These "Mama Bear" moments seem to be coming more frequently these days. I'm quickly learning that there's nothing I won't do to take care of Reilly and his care, health and safety is forever going to come first from now on.
In going through everything with Reilly's upper g.i. test, Dave and I have been thinking long and hard about how happy we were with the pediatrician that we had Reilly seeing. We've had some concerns with things in the past, and this past week, we've just come to the conclusion that we needed to explore other options.
I called a couple of new Dr.'s offices yesterday to see if we could get him in somewhere else. Everyone told me the same thing, they had to get his records from the old Dr. before they would see him. Okay, easy enough.
I called the old Dr. to get the records sent over, and was told I had to come in and sign a release of records form so they could send them. Great, I'm on my way. I get there, get the forms filled out and signed and take them back up to the window. I'm told there's a fee of $20.00 for them to transfer records. Okay, not happy, but I wrote the check.
Then, I'm told that the earliest that the records would be transferred is about a week and a half to two weeks. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I had provided all the information they needed, all they had to do was fax the records over to the new Dr. I was told that there was no way that could happen.
Evidently, Memorial "outsources" their medical records, and the only people that can transfer patient records is the people that they are outsourced too. Of course, the outsourced people aren't coming back to our particular office until Friday of this week. When I then asked if the records could be released to me, as his mother, they said no. UM...WHAT? I'M HIS MOTHER. I HAVE A RIGHT TO MY SON'S MEDICAL RECORDS. Nope. Another not nice lady, comes around the corner and in a very snotty tone tells me that Indiana state law states that Dr.s offices have up to 30 days to transfer records, and I should feel lucky that it only might be 2 weeks. Here go the claws.
Long story short, I fought with the Dr.s office and "outsourced" company for 4.5 hours yesterday over the phone trying to get a copy of my son's medical records. No one seemed to get that my son has a medical issue that we wanted a second opinion on and release the records to me. I couldn't get the nurses or ladies to understand that if they would just give me the records, they could be done dealing with me. They just kept telling me to look up Indiana state laws, they were well within their rights.
At one point, I was told that because I was being so disrespectful (this by the woman who hung up on me!) and if I didn't calm down, I would only be allowed to talk to their lawyer. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? It was the most frustrating day of my life.
It wasn't until our last phone call, that I had shared that I had indeed looked up some of the Indiana state laws (well...really, Aunt Keely did this and shared with me what she found!) that I finally got somewhere. We went from absolutely not being able to access the records before Friday to them suddenly being willing to fax them to the new Dr. today. Miracles of all miracles. It pays not to give up!
I'm not proud of how I acted and some of the things I said to these ladies yesterday...but seriously...don't mess with Reilly's health. You won't win.
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