It was encouraging to read the article on the formation of a Patient and Family Advisory Council to improve patient healthcare experiences at Porter Medical Center. I feel that an organization such as this is long overdue.
However, I have reservations how this can address patients’ welfare concerns when other medical facilities are involved, as in second opinions or additional diagnostic tests. My own experiences with such actions have been met with extreme frustration. Requested referrals very often are neither sent nor received. Copies of tests performed that are requested by a medical facility other than where they were done often take weeks to arrive. Six weeks ago I was told to make an appointment for surgery I need. After numerous calls to the provider to schedule that appointment, I still don’t have it.
And then perhaps the most despairing to me is the issue of age discrimination. Very often when I am asked to give specific symptoms to a provider the reply I get is something like “You’re in you mid eighties, what did you expect?” It really frustrates me that I am categorized in some sort of sub-standard stratum that puts me at a disadvantage as far as my health care is concerned.
Helen Dillon
Granville