Health Care System Clogs

[lord999]

Have any of you noticed where communications seem to get stuck in transit? I've noticed that the intermediaries delay work the longest.

1. Receptionists: By and large, some of the most difficult people to work with, considering that they usually don't have any medical education. I recently had to spell "BUN" to a receptionist to have it pulled out from records.
2. Ancillary/Support Personnel: I work in a pharmacy. The only qualification to be a pharm tech is to have a high school diploma and be 18. When we receive doctors' calls, it almost always has to be transferred to a pharmacist due to lack of knowledge. CPhT's are better, but sometimes the message is garbled in transition.
3. Insurance: For a guaranteed waste of time, try calling Cigna, Aetna, or any of your favorite HMO's and request a prior authorization. I have a feeling that they deliberately make it as unfriendly as possible to cut down the number of claims.

I realize that this is due to the time crunch around everyone, but still, there has to be something that can be done to alleviate a potential systems collapse. This is not a rant aganist any of these groups; their work standard does not include judgment. It may be the lack of trained auxilary personnel that is causing the problems.

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[FSUMED]

I must say that I take a little offence at your comments, but I realize that they were not meant to hurt though. I worked as a rotating PRN receptionist in a family medical clinic and I promise you it is not easy work. And to tell the truth the office was not run well. BUt I think that reflects the doctors as much becaus they had the power to change it. And another thing, you think there is a lot of waiting on the managment end, there is also waiting in the receptionist area too...usually for doctors to sign off on stuff, call in Rx, etc. And when the patients call in pissed off because their prescription wasnt called in( the nurses and doctors problem) they come down on us. Let us not criticize till we have walked a mile in ones shoes.

 

[lili2]

I agree with fsumed. Being a receptionist is hard work, especially in a practice with multiple practitioners. Patients are more likely to complain to us than to the physicians about problems, such as having to wait so long in the waiting room, even though it is completely out of our controls. Also, correct spelling is critical in the healthcare environment in order to avoid medical errors. We don't want the doctors to prescribe medication to the wrong patient.