And the flipping preop nightmare continues...

[munchkin392 1]

Ok, I have to vent. Anyone who saw my previous post regarding all of my preop fiascos will understand. I am supposed to have my surgery at 7:30 am tomorrow. A week ago, I emailed the bariatric center asking her when and where I needed to take my down payment as I am self pay. I never received a reply. I also called and left her a message and never received a return phone call. Since I work at the hospital doing my surgery, I just figured I would have my husband run the check to the cashier first thing in the morning while I was in surgery.

Anyway, at 4:30 this afternoon my cell phone rings. It is the lady from the bariatric center who informs me that if they do not have my check tonight they will cancel my surgery. At 4:30 in the afternoon!! Are you kidding me???? I told her there was no way that could physically happen, as my husband and I were in two physically separate locations and I had his checkbook, and he needed to write the check, and the hospital closes at 5pm. She started to get really snotty with me, and I finally said "You know what, this has been a fiasco of miscommunications from the beginning, just cancel my surgery." At this point, (and I am speaking from a nurses point of view in addition to a patients point of view) she should have done anything she could have to smooth it over, as it is her job to be an advocate for the patient first and foremost. Instead, she said "Fine" and hung up on me. I immediately called the on call hospital administrator who happens to also be her boss and expressed my displeasure. She said she was going to try to fix it so we could proceed with my surgery tomorrow. The surgeons office manager just called and told me that they can't proceed because the hospital cancelled my OR slot. She said the surgeon is none to happy because they had reps from Inamed coming to assist with the surgery also.

All I can think is WTF??? I told the hospital administrator that for the first time in 9 years I am actually ashamed to work for this organization, and I have always been proud of the hospital I work for. My grandpa is a retired surgeon, and I ran this all by him, and he said "Tell them to forget it and go to hell!" (Which I have NEVER heard him say...)

What do you guys think of all this???????? I need some serious input!!

[chubbydiva 0]

This is unbelievable!!! Does your surgeon have privileges anywhere else? If he does I would try to get on there schedule. It doesn't seem to be a reflection on your surgeon but the idiot nurse and the bariatric center that employs her.

[jlobyxmas 0]

I am so sorry to read of your horror story. I'm an xray tech at hospitals for the past 13 years, and can't imagine the complete lack of consideration they showed for you as a patient not to mention an employee. It does not speak very well for the institution that you work for and are ultimately entrusting your life to.

I don't know that I would be comfortable being under the care of a hospital that shows such blatant disregard for one of their own. Hard to believe that things were so disorganized that you did not hear from her until today.

I agree with your grandfather, I know that you have probably been working toward this moment for a long time but carefully consider wether or not you trust these people with your life at this point.

You have to do what makes you feel comfortable and I hope it all works out for the best.

Hang in there!!

[munchkin392 1]

Unbelievable, after two days of wrangling with hospital administration, they have informed it that it is my fault because I didn't pay my bill (never mind I had the check and was dropping it at the cashiers the next morning). I am so incredibly insulted at being treated like this not only as an employee of 9 years, but as a patient. I am going to go work for our competitor hospital ASAP. I seriously cannot believe they would treat someone like this. I am so depressed and disappointed that it is not even funny.:cry

[chubbydiva 0]

I absolutely can't believe they would treat you this way. I am so sorry for you. So now what?

[munchkin392 1]

Well, I guess now not only are they losing a patient but they are also losing an employee. I'm going to let them explain to my director why I am leaving after 9 years. My husband wants to seek legal advise, but I don't think we honestly have a case. We were just treated like crap. I just find it ironic that they are constantly beating their mission statement into the head of employees, but can't follow it themselves: flexibility, responsiveness, integrity, etc. What a joke.

If anyone has any advise on what actions they think I should take, please feel free to chime in.

[munchkin392 1]

Sorry about the misspellings....

[kaohinani 0]

WOW, Munchkin, is all I can say. I work in a hospital also as a nurse, but on the out-patient side, and I cannot believe how they have treated you, let alone that you work there. Where I work, the employees bend over backward to help the patient, and we are making calls beforehand to clear up any issues that might come up. i.e. payments or anything else. If anything this makes me very proud of my hospital. Sorry about your holdup, like it was said earlier, I know you have been waiting a long time for this, but maybe this was meant to be for some reason. Can you get your surgery done elsewhere without having to do the whole preop thing again?? I hope so, and good luck. If you have to do it all again, maybe there are some legal ramifications of lost dollars for them not checking earlier, seeing as that you did try to call and take care of it earlier. Keep us posted.

[munchkin392 1]

Kaohinani,

Normally at my hospital (at least in the ICU I work in) we bend over backwards for our patients also. I have always been very proud of the hospital I work at, and the job we do for our patients, especially in the ICU. I just cannot believe they are not adhering to their own mission statement that they constantly shove down our throat: Excellence, flexibility, integrity, responsiveness, service, and teamwork. Clearly they have demonstrated none of their own alleged values. Yes, I have already spoken with our competitor hospitals bariatric center, and I do not have to start over from the beginning, however I will have to go the route of insurance. Our insurance is notoriously hard to get bariatric surgeries approved with, so I am looking at upwards of 1 year probably before I can have my procedure (which is why I was going to self pay to begin with). I do know this- I will pay all the out of pocket costs my insurance does not pay for to go to our competitor hospital from now on- I will not give this hospital another dime of my money. So all of my preop dietician visits, etc, will be done there, because I no longer have any faith in my hospital!!! And one more thing I know with utter and complete certainty is that I could NEVER treat a patient this way, or allow a patient to be treated this way if they were my patient in the ICU, and live with myself. I think they should be ashamed of themselves.

But like you said, maybe it wasn't meant to be....

Furthermore, I can't believe they pissed off the surgeon as much as they did and aren't having any repercussions from it?? Usually they bend over backwards to make the docs happy!!

[phowell 0]

I am new to this site, and am hoping to be banded within abou the next month. I thought it was hard here to have to go through everything. The dietician visits, the exercise classes, and the counseling...but hopefully I won't have to deal with all of that. It is bad enough that I have to talk my boss into letting me have time off for it, but to deal with all of that would be ridiculous! I work at the hospital as a CT tech and I know that this hospital is nothing like the last one I worked for. We always had to make patients first (at the other one) no matter what. If we were rude (employee or not) we didn't even get a second chance--we were fired. Sounds to me like they could use some of that!! Keep us posted!

[BabyCat 0]

I am scheduled for my lapband surgery on Nov.14,2007 and I'm so nervous.:omg: Is there a reason to be nervous? How great is the pain after the surgery?:help:

[BabyCat 0]

Your situation scares me more, because that was truely unfair to you, as well as your husband who supported you. Going through the process is alot, then to be treated like that is a big disappointment. I think that you should not be the one leaving your job, but the billing rep should be looking for a new job. What happen to customer being right?

[munchkin392 1]

I agree, actually I think the Bariatric Center coordinator should lose her job, as all this mess stems back to her. I love my job but if they do not make this right I cannot justify working for a hospital that cares more about $7000 than their patients or their employees. My husband brought up a good point-I learned when I was trained to train new nurses that it costs approximately $25,000 to orient a new nurse once hired. So if I quit and they have to train a new nurse, it will actually cost them money. Dumb, dumb, dumb...all over being greedy.

[Sunchickie 0]

Hey munchkin-so sorry about all of your troubles, but, sometimes (like Oprah says) you get a whisper (from God)......I would take that as a NEON SIGN

[munchkin392 1]

LOL!!! Point well taken Sunchickie!!