Some of my travails
Two weeks ago tonight, my 86 year old father was taken unresponsive from his home at Friendship Village of Dublin (Ohio) to Riverside Methodist Hospital. He remains unresponsive, and his doctors and the Riverside Hospital nurses are trying to puzzle out how to bring him around. Riverside Hospital does not know what happened at Friendship Village of Dublin the night he wound up collapsing, so naturally I asked Friendship Village for the information, that I may relay it to Riverside Hospital, so that they may help him recover from his “critically stable” condition. Two weeks after the event, they are still refusing it to me.
You might conjecture, on reading the above, that Friendship Village of Dublin has valid legal reasons for withholding the information. However, the sequence of events is:
- For months, the Friendship Village of Dublin Health Center has communicated with me, apparently freely, about my parents’ medical condition and treatment. My father in particular kept directing their attention to specific emails I wrote to FVD Health Center staff – including to Director of Nursing Connie Robertson — to make sure they took note.
- Friendship Village of Dublin suddenly discovered (?) a years-old document that in their opinion meant they should not share information with me.
- Friendship Village of Dublin was asked what additional documents they needed to countermand the first one.
- Friendship Village of Dublin was faxed the documents it asked for.
- Friendship Village of Dublin subsequently emailed me terse information about my mother, in apparent recognition of the validity of the new documents.
- Friendship Village of Dublin still is refusing to give me the information about my father that I requested.
Thus, I see no excuse for whatever permanent harm or temporary suffering Friendship Village of Dublin is causing my father, by its withholding of information that could be useful in his care. In particular:
- Whether or not Friendship Village of Dublin was at any point correct in withholding information from me, they were wrong from start to finish in also withholding it from other concerned parties.
- If Friendship Village of Dublin was at any point correct in withholding information from me, then it was wrong many times before in providing it.
I could go on in that vein, but there’s little point.
No doubt Friendship Village of Dublin will eventually reverse course, accompanied by some combination of comments along the lines of:
- “HIPAA made us do it” (Health Information Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) – as noted above, that would be false in many particulars.
- “Omigod – we didn’t get those messages!” – implausible, and even if true not an excuse.
- “So sorry – it was all a big misunderstanding” – heckuva persistent misunderstanding, in the face of many efforts to set FVD straight.
But even if Friendship Village of Dublin comes clean tomorrow, it still will have taken much, much too long to be forthcoming with important and time-sensitive medical information.
Of course, there is plenty of blame to go around, along with specifics I’m not mentioning. Of those contributing factors, I’d like to highlight one:
In a system where medical records were handled more sensibly, there would be less opportunity for Friendship Village of Dublin to behave this badly.
More on that in a companion post on health records, privacy, and elder care.
Returning now to a more personal note – I thank many of you for your kind comments, whether on this blog or via Twitter or in email or in phone conversation. It seems I’m going to be occupied with family health over the next couple of days, dealing with my parents’ situation and taking Linda to various doctor appointments. After that – well, we’ll see, but I’m going to try to get back into the flow of work as soon as possible. My most immediate blogging plans include:
- Even though the posts won’t be up to my usual standards of detail, I’d like to write SOMETHING more based on the various conversations I had in support of my forthcoming NoSQL article.
- As Merv Adrian recently noted on Twitter, Aster has some news coming up.
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7 Responses to “Some of my travails”
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[…] a previous post, I outlined how Friendship Village of Dublin has mishandled my father’s medical information, to the detriment …. Expanding on that story, here are some other complications or screw-ups in the same series of […]
[…] and coordination among my parents’ support structure is better, even in the case of Friendship Village. And Linda seems sufficiently able to fend for herself that I’ll keep my plans to go to the […]
[…] at Riverside Hospital knew he’d had multiple falls the day of his original admission until I finally had the Friendship Village nursing notes read to me, and then summarized them as best I could for […]
[…] ranted about the medical information problems in connection with my father’s care at Friendship Village of Dublin and Riverside Methodist Hospital (among others). Well, they’re getting […]
[…] Medical information snafus at Friendship Village of Dublin (September 13, 2010) […]
Curt,
I had the pleasure of knowing and working with your parents, especially your Father, through our relationship as insurance agent and client. Your parents purchased their personal insurance from my father-in-law, Don Grafmiller Sr., probably after they moved to Columbus in 1974. I became acquainted with them when I began working in the agency in 1980. They are truly people that we enjoyed working with and they will be missed by all of us here. Your Father was a devoted husband and a wonderful client and friend. Your parents had a beautiful life and love story. I’m sorry to hear that the last days were so difficult. Please accept my sincere condolences.
Debbie Grafmiller
Grafmiller & Davis Insurance Agency
Will author please contact me..We have had a situation much like yours with our mother.
Please contact me.
Thank you