Friday, April 17, 2020

A New Way to See Your Doctor

I was supposed to see my cardiologist yesterday, but since the pandemic is keeping us away from others, she set up a video call. I had to download My Chart to my phone and be ready to receive her call at a certain time. I have to say it was a painless way to see her. No parking problems, no driving, no waiting, no gloves and/or masks. 

I seem to be better since I last saw her, but I have to have some blood work done within 30 days, due to some medication I take regularly. It is too bad I can'd do that by video conference....lol. 

She gave me the choice of having the lab work done at Wake Medical Center (24 miles away) or my internist's office (20 miles away). I decided to go to my internist's office, and was told to call them first. Good thing I did. 

The internist's nurse assistant told me they would not do lab work ordered by a doctor that was not in their system (Duke.) It makes me mad, since they are always touting their willingness to coordinate information with other medical providers. I see no reason whatsoever for them not to do my lab work.....some of it would be the same labs I need to get for their doctor too..... and done separately, it duplicates services. 

Since we moved so far away from the internist's office nearly 5 years ago, we have both thought about changing doctors to an office closer to our new home.  There are Duke internists very close to us and changing would be easy.....BUT....given our poor experiences at "big" Duke from July 2019 to nearly the end of the year, we are rethinking our decision to change to a Duke practice near here. 

Coincidentally, a new medical building has opened very near our home - affiliated with another hospital system. It appears to be state of the art, as medical buildings go, and offers 4-5 different specialties (kind of a one-stop shop) and it also has an urgent care.  It seems to me to be a very easy decision to switch to this practice.  

I'll let you know what happens. 


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