My biopsy is scheduled on February 1st. The diagnostics clinic called me at 3:35pm on Tuesday, January 30th informing me that the ultrasound clinic had not sent in my scans. These are required by the morning of January 31st (next day) or I will be forced to reschedule. Beg your pardon??
They said I am responsible for getting a cd of the scans, these cannot be sent via email or fax, it needs to be a disc from the ultrasound clinic. All of this was delivered without a hint of empathy, as though I had done them some great injustice. They didn’t even call the ultrasound clinic for a follow up. Had they done this, they’d have realized that the request was never sent for the scans in the first place!
I had to leave work to collect a cd at the other end of the city, then drive to the complete opposite end of the city and pay $15 for parking just so I could drop off the CD in their mailbox. The ultrasound clinic receptionist had been so adamant in proving to me she’d never received the request to the point that I had to tell her to stop showing me all the requisitions for the other patients. I said listen, I know you are great at your job and this is just a case of someone over there screwing up so that the rest of the world has to jump through hoops to fix their mistake. I then left a nice voicemail for the diagnostics place informing them of their mistake and that going forward they need to be nicer when asking people who are already facing the stress of possibly having cancer to jump through such hoops. I was polite about it, don’t worry.
They did call me back the next day, late afternoon again. A different woman was on the phone and was very please to tell me they did in fact receive the scans after all and so I could come in for my appointment next a.m. and not to worry. This was delivered to me as though it was great news: “Hey guess what!?” I said “I know you got them. I left work losing an hour and half pay to drive across the city to get the cd because your clinic didn’t send the request, as per my voice mail.” To which she responds with a stutter: “Oh yeah, sorry about that. It turns out that there are 2 clinics and my colleague sent the request to the wrong one. So thank you for doing that for us, we really appreciate your help.” This was the exact wording.
We appreciate your help? First off, why didn’t you lead with the apology since you clearly knew that your clinic had screwed up? As though the scans magically appeared and I wouldn’t notice all the effort I went through to make it happen.. I was livid. When your job involves such a sensitive issue like cancer you would think you’d be a lot more careful with how you do it. No it is not an easy job, but guess what? No job is. So do it right or don’t do it at all. When you make a mistake, even if it isn’t your direct actions that caused it, don’t try to bullshit your way out of it, take ownership.
It doesn’t leave me with a lot of confidence that I’ll go in for a biopsy and won’t come out with a new hip.