Miscommunications

I think I got a little spoiled at the RE's office. They were professional and competent. People answered the phones, transferred you to the appropriate staffer if they couldn’t answer your question, and even (gasp!) called when they said they would. Even better, the person who called was often armed with exactly the information I wanted to know.

It was glorious.

Now, of course, we're back with our old OB/Gyn practice, with occasional forays down the street to the perinatology group. So far I've been in to the OB office once and then went to the perinatology group for the nuchal scan that turned up the placenta previa. Our next appointment with our OBs is on Monday.

So, there I was, minding my own business, when a referral to the perinatology office dropped into my mailbox. I got it yesterday. It was dated last Friday, and says that Dr. Favorite at my OB office is referring me to the perinatology office for a “consultation and scan.”

I applied a little mental energy to the situation and concluded that Dr. Favorite must have seen a report on the unusual placenta from the perinatology office, read it, and said “Oh no! Poor May and H! Let’s get them some more information from the high-risk experts on how this will likely affect this pregnancy!” She then put in for a referral for us to go back to the peris, look and see what the placenta has been up to, and talk it over with one of the perinatologists. Makes sense, right? This is one of the reasons I have been reluctant to insist that our care be transferred entirely over to the perinatology group. Dr. Favorite is always looking out for me, and never hesitates to send us over to the perinatologists if she feels they can handle something better than she can, but overall we get a level of care at the OB office that I’m not sure we could duplicate anywhere else.

So, I called and left a message for Dr. Favorite’s assistant, saying I had received the referral, and that I was assuming it had something to do with our new placental issues, and was there a particular week of the pregnancy in which she’d like me to go see the perinatologists?

Dr. Favorite’s assistant called me back and said that she had the results of our scan and not to worry, they were all normal.

(Um, excuse me, but WTF?)

I explained the situation to the assistant and she paused, and said she’d talk to Dr. Favorite and let me know. This all happened yesterday.

This morning I discovered a message on my cell from Dr. Favorite (whom I have not yet seen or spoken to in person this pregnancy) saying congratulations on the pregnancy and that she had my first trimester screen results, which were normal. If I wanted the exact numbers I could call her; she’d be in today until noon and all day tomorrow.

So, I called back and tried to get her personal voicemail. No luck. I was transferred back to her assistant’s voicemail, where I left another message saying I had gotten Dr. Favorite’s message this morning, but there still appears to be some confusion. I've had the results of the first trimester screen for a while now. Do they want me to go back and see the perinatologists again regarding the placenta? If not, why did I just get this referral? Have they even received a copy of a report on the scan in which we discovered its strange and unusual characteristics? What’s going on here, people?

And now I’m waiting for a return call. And grading another enormous pile of lab reports. Ugh.

As H says, "Our health care system in action." Sigh.