A forum I frequent just had someone post this:
WTF is wrong with these people? Would they want to hang around anxiously chewing off their own fingernails in abject terror for absolutely no good reason if THEY where this patient? Fuck no!
The medical system is broken, FUBAR and needs an overhaul. Right now.
I can’t even process this total lack of compassion.
Money. No appointment to discuss that there’s nothing to do means the practice makes no more money from your mother’s lack of cancer.
I’ve heard that some doctors, as a matter of policy, require all patients to come in ‘to discuss results’ regardless of what they are. That way you’re not freaking out and panicking for two weeks because you didn’t get an ‘all clear’ phone call a day or two later. You know that even if the results are good, you’re still going to be waiting for two weeks.
I’m not saying I agree or disagree, just that I’ve heard of the policy.
Read the post again, Joey.
How on earth were they able to give that information out to said poster, being that would be a major violation of HIPAA? Unless they have some kind of power of attorney, I think that could only be discussed with the patient.
Well, I guess the person who wrote that made it all up. :smack: When my mom had cancer, they discussed her condition with us without blinking an eye.
In fact, the doctor told US before she told my mom.
Perhaps you could clarify your question since I clearly misunderstood something.
I didn’t have a question. Relevant part of the quote:
They already had the damned results and were going to sit on them for 2 weeks.
I signed a paper and so did my husband so the a doctor could talk to either of us in the event we weren’t able to talk. It’s a smart thing to do we think. I have also signed a paper with the lil’wrekker recently. She will soon be 19 and unattached. I go with her for appts.anyway, because she’s a big chicken.
ETA there are ways around privacy laws.
Read my post again, pohjonen.
Relevant part of my post:
“some doctors, as a matter of policy, require all patients to come in ‘to discuss results’ regardless of what they are”
I understand what you’re getting at, I’m just offering up a possible explanation.
Also, you did, in fact have a question. "WTF is wrong with these people? Would they want to hang around anxiously chewing off their own fingernails in abject terror for absolutely no good reason if THEY where this patient? "
Which is what I was answering.
Cites:
“Patients will be contacted via email regarding lab information and to schedule a follow up appointment with the doctor. NO lab information will be discussed OVER THE PHONE.”
Some doctors have a standing policy requiring all patients to come in for all results, good or bad.
From the OP " I finally called and started harassing people about the whereabouts of the test results, which did not show up on the patient portal. They responded with this gem: “We didn’t want to reveal to your mother that she didn’t have cancer, because we were afraid she wouldn’t come in for her consultation.” (which is now basically unnecessary because she doesn’t have cancer, and can be treated by her family physician.) "
From a doctor:
"That’s not to say that people don’t try to circumvent the system. After explaining my policy to a patient who was undergoing a lung biopsy, her family called and demanded the results without an office visit. They finally called their primary physician’s office and found a sympathetic receptionist who agreed to forward a copy of a “lung biopsy” report. They were relieved to find that the biopsy report showed benign tissue.
She did not come in for her office follow up with me, which was concerning, because while one of her lung biopsy samples was negative, there were other parts of the procedure which the pathologist took longer to report.
I called the family and spoke with the daughter and family and explained how sorry I was that they had received results that were incomplete. Their mother did indeed have cancer. She yelled in disbelief “but I got the results, they were negative! How can you now tell me that she has cancer?” I explained that the pathologist wanted to perform additional stains and cell typing on other samples that we took. This meant that these results took longer to report than the initial tissue results that were negative."
In addition to what’s been said, just because the results say ‘cancer-negative’ doesn’t mean there isn’t some followup to be done. If you just hear that you don’t have cancer, you may not give it another thought until whatever the issue is becomes a bigger problem.
And, for the record, it can also just be money. An office visit will get paid for. A phone call is free and the doc may not want to spend an hour or two on the day making phone calls when that could be 5 or 6 patients. This is, I assume, why some offices will send out a postcard if your results are normal.
How about they say “Initial tests are favourable. Please come in for further tests to confirm these results.” Just be honest and forthright, don’t be vague when people’s lives are on the balance. If more tests need to be done, tell them that.
No shit. To sit on these kinds of test results for two weeks because it’s “policy” without any regard for the person whose life and future are hanging over an abyss is just fucking cruel - and might I add, totally unnecessary - unless you don’t give a flying fuck about the mental well being of your patient.
I’m surprised this even needs to be pointed out.
This is all lovely, but misses the salient point that the poor person’s mother got treated really badly and with no regard for the anxiety they were putting her through - and I don’t care about their “reasons.” And if that’s “policy”, it needs to change because it sucks.
Yes, is used to be the same here with lab exams. They would always send them to your doctor instead of disclosing them to you. Because they didn’t want to announce a bad result to you, and if they said it when everything was fine, then people would understand immediately that the result was bad each time they would say “see your doctor”, so it would be the same as announcing bad results.
Somehow, it doesn’t seem to be as common nowadays.
I don’t know the specifics of the diagnosis of the patient in question or what other symptoms she presented with.
But I do know that “false negative” biopsies for pancreatic cancer are quite common. A couple of people close to me had pancreatic cancer and they both had clean biopsies. Brush biopsies - where a scraping from the bile duct is taken during an endoscopy- are frequently negative in patients with cancer.
This sounds kind of similar to what happened with my SO, we saw some raw test results ( we were given an envelope of scans and test results to take from Doctor A to Doctor B, we opened it and tried to review it ourselves. Because we thought we were smart) And we flipped out “After all this, he doesn’t have cancer?” And you didn’t tell us?”.
Went into the doctor and learned about the high rate of false negatives. He did, indeed, have cancer.
These happened over a decade ago. It’s possible the tests have improved significantly since then.
If that’s the policy, it’s a stupid one. The suspicion of pancreatic cancer is enough in itself to make people panic.
Here’s a radical idea: treat patients as responsible adults. Tell them the truth as soon as you know it, rather than make them wait for some predetermined interval to learn about their test results. If a test has a high rate of false negatives, tell them that when you order the test, rather than wait until the results are in and then manipulate the patient into another appointment by deliberately withholding information.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to discuss the results–there could be a lot of context and follow-ups. The problem is the two weeks: it ought to be possible to schedule such an appointment more quickly than that.
For fuck’s sake. That’s not a question. It’s an exclamation of incredulity.
The OP already knows the reason why the mom was deprived of info. Because they were afraid the mom would not come in. So your explanation is clearly not correct. Hence it was entirely unhelpful.
Instead, it came off as defending the practice, when, no matter what the excuse, it is wrong. The doctors work for the patient. The patient (or their guardian) should always be fully informed so that they can make decisions of their own medical care.
You don’t get to treat us like children who don’t know better. You must at all times treat us like the people in charge of our medical care. You are not in charge. You are the expert consultant (and possibly expert engineer), but we make the final decision on the project.
Telling the mom about the tests would alleviate some anxiety. If they need her to come back in for reasons, then tell her those reasons, and she can decide. Or she can decide to go back to her regular doctor if they can do the same thing for less money.
Any doctor who deliberately withheld information from me would be my ex-doctor. They are not in charge of my healthcare. I am.