Staffing problems ?

[fourputt]

I see a very good Onco at a major med school. I am very pleased with him but (as in many other situations these days) the hospital appears to be really struggling with staffing and it's getting to the point it starting to worry me. Mishandled records, botched appointments etc and the realization that every time I have to talk with someone there, I'm talking with a new employee. I've learned through the years to be my own primary patient advocate and record keeper but this has been worrisome and seems to be getting worse. Is anyone else experiencing this with their provider ?

[Javelin18]

I'm not noticing staffing shortages at UCLA, but I've always found the support staff to be the weak link in every medical organization. I find problems with referrals, long ER waits, problems with transferring samples between facilities and having to learn the culture at each facility. I've seen problems at UCLA, City of Hope and MD Anderson.

I finally found the patient advocate office, where I could make suggestions on improving the process. Hopefully that will help fix some things, but I've seen similar problems for decades at all medical facilities. I think the move to using MyChart app at major medical facilities has improved things a lot, but there are still problems.

[esperandrich]

Yes at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center. No problems with the treating staff, nurses, techs etc. The doctors are good too but trying to get appointments, records, test results to the proper place etc. and billing is where the staffing needs help. Doctors are frustrated too but one of them said it is kind of hard to get rid of a state employee. Since I work for the State of California I agree.

[DLewis]

I think a lot depends on the administrative structure. Everything I do is under Baystate Medical in Springfield Mass. The urologist is in a group practice under the banner of Baystate. Mri is Baystate and a private business. General practitioner was in a group that folded and was taken over be Baystate. The GP interaction via staff and phone calls is completely a Baystate deal. That's not as good as it use to be. The others more or less run their own shows and it has been fine. They all share the common database, but the GP is the only Baystate/ Baystate.

[cancerfox]

I think your concerns are well founded. My observations of the medical system are that most doctors, nurses, and technicians are fairly competent, but the administrative support staff is largely a joke. I have gotten so many incorrect billings, bad instructions, inability to answer simple questions, and bad information that I pretty much expect screw-ups to happen. I was just told this past week to arrive early at an appointment for a checkup with a primary care doctor because there was new paperwork to fill out, but when I got there they didn't have any of the new forms to fill out. Then they wouldn't give me a receipt afterwards that I wanted to use to get a reward from my health care provider for making a wellness visit, telling me that they had only scheduled me for 15 minutes and a wellness visit is supposed to be 30 minutes, even though I was with the doctor for probably about 25 minutes. I called my health care provider and asked them what constitutes a wellness visit, and they described exactly what I had just done, so they said they would give me the credit. 😃

One time I received a bill for cataract surgery that was so screwed up that when I called to ask about it the people who sent it couldn't even figure out what it meant, even after the manager of the department looked at it. They finally told me that I didn't owe them anything, they owed me, and sent me a check for about the same amount that they were billing me for! 😁 Plus I didn't get the eye drops that I absolutely had to use after cataract surgery until late in the afternoon the day before my first surgery because they had ordered eye drops from a company that had gone out of business! Talk about anxiety+ ! And these are just a few examples. There are many more I could include here.