I recently received a letter from my Primary Care Provider (PCP) that she was closing her office due to retirement. Was she a good doctor for me? Not really, but we had a mutual understanding and she kept my high blood pressure regulated.
I go through the hassle of finding another provider. I have severe medical anxiety and my responses to my medical trauma are more acute than standard anxiety. I haven’t been diagnosed with PTSD for my medical experiences, but other doctors have suggested that might be the issue. So my finding another provider isn’t as easy as it is for some people.
Back to the new provider. I call to schedule an appointment. The person at the PCP’s office mentions they use this Sutter online program (even though they are not part of the Sutter network). I corrected basic information. I explain, I do not want to use information from that system as a lot of it is incorrect and outdated. He said he could reset my account or delete it. I just restated we won’t be using the information on it in regards to my medical history.
Some context as to why I insisted on this. I used Sutter Health Plus when I had Stage III colon cancer. It’s been eight years since that nightmare began. I was diagnosed shortly after my younger sister’s birthday. She died of breast cancer and was only 37 years old when she passed. Add on that my mother passed a year later unexpectedly. I was being sent to several doctors and recently dismissed from a cancer center when I refused to deal with one doctor who delayed my surgery by ordering tests from a consultation that I told her I didn’t want to do until my diagnosis had been confirmed. She didn’t listen.
That brought me to having to change carriers and doctors. I found a doctor who noted my chart and I had issues with her notations . She noted I was “unnecessarily upset with everything”. I was dealing with a new cancer diagnosis, I had no medical support, and I had lost three of the five people in my immediate family to cancer. I also had a 10-year old daughter to think about with a 62% chance of survival. I believe I had a right to be upset with my life at that time.
Other notations were, “patient denied….(this or that)”. As the patient, if I say no to something, then it’s no. I am not lying in my responses and to phrase it as such implies that I am. She went on to so suggest finding another provider as I wasn’t happy. I had been traumatized at the hospital after my tumor removal. I had a lot going on and was being judged for not handling my cancer in a way someone thought I should be.
This is why I insisted I would bring in my own medical history. It was one of the ways for me to deal with my medical issues. I stated the reason for the appointment, prescriptions, pharmacy for scripts, on-going issues, test results, diagnosis, and medical history.
The appointment was scheduled for later this month. This morning, I received a call that they were canceling my appointment. I had to ask why. I was told, “we don’t think you’ll be a good fit based on the staff interaction you had last week; i.e. setting up the new patient appointment. I clarified, “because I want to supply my own medical history”? She stated again, “we don’t think you’ll be a good fit”.
I would like to thank the person I made the appointment with for saying whatever outlandish thing you did to get access to care denied because you made assumptions based on an interaction that wasn’t standard for you. I 1000% believe the worst part of a doctor’s practice is their staff.
The Pink Herald 