You may have noticed I placed a count down timer on the right margin. It may be a bit optimistic but we have a goal! Bilkmore will surely screw it up but I have a workable timeline in place.
Day 39 began early after Day 38 ended with Jan trying the bed for a second night. At 4:30 AM when nature called, she could not get situated back in the bed so she went back to the reclining lift chair. Setbacks are depressing. Now she has sworn off the bed for the duration.
Jan slept well last night back in the chair by just taking a single pain pill and a muscle relaxer pill. She did wake up cold and put her heating pad on her feet but other than that, she didn't require any additional pain medications after bedtime. It is now 6:30 AM and she had enough sleep to feel OK about going to Tessa's luncheon.
Speaking of the luncheon, today is Tessa's luncheon with the WKU President. I'm glad she was OK with her mother attending, halo and all. WKU has bent over backward to accommodate Jan. They are allowing her to park in the circle drive right in front of the Kentucky Building so she won't have steps and such to deal with. We are thankful for that. The event hasn't happened yet but I'll update later if anything interesting transpired.
I've been looking over the medical bills in my spare time. The actual CT scans I have on CD and the billable scans don't all add up. I'm trying to figure out what is what.
The hospital charged for a thorax, abdomen and pelvis scan but it is one continuous scan. Most places charge $3,000 for a full-body scan and they charged $2,300 times three for that one. Then they charged for a cervical spine, thoracic spine and lumbar spine scan that looks like the exact same scan to me. Again they billed it as three scans. I think they are used to insurance companies paying blindly and they are double-dipping. The total for CT scans alone was $14,500. The Medical Center in BG did one whole scan for $1,850 and a head scan for $1,400 on the visit two hours before Bilkmore did the exact same thing.
Based on my reading, she was exposed to the equivalent of 15 years of background radiation (three for each scan) in just four hours. Annual exposure to radiation should be limited to 20 mSv per year. She got about 10 mSv in the four hours between Med Center and Bilkmore CT scans on Dec 14th. I don't know that it is terribly harmful but it would seem they should have sent the scans with her to Bilkmore and at least looked at them first. Certainly, one more x-ray and one more CT scan will not put her over the annual limit, especially if you are creative and count the accident imaging as 2008 exposure. All other imaging is taking place in 2009.
If there is a next time, though I hope it never does, I ride in the ambulance and arrive with her. I hope it is the same if I'm the one injured. Too bad education always comes too late to help the ones you love. I hope some of you are learning from this. I won't say that makes it all worthwhile but I wish I'd have stumbled upon something like this prior to our accident.
Even though it will be paid by insurance, I'm motivated to keep them honest because they charged for a total of seven CT scans when they actually only ran her through the machine three times tops. If I can be the one that holds their feet to the fire and makes them accountable, I'm going to make it my second priority in life after Jan.
This is yet another reason I want to have her next scan in Bowling Green. The idea is that if we can get the CT scan on Wednesday afternoon and then go to Bilkmore with the scans in hand, it will be a shorter day. Knowing Bilkmore, it will be a bigger pain to try this than it should. I'm going to be adamant that they allow us this as it should be us, the ones paying, that determine how our money is being spent and the course of treatment. It isn't the nurse's body, it is Jan's that is being treated.
I've still not ruled out requesting a meeting with the hospital administrator. I've begun drafting a letter to him. I just need to research who to address it to. There is an address on the web page but I suspect it is about as useful as the patient advocate, which we've heard nothing back from. Probably a futile thing but if we don't complain, who will? If enough people complain, word gets around and then change will happen. I truly believe one person can make a difference, good or bad. I certainly will not recommend anyone going to Bilkmore and falling victim to similar treatment that we have experienced.
Day 39 began early after Day 38 ended with Jan trying the bed for a second night. At 4:30 AM when nature called, she could not get situated back in the bed so she went back to the reclining lift chair. Setbacks are depressing. Now she has sworn off the bed for the duration.
Jan slept well last night back in the chair by just taking a single pain pill and a muscle relaxer pill. She did wake up cold and put her heating pad on her feet but other than that, she didn't require any additional pain medications after bedtime. It is now 6:30 AM and she had enough sleep to feel OK about going to Tessa's luncheon.
Speaking of the luncheon, today is Tessa's luncheon with the WKU President. I'm glad she was OK with her mother attending, halo and all. WKU has bent over backward to accommodate Jan. They are allowing her to park in the circle drive right in front of the Kentucky Building so she won't have steps and such to deal with. We are thankful for that. The event hasn't happened yet but I'll update later if anything interesting transpired.
I've been looking over the medical bills in my spare time. The actual CT scans I have on CD and the billable scans don't all add up. I'm trying to figure out what is what.
The hospital charged for a thorax, abdomen and pelvis scan but it is one continuous scan. Most places charge $3,000 for a full-body scan and they charged $2,300 times three for that one. Then they charged for a cervical spine, thoracic spine and lumbar spine scan that looks like the exact same scan to me. Again they billed it as three scans. I think they are used to insurance companies paying blindly and they are double-dipping. The total for CT scans alone was $14,500. The Medical Center in BG did one whole scan for $1,850 and a head scan for $1,400 on the visit two hours before Bilkmore did the exact same thing.
Based on my reading, she was exposed to the equivalent of 15 years of background radiation (three for each scan) in just four hours. Annual exposure to radiation should be limited to 20 mSv per year. She got about 10 mSv in the four hours between Med Center and Bilkmore CT scans on Dec 14th. I don't know that it is terribly harmful but it would seem they should have sent the scans with her to Bilkmore and at least looked at them first. Certainly, one more x-ray and one more CT scan will not put her over the annual limit, especially if you are creative and count the accident imaging as 2008 exposure. All other imaging is taking place in 2009.
If there is a next time, though I hope it never does, I ride in the ambulance and arrive with her. I hope it is the same if I'm the one injured. Too bad education always comes too late to help the ones you love. I hope some of you are learning from this. I won't say that makes it all worthwhile but I wish I'd have stumbled upon something like this prior to our accident.
Even though it will be paid by insurance, I'm motivated to keep them honest because they charged for a total of seven CT scans when they actually only ran her through the machine three times tops. If I can be the one that holds their feet to the fire and makes them accountable, I'm going to make it my second priority in life after Jan.
This is yet another reason I want to have her next scan in Bowling Green. The idea is that if we can get the CT scan on Wednesday afternoon and then go to Bilkmore with the scans in hand, it will be a shorter day. Knowing Bilkmore, it will be a bigger pain to try this than it should. I'm going to be adamant that they allow us this as it should be us, the ones paying, that determine how our money is being spent and the course of treatment. It isn't the nurse's body, it is Jan's that is being treated.
I've still not ruled out requesting a meeting with the hospital administrator. I've begun drafting a letter to him. I just need to research who to address it to. There is an address on the web page but I suspect it is about as useful as the patient advocate, which we've heard nothing back from. Probably a futile thing but if we don't complain, who will? If enough people complain, word gets around and then change will happen. I truly believe one person can make a difference, good or bad. I certainly will not recommend anyone going to Bilkmore and falling victim to similar treatment that we have experienced.
No comments:
Post a Comment