Can’t Find Good Help

Divemedic had a post up a week or so about how bad things are getting in the hospital business. He had a followup here. In a nutshell, there’s a shortage of qualifed medical staff, for a number of reasons. To overcome this, hospitals were paying silly money and bonuses for existing and new nurses and staff. Now, they want to stop this, with the inevitable fallout of the competent ones working to their shift – do my 8 and skate- or going above and beyond to help their coworkers, and eventually burning out.

I have another observation about the medical community, not the hospitals – the doctor practices.

First is, a lot of docs are doing the same thing – 8 and skate, or as little as they have to. I have a gut Doc that all he does now is procedures. Same with the spine guy I had. So what you get is the Nurse Practitioner, if you are lucky. If you are unlucky you get a dopey assistant, not sure what the title is, Physician’s assistant? Whatever.

Second is, from my observation, a lot of the good ones left, or they added more that are stupid.

I’ve been off my stomach meds for a month, having to use retail OTC acid reducers, which don’t work anywhere near as well. Why?

Idiocy and indifference.

I had a gut scope a few months ago. While there, they scheduled a follow up with a Physician Assistant (?). A dolt.

I show up, and she asks “What are we here for?”

Are you kidding me? You don’t know? OK. It’s a follow up from my upper GI scope.

She asks some questions and says she can increase my presecription so that I can take one at night, if I feel the need. I never feel the need, but having an extra supply these days resonates with me. Had I known, I’d have told her not to touch it.

I ran out because the mail order pharmacy I have to use bounced it. Insurance didn’t like it. Needs authorization. Did they call? no. Did they text me? no. So I have to call the practice and sort it out. Why? Because to renew a script your have to have the pharmacy FAX them. They tell you that on the auto attendant, then they hang up. So I have to call the dolt and have her fix it, because you can’t get to the docs or nurse practitioners.

So I see the fixed script show up. Get a text it’s being processed. Nice. But it doesn’t show.

Why?

They deleted it, and kept the gooched one. I called the mail order place and screamed at them. The fools had the right one and deleted it.

So I call the practice again, tell her to move it local. Screw it, I’ll stare at a human. But she didn’t change the amount. My walgreens app said it was filled.

Nope.

So I have to call again. Finally it’s sorted. Srt of. My insurance will only diddle out 30 days at a time. For 90, I have to somehow get the online pharmacy to do it. More calls.

Every time I call, I’m even more pissed. Every time I call I have to hold back.

This isn’t, by far, the only calls I’ve had to make. I’ve litterally had to pull every office I deal with along and tell them what to do, explicitly. No one calls, no one follows up.

I’m turning into a salty, mean old man.

It’ll only get worse.

(That said, with props to Divemedic and Aesop, when you get into the actual doctor’s orbit, they tend to have competent, caring nurse, and nurse practitioners around them. I’ll also say that as bad as it’s been for them, you can’t even imagine where you wind up (you boomers) when you need 24×7 care and have outlived your money. Not good, not at all. You get there, you’ll pray for phillipina staff)