How a Patient stole two MRIs

Dear Reader,

That’s a joke because I have no readers. It’s just me sitting here on the internet by myself. If someone on the internet reads this, just know this isn’t a hippa violation because a lot of the details remain unknown and it is fabricated.

This summer I am working at a charity care clinic. It might be one of the nicest places I have ever worked. (We can talk about this in another post, but basically everyone is a volunteer and choosing to work there, donating both time and energy.) HOWEVER, I’m working in referrals because sometimes nurses do not just take temperatures and observations, but they also help do administrative work and this is where the clinic needed my help and this is where I was sent to work.

I work every Tuesday and Thursday. I send faxes, I make appointments, I call patients, I scan, copy, and print documents only to shred them later. It is all very amusing. I work with an amazing group of people. Sometimes my boss and the translator yell at me in Spanish because I have memorized how to tell patient to come to the clinic in Spanish and can hold simple conversations.

That is another totally different story. I need to continue with how a patient stole two MRIs. I got her an appointment at a neurologists back in May. (YAYYYY we found someone to help a very sick lady for free. Like I was so happy and thankful I cried after talking to the secretary.) AND THEN she went to the appointment (a true blessing because a lot of the patients cancel last minute because they chose to go to work instead of going to the doctor, which is sad but true). The neurologist never sent us her charts, so I didn’t think she went to the neurologist appointment back in June, but the secretary said she did and then faxed me the charts and I cried when that happened to. (This was only last week) I didn’t have time to read them over so I just messaged my two bosses that she went to the appointment.

And then I read the chart yesterday. The Neurologist wanted her to go get two MRIs and have a follow up appointment. So I call the secretary and she tells me that the patient has had the follow up appointment because at this point I didn’t think the patient has had two MRIs. I begin preparing the paper work for a referral to get two MRIs. I call the patient to tell her that she has to come in to fill out a form for an MRI. My boss gets a call from her saying that she has done the thing in the machine weeks ago.

Me and a different nurse call the Neurologist because we have no idea. Where did she get the MRI done? Who paid for it? The Neurologist gives us the number for the MRI place. I called them, but at the time it was closed for lunch. so to conclude, she has stolen two MRIs and that is it. There is no way that this Patient could have paid for it. I called the Neurologist secretary and she claims that the bills were submitted to insurance. All of our patients have to be uninsured. Is this patient even our patient then if she is using insurance? Whose insurance is the Patient using? Why haven’t we gotten an invoice. So we call the Patient, but they have gone MIA and are not answering our calls. My boss’ theory is that the Patient must understand that she has stolen two MRIs.

I know I’m glad and thankful that this Patient is getting care, but I’m also very worried about who is paying for it. The list of people paying for the MRI are either: the patient might have paid for it, her brother (who might have insurance), the Neurologist’s office, or the MRI place. All I know is that the clinic I work at did not pay for it or make the referral for the Patient to get the MRIs for free. Ten minutes later we were laughing because one of the translators forgot the word for free and used the word stolen instead.

Amazed you made it this far,

Celia

there are other things I could be doing right now, but I’m busy procrastinating

Found my old boss on facebook. He still has no filter and he is still a lifeguard. He’ll probably never retire and now we will be friends until the next time I begin deleting facebook friends

I just realized this is probably my last summer working at a pool and I am a little bit sad, and probably a bit bitter and heart broken.

I forgot that when I pretend to be doing something on my computer, I’m usually just browsing tumblr. I’ve actually been doing things and feel to productive, so here is a haiku:

They reach for gray skies,

Lonely sky sends mocking tears,

I do not know you

Funny Story: Part 2 continued (I fell of my bike so you don’t have too)

Falling is never pretty, but I like to say I fall elegantly. My dad cut me off and if I ever find the percocet influenced free write I will post it because it is a rant about my dad cutting me off on Father’s Day while we were at the beach.

That was June 19th. June 20th I went to the one emergency room. X-ray said nothing, too soon for MRI. I got sent off in an immobilizer and on crutches.

I fell of my bike so you don’t have too. It was painful, but not painful enough to complain. What was painful was walking into the doctors office two weeks later and being told I had a fracture through my left tibia, the only limb not covered in road rash, and that I needed to spend six more weeks on crutches. What was more painful was getting the blood clot drained from the inside of my knee because of my bleeding fracture and then having to lie still in an MRI machine for 30 minutes a few hours later.

2 x-rays, one MRI, one CT scan, and one month post accident I had surgery. They cut open my left leg, pushed my tibia back into place, shoved some bone graft to stop everything from shifting, and laced me back up. Out patient, arthroscopic procedure, and my mom left for a two week long vacation the next day. Leaving me and my dad to fend for ourselves. 

I got to find this started post, where ever it maybe, because I bet it’s stupid, but it is the story of me and my dad fending for ourselves. I thought it was real amusing when I wrote.

Funny Story: Part 2- how I spent my summer

Like most usual summers, I spent the time from mid June to late September sweating. I sweated more than I usually do most summers. I sweated more than I did the summer I first worked at the pool, and I sweated a lot that summer because I was one of four first year life guards and we did a lot of manual labor.

Sweat constantly was dripping from my face and that was okay with me, I accepted it. It was part of the glory of summer. I had waited for it to be summer for a very long time. I got through two semester of college and a very cold New England winter. As an award  for all this, I was going to have a great summer working and bumming around. Instead I fell of my bike.

Funny Story

There is a blog post somewhere, a writing piece, a short narrative about my life an update. But my brain filled with pain killers did something with it. I’m not too sure what exactly. Clearly the percocet did not think the post was all too great.