor is. That has been a lifesaver more than once -- but Duke Hospital is somewhat ahead of the curve. When my partner was at Wake Forest/Baptist and (worse!!) at Carolina, it was all you could do to get hold of a doctor, nurse, caseworker even when you had an appointment. They've since split Wake Forest into separate operating groups and none of the systems talk to the other -- not the appointment system, none of the lab systems, none of the results systems, nothing. It's a fucking zoo. Another perfectly good hospital totally destroyed by piratization -- er, privatization.

At Carolina, the systems talk with one another, but corporate hires the feeble and incompetent, so no one knows how to run or interpret them. My partner was misprescribed more than once there. His primary care physician took six months of begging before she finally gave him the results of his colonoscopy. He hit the ceiling and asked her "didn't the words 'prognosis worrisome' and 'squamous cell' have any meaning to you?".

She just looked at him like a cow and said, no, should they?

That's when he had a friend pull strings to get him in a Duke.

Medical "profession"? Nah, it's mostly just a mill where they process people in and extrude dollars out.

[tblue37]

43. My doctors' office doesn't take emails, either. That is such a pain,

because I am in and out constantly and never can catch them or be caught by them.

[gratuitous]

15. Please do nothing

Our firm does medical malpractice defense, and with a recession on and all, we can use all the business we can get.

Do I need to use the sarcasm smiley? Or will the unusually perspicacious folks at DU totally understand the gallows humor?

The serious part of me would like to reach through the phone to the blasé receptionist and shake her til her teeth rattle, explaining how not only is this bad patient relations, it's the sort of thing that could result in a lawsuit that would cost her sorry ass her pretty little job.

[PCIntern]

17. FUNNY!!! DUzy!

[Tyrone Slothrop]

16. I deal with medical offices quite a bit

In my experience, about 75% of the medical facilities I deal with are SHOCKINGLY lax and irresponsible with their patient's records. (There's a surprising number that will literally fax you anything you want from their patient's files without any sort of identification or proper HIPPA forms.)

And no one who works in these records departments seems to care one way or the other.

[kirby]

24. When was the last prosecution for HIPPA violation?

Until we get serious about privacy, the office folks will continue to not care.

I still visit doctors who want Social Security numbers or 'reason for visit' written on a publicly viewable signup sheet which is clearly a violation.

[boobooday]

18. This reminds me of my mother's experience

When the report from her liver biopsy came back positive for prostate cancer.

She's like :wtf:

Fortunately for that patient you followed up -- she might not have gotten her diagnosis otherwise!

[Ilsa]

25. I've had local probation reports faxed to my home number. What is really

bad is that I have an outgoing message identifying my name and home-based business name, but some idiot just hits "Send" and I get a report on some poor person who has had a run-in with the law.

[ZombieHorde]

26. I don't believe you. That never happened.

[PCIntern]

29. BINGO!

I was waiting for that...!

:hi:

[Stinky The Clown]

28. I would call the lady you spoke as an IHMJ. Her reply was a resounding TNMJ

I Hate My Job

That's Not My Job




In today's climate, her job could easily become someone else's ..... permanently.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

36. Thanks for the translation

Sound like some new Myers-Briggs personality types

[PCIntern]

38. Ed Zachary what went thru my mind!n/t

[closeupready]

30. Doesn't surprise me at all. Truly.

My experience, over many years, with medical support is that for whatever reason, they are not that friendly or interested in caring. Seems weird, like medical support WOULD be naturally caring, but just the opposite is my experience.

[sweetpotato]

45. Professional detachment

[rvablue]

31. Better safe than sorry. If you have the patient's name can't you

track down her phone number, call her and request her physician's name and number without having to divulge the contents of the report.

What if it is misdirected again. Isn't time of the essence in getting news like this?

Not being critical...you're the doctor....but this story kind of freaked me out.

[eShirl]

32. "I'm sure not going to call the patient " Why not?

[PCIntern]

35. why not...

because I am not related to her case and would be a bit presumptuous to call and say, "Excuse me madam, but I just received a fax which stated that you have breast cancer. I should not have received that fax."

tell me what else I should say to her, please...I await your reply with baited breath...

[catzies]

33. My home number is 1 digit off from a local title company's fax number. I get calls

from fax machines all the damn time. If I were to unplug my modem & plug in my fax, I'd get reams of mortgage docs when that happens.

Sometimes I come home & my machine says I have 10 messages but it's really a fax machine calling & hanging up 10 times in a row before someone rechecks the number they dialed instead of just constantly hitting redial.

[Born_A_Truman]

34. Another reason to have computerized medical records

Of course, mistakes can still happen. What would have happened if you hadn't seen it and called?

[ThoughtCriminal]

37. A few years ago, we got a few mysterious fax calls

on our voice line. We would answer the phone and get an ear-load of data. I attached a fax machine to the line to find out what was going on. Yep, medical records. I called the sender and the incoming faxes stopped.

[Geek_Girl]

39. That's just scary

:scared:

[Control-Z]

40. I wouldn't leave it at that.

The woman you spoke to sounds patently irresponsible. Without revealing who I was or what it pertained to, I would probably call back and ask for a supervisor or manager.

[Cleita]

41. I work in a Medical Office.

Every now and then I get a fax of medical records for a patient that isn't ours. I usually shred it and inform the offending office that they sent it by mistake and that it's been shredded.

[kirby]

44. Thank you for shredding...

Thank you for taking patient privacy seriously.

[femrap]

42. The Empire is melting....

Just in my lifetime I see how our culture has become such crap. People don't seem to care. Products are crap. Service is crap. Media is crap. Schools are crap.

Mother Nature and her animals seem to be one of the few joys left in this crumbling culture.

[leftofthedial]

46. Let's entrust all those medical records to Microsoft ASAP!