Are you sure you’re not in the military? It sure sounds like you’re in the military.
twitch twitch
If I ever need a change of pace… 
(It might not have been intended that way, but I did give a littttttle chuckle at that).
Again, as the others have said:
Thank you.
I know how easy it is to be discouraged by a beaurocracy that has little interest in anything but protecting its fiefdom.
You are doing the right thing, and we are grateful. Especially those of us who aren’t fond of needles to begin with and bruise easily anyways.
Well, that is complete bollocks. I remember back in the day doctors used to order a week of daily tests; the first two days came back completely normal, but the doctors didn’t bother to update the orders, so we’d draw another five days of unnecessary tests. You’re absolutely right when you say patients have to take more charge of their own health. What tests are being ordered? What are you checking for? How have the last results looked? How long are you going to keep checking this? These are all questions that your doctor should answer for you without any problems. Your health is not a secret that she should keep from you (not to blame the doctors - people need to get actively involved). When I get bloodwork done, I ask to see the results and they show them to me and discuss them with me.
Leah M just out of curiosity, what LIS are you using? Do the wards order their own bloodwork? Do the phlebs go and collect reqs to be entered before drawing? Or do they go up and do whatever reqs are sitting in the lab box? How exactly are the duplicate orders being generated?
I agree that this is completely ridiculous (and I speak as a tech that has to go out for collections every day) and I am 167% (which is a dangerous amount) behind you.
The programs that we use in the lab here are through MISYS, and for ordering in the lab we use Sunquest and something else. We also use something called PathLINE, which is what we’re having issues with in the ER.
The nurses on the floors use something called Hissprod, but I’m unfamiliar with it.
Don’t know if that makes any sense.
I actually got an email back from my boss finally, stating that she understood the issue, and one of the heads of phlebotomy wrote out a mass email to department heads and important people about it, so this issue is FINALLY getting addressed!
It turns out that the root is a hardware issue. The ER computers are not recognizing their label printers when they boot up, therefore when they order, they get no labels.
Then, we get the manual orders, and it all snowballs from there with the duplicates. I guess they’re working on getting the hardware issue fixed, and making people aware of the issue occuring.
So I can breathe just a little easier, for now. Finally!
That’s a bad flaw.
Yes, it makes for bad blood.
I may be crazy, but if patients are getting billed twice, ah, isn’t that a teeny tiny thing called fraud? Or whatever it would be for charing poeple for things they didn’t want and didn’t order?
AIUI, it’s only double-billing fraud if they get billed twice for a service they received only once. If they get the service twice, whether it’s necessary or not, it’s not what I’d think of as being double-billing fraud.
Now, you could make a case for fraudulently inflating the bill by ordering, and performing, unnecessary tests. But it’s not the traditional double-billing scenario.
It’s not double billing, because that is charging twice for the same service.
Fraud requires the intent to defraud them, so this probably doesn’t fall under that category either. Only a court case would settle this, and I think the company would rather eat the duplicate testing costs than have a court case.
Ah, Misys. How I hate you. You are the worst LIS I’ve ever had the misfortune to use. Glad to hear the problem’s being addressed though.
Right, it isn’t a double billing issue, because tests are actually being performed the number of times they are being charged.
The problem is duplicate testing, as explained by the kind folks above. It isn’t intentional, either, but it’s a technical error combined with inter-departmental communication issues.
I haven’t seen any more of these duplicate samples in the last two nights, though! Not a single one. crosses fingers I’m hoping we’ve nipped it in the bud.
And thank God, someone else who can understand me when I say I wish I could strangle MISYS.