I went "upstairs" on Tuesday. First I went to Patient Relations and was informed Shands made some policy changes effective the 1st of this year regarding their "in-house" Primary Care Providers. Geez, it would have been nice if Carol had been informed of that from the get go, easily remedied and one less thing to worry about. I was given names and numbers within the Community Health Center (GP) that would better address concerns with Carol's care. My 1 on 1 with the Head Nurse was over an hour, extensive notes being taken by the nurse. By the end of the hour Carol had an appointment with Interventional Radiology for her PEG, "official" referral by GP to Oncology and script for her Lortab elixir by the GP corrected. But, when I got the script from the GP the dosage was wrong, again! (The Head Nurse listened, took notes but obviously the GP didn't!) That's twice in 2 business days. Right qty 473 L but dosage was 1 ML vice 15 ML.....Script corrected...The GP wants to see Carol 2/24...NOT gonna happen. IMHO GP is inept, Carol will be in rad and will not be exposed to more germs than need be. Carol will cross that bridge later, on the back burner for now.

I believe the whole PCP scenario is the GP being the watch dog for patients with city contracts. Correct billing, no unauthorized procedures, etc. I had googled Shands when Carol was first DX'd and found internal audit reports from a few years ago citing city contract billing errors. Who's the watch dog for the watch dog?

Red Tape, gotta love it....NOT

Linda