Medcial System is Dysfunctional!

Posted by Jay Deragon on April 2, 2008 at 11:10am in Type 1 Diabetes Forum

I am a diabetic of 47 years. AIC of 6.4 and I use an insulin pump.

I haven't seen my diabetic doctor in a year. Recently I went to get my insulin presription refileld and the pharmacist siad, your Docto will not refill this prescrption because he said you are no longer his patient. What?

I called the Doctors office and they said because you haven't been here in a year you'll now need to be referred in by your primary care Doctor. I said, you are my primary care doctor. They said that isn't how it works. Go Figure!

I said look I m running out of insulin and need a prescription called in. They said we can't until your referred to us then we have to see you before we can fill a prescription.

I said, your not hearing me, I am out of insulin, you were my Doctor until you decided to drop me. Now you want me to get a referral to come back and see you and in the meantime you won't fill my prescription for insulin.

The nurse said "Dear, this is how we do things and you'll just have to find a referring Doctor. Go Figure

My Doctor is Dr Daulphin Paschall at the Metabolic group and I intend on raising absolute heell with this attitude, the lack of concern for the patient and no comprehension as to the seriousness of my circumstances.

Anyone else every run into this??

Caught in the middle of stinking thinking from the neck up!

Tags: care, doctor, make, no, paperwork, patient, prescriptions, protocols, rules, sense.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by landileigh on April 2, 2008 at 12:07pm: no one can seem to do anything unless it is step A - Step B - Step C these days. the paperwork is enough to fill an ocean.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by saundra barragan on April 2, 2008 at 12:19pm: Hi Jay,
Good grief what a mess. Where are you going to get the insulin? Will an emergency room help you? Or will they let you come into the office to see them today?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jay Deragon on April 2, 2008 at 12:34pm: They absolultely refused to see me until I get a referral from another Doctor of which they already had one from previous visits. They won't even try a find a solution nor would they simply call the Pharmacist and provide a one time prescription until they got to see me.

I called my cardiologist and asked him to refer me to Dr. Paschall and his head nurse said she would today. Now I'll call them back tomorrow and see if they'll see me right away or at least call in my prescription for insulin. I have enough insulin to last maybe until Monday.

My whole issue is the attitudes were disgusting, the process is totally meshed up and no one wanted to do anything about it. In the eantime a Diabetic could be denied access to insulin to live. Go Figure.....Beware of the medical system that puts up barriers to treatment rather than focusing on the people.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by phillip on April 2, 2008 at 3:40pm: I have experienced similar circumstances. I was in the hospital and well the whole thing was like a comedy nightmare.
The doctors in this country need a wake up call and dethroning from thier self exalted state.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jay Deragon on April 2, 2008 at 4:49pm: I was very upset with the attitude, the head nurse said "Well Dear there is nothing I can do for you and I responded, Sweety this event will be written up and circulated to hundresds of thousands of readers that follow my blog. Her response was "Now you do just what you want I don't really care! Go Figure; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Peter on April 2, 2008 at 2:27pm: Remember, in an emergency you call also get a vial of regular insulin like Humulin R without a prescriptionI have done this in the past. I go to Walgreen's, Targets and tell them I need a vial of Humulin R. You of course will have to pay full price, your insurance will not usually cover it however you may still be reimburse from you Health Saving or FSA account. Only your newer fast acting insulins like Humulog, Novolog and also of course your new basal insulins like Lantus require a prescription. Insulins like Humulin R, etc do not require a prescription, in fact the Feds purposely made these insulins available without a prescription for such emergencies like this. Also some states will let you buy a syringe without a script but this has more to do with drug addicts then with diabetics.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kathy on April 2, 2008 at 9:01pm: Peter, I have done this also. Really helped me out of a pinch on a 3-day weekend when I lost all my supplies on a camping trip.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kristin on April 2, 2008 at 6:15pm: I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in the emergency room on a weekend. A few days after getting out of the hospital, I got a call from the nurse at my primary care doctor. She said that they got some strange phone calls and that they just wanted to call to tell me that I don't have diabetes.

I explained to her that I just got out of the hospital and I was just diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. She just repeated that the doctor told her to call me to inform me that I do not have diabetes, based on my blood work from one year before that phone conversation. The nurse said that there must have been some mistake.

I hung up the phone and threw it against the wall (something that I don't usually do). AND changed doctors. Sometimes the idea that someone should listen to a patient-- and perhaps understand a bit of the situation (like the sentence, "I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes this weekend in the ER-- it's not a mistake or a joke" OR "I need insulin") is missing.

Sorry for this experience. Hope that it is solved soon!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Peter on April 2, 2008 at 7:37pm: For the most part the whole american medical system is a disgrace!
I could write books and books on the problems encountered during illnesses of family members, friends, family members of friends and even strangers I have encountered in hospitals, nursing home, etc. The mistakes that are made, the incompetency of doctors and some nurses. I say some nurses because it has been my experience that most nurses know more the doctors!
The wrong diagnosis, the wrong prescriptions, the wrong treatments!
These problems know no city lines, know no state lines, know no particular hospital or doctor as I have family and friends in many states in all different financial scenarios. I have had visiting nurses sit at my kitchen and cry with tears at the screw ups from doctors. My mother was misdiagnosed for two years with heart problems, it was cancer. Too late she died in 3 months. My sister was diagnosed with stage 1 lymphoma. I brought her to Sloan Kettering for a second opinion. Well that took 5 months to get the appointment and then they told me four things, one her current doctors where always 1 step behind and in the cancer game you have to be one step ahead, two she was brought too late to them like I had a choice to bring her any sooner. Three her cancer was now stage 5 and she only had a few weeks to live. Four the pain medication she was on had a 1/2 life of 10 days and the pain specialist team at Yale had over dosed her and to stop giving to her for two reasons, one if she received anymore she would die and two she probably wasn't really in that much pain anymore because the cancer was in her central nervous system and her brain was not receiving the pain messages.
I could go on and on about my mother, my father, my sisters, my friends, my friends' family members. The neglect in nursing homes! Patient's turning blue from because their oxygen tank was empty. Elderly on floors for hours crying for help! The lack of staff! The lack of caring!
I do know one thing, if you do not have people in your life that will take care of you then you will die in our wonderful American system.
American, WAKE UP, we should all be ashamed about our health care. It is the most expensive in the world and ranks number 37 in quality! That is disgraceful for the richest nation on earth! Then again we have become a greedy, selfish, all self important non caring nation. We worry more about what goes on in someone's bedroom ("morality") then what goes on in our schools and hospitals.
What is immoral about America is our lack of caring of our children and our sick and our elderly. Please I beg everyone please think twice before you vote for our next president! We have a broken system and our current president does not care, he is just worried about oil!!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jay Deragon on April 2, 2008 at 7:42pm: The power of social media and social computing tools is influencing politics, markets, businesses etc and it is just beginning. The people, indientified by affinities of interest, are connecting and forming swamrs of influence and this is just the beginning.

I love watching the dynamics and we now have the true ability to be "we the people".....; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jay Deragon on April 8, 2008 at 5:25pm: Here is the latest on my saga with the medical system.

After getting my cardiologist to refer me back to Dr Daulphin, of whom I was previously already a patient, I called and asked them to please fill my prescription. Their response:

Mr. Deragon we have to see you first and our next available appointment is June.
I said, first you dropped me as a patient, then you made me get referred back to you and all along you knew I was running out of insulin. They responded, we suggest you call your primary physician and get them to give you a prescription for insulin. I responded, can you hear me, you are my primary physician and I need insulin!

Their response, we're sorry until we can see you we will not prescribe your insulin.

I am finding another Doctor tomorrow morning and will write a series of blog post to share this craziness and to think I was actually talking to a human, go figure; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Judith on April 2, 2008 at 9:03pm: My daughter's partner was a pediatric intensive care nurse for many years but finally had to quit when she felt she couldn't give those fragile patients the full-time care they needed because of understaffing. It was driving her crazy, as you can imagine.....Judith in Portland; ▶ Reply to This

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