Incompetents R Us

On Tuesday, 3/13, I had an MRI of my spine. The technicians told me that it would take about three days for my doctor to get the results. So, to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, I waited to hear back from my doctor. When I didn't hear anything by the following Tuesday, 3/20, I called my doctor's office. They told me that they still didn't have the results, but that they would call the MRI unit to find out the hold up. They then said that they would call me back after they got to the bottom of the problem.

By Thursday, when I hadn't heard back, I called my doctor's office again. They said that they still didn't have my MRI results. I told the person I was speaking to, let's call her "P", what had happened Tuesday when I called. She then asked went through my medical record and asked if Dr H was my primary care physician. I said "No" that Dr K was my physician. She put me on hold for less than a minute and came back on the line saying that they had received my MRI results on Thursday, 3/15. (Dose of incompetence #1) And, that she would have Dr K review them and someone would call me back.

About half an hour later, P called me back giving me a summary of my results. I have two lumbar and one thoracic vertebrae out of alignment, some arthritis, and two bulging disks, however I have no herniated disks or spinal stenosis. Dr K recommended that I see an orthopedist to go over my MRI and discuss next steps. So, I set up an appointment for this Friday, 3/30.

Then, this morning, I got another dose of incompetence. Nurse T from the doctors' office called. T informed me that they had received my MRI results and that Dr K recommended that I work with a physical therapist.

Ummm.... OK. I have been seeing a physical therapist since September (this time around). I have even had to have my referral renewed twice since September. Do these people even look at medical records???

I pointed out the PT referral to T and the fact that I had received the verbal results last week. She immediately realized that their office looked bad, so she tried to song-and-dance her way out of the incompetence jungle. She said that though my records showed that I had had PT referrals in the last six months, there was no indication that I actually went since they had not received any reports back from PT regarding my progress. We decided that her office needed to contact the PT office, one flight up, to request a summary of my progress since September.

We also discussed my frustration with the two differing messages I received from their office. She back pedaled very well, and agreed that the best course of action for someone with my chronic back issues would be to discuss my MRI with the orthopedist. She noted that the initial interpretation came from the radiologist at the MRI facility, and that an orthopedist might have different insight into what the films were showing.

Believe it or not, I am truly soft pedaling the idiocy of the above encounter. I am looking forward to my appointment with the orthopedic physician assistant on Friday. Though she is not a 'doctor', I have had productive encounters with her in the past in relation to some other, more minor, issues. I definitely have more faith in her than in the people I've dealt with in the last week regarding this issue. Then again, I would have more faith in the Easter Bunny at this point.