02/25/10 - Thoracic Spine MRI, Inefficiency

No real reason to post this, because I won't get results until tomorrow morning (hopefully), and I won't see my Radiation Oncologist until 4:30pm tomorrow to discuss them...

A short tirade on the Health Care system. For example, this MRI. It was performed at a different hospital than my "normal" one, Moffitt. They have been performing more complete (4 MRIs vs. 1 this morning) MRIs every two months for about 8 mos. This morning was what I consider to be an "interim" MRI simply because it was off-schedule to check the progress of a specific tumor on my spine.

Back to the inefficiency. The hospital that performed this MRI will not have a CD-Rom of images until tomorrow morning. My radiation doctor will presumably not get a copy of this CD, unless he requests it. He may get a report faxed to him tomorrow. I will likely go to pick-up a CD tomorrow morning and come home to copy it (several copies), so that I can give one to him when I meet with him at 4:30. Oh, and because of the risk involved, I can't currently drive. So my father will likely take me, and if he wasn't down here (he's officially a snowbird), Laura likely wouldn't take me because she has to work (she's already leaving work about 2 hours early for my radiation oncologist appointment).

If the MRI were done at Moffitt, I could request a CD about 15 minutes after the scan was completed. I'd likely have the CD in my hands about 15 minutes later. My doctors at Moffitt can access it via their internal computer network. The trouble is, it typically takes an hour to get to Moffitt vs. about 15 minutes to get to the hospital this morning (it is also preferred by my radiation oncologist because his office is only about two blocks away).

On efficiency, I have a Network-Attached Storage (NAS - a hard drive) and I can presumably access any files on it securely from anywhere in the world! Microsoft's Remote desktop can be setup to access any computer (securely) over the internet. Yet I can't get a CD containing my MRI images from early this morning until tomorrow!

There has been a LOT of talk about updating the Health Care System so that all U.S. citizens are covered. That would be great! But just the inefficiencies of the current system need to be corrected! The billions saved could "pay" for better and broader coverage. Believe me, I could go on and on about the problems I've had with payments, insurance coverage, scheduling, reports, and so on... Just think, what if I couldn't communicate or even understand what was happening to me? That could have easily happened, and it still could...

I have to apologize for this rant, but it was due. I have had excellent care, but the patient has to be very attentive to everything that is happening, and/or have family or friends that can assist in that role. For now, I'll end this post abruptly, as I'm going to eat lunch, late...