When you least expect it, and you just put all those MD’s telephone numbers in your cell phone for emergencies, they change. Some doctors retire, others increase or decrease their practice. Others decide to specialize and basically you get booted out of their practice for now. Seeking another MD or specialist to oversee your parents ever-so familiar case is a hat trick.
First consider seeking another “in-network” physician from their insurance carrier. You might have to go online, and look up ‘Providers’ for the parents specific type of replacement care. I found out, not all listed will gladly take new-used patients from other physicians. Once I started in the specialty doctors, it was even harder to find someone to complete the five-year re-check-up exam. The physicians don’t well to re-working other doctors work. Yet, when I, the caregiver stand in the exam room, with the parent and the doctor, nearly on my knees after a month of waiting for this appointment, with my hands raised to sky pleading, ‘What else was I suppose to do. The parent is in pain, so hey. Can ya help? Please.”
The grueling task of begging receptionist for an appointment for this new-used patient is a hat trick too. You will need, like I had to do, get the appropriate form to transfer the parents former medical records to the new doctor. There’s a time lag between filling out the form, the parent signing it, faxing or mailing it to the first doctor to send the records to the new-second doctors office, in ample time prior to the actual appointment. And I hear they won’t fax the history either. Snail mail should be in the time plan for this, prior to the visit.
What do I know, as to the contents of the ship list of medical records to be copied and forwarded to the new physician? It may be everything, (x-rays, MRI’s, test results and more), or only partial, and it’s basically me and the parents’ best guess as to which boxes to check on the list. Since the new-not-yet-used medical office couldn’t really help me with what they needed to achieve, since my parent is not-yet their patient.
Instead of throwing up my hands in disgust, I check all the boxes for all the records, since I didn’t have to pay for the postage. Darn good reason for electronic records to enter our world.
