cancer – day 76
Man, that first oncologist must be really concerned about liability . . . they resent me their form letter regarding the “missed” appointment (that never existed) with an electronic signature this time. Reading the second copy of the form letter, I’m not as offended as I was when I received the first copy, but then again, now we know what I’m doing and when, so I’m not as stressed out as I was when I received the first letter. Mind you, they never called me; they just sent this letter (twice). Reading it again now, I’m noticing that whoever did write it has fairly horrific grammar, so maybe it wasn’t a form letter after all, maybe someone did actually take the time to write this letter to me so they could clear Soe of any liability. I said I’d post the letters to my blog some day, so here’s the exchange:
June 16, 2008
Dear Ms. Miller,
You were here for a consultation with me on May 27, 2008. After the discussion, I recommended to you chemotherapy for treatment of breast cancer, and arrangements were made to have blood tests done, and also to have a port-a-cath placement. You wanted to hold off the treatment until today, and a treatment schedule was made for today. However, you failed to show up and we have not received any call from you either.
This letter is to inform you that it is very critical for you to keep your follow up appointments, and to start the chemotherapy as soon as possible if you decided to do so. A timely initiation of chemotherapy is very critical in successful treatment of the breast cancer. And, breast cancer in a younger patient like yourself tend to be aggressive and the risk of recurrence tends to be higher.
If we cannot contact you by other means, this letter is our last attempt to contact you, and inform you of your missing of your appointment today, and we no longer have any other appointments set up.
Please call us as soon as possible to contact us and to make another arrangement for an appointment. If you do not do so, your life may be in danger because of the breast cancer.
Sincerely,
Lin Soe, MD
Cc Craig Thayer, MD
Leanne Camisa, MD
_______________________________________
June 28, 2008
Dear Dr. Soe,
Thank you for your concern and documentation thereof. Given the nature of your letter, I feel it appropriate to make it clear that I did NOT make any appointment with your facility or staff for chemotherapy. When pressed on May 27 while I was at your office for the initial consultation with you, I responded to the nurse that I was trying to set up my work schedule to be able to start chemotherapy on June 16, however, no appointment was scheduled, nor did I commit to doing chemotherapy at your facility or under your care. Furthermore, if you refer to your notes from the discussion I with you during the consultation on May 27, I believe I made it clear that I wasn’t even committed to doing chemotherapy in California at that time, and that I was strongly considering going to stay with my family in the Midwest during chemotherapy.
Should you have any further questions or concerns regarding my treatment or care, I suggest you take it up with my medical oncologist, Dr. Donald Lombardi, who is the breast cancer specialist with Sutter Medical Group, and, I believe, best qualified to address your concerns or recommendation.
Regards,
Dr. Cynthia L. Miller (a.b.d.)
Managing Director
Cielem’el
______________________________________
I was annoyed enough at that point to print it on my company letterhead and go all business executive professional on them.
Pasting this in for my blog now, I’m getting annoyed about receiving a second copy of the letter from them. My mom wanted me to report the guy to the AMA or something, because she thinks it’s so wrong to threaten a cancer patient with their life like that, since cancer patients are in general already emotionally stressed. Mom didn’t care if they did it for liability purposes, she thinks it was wrong. And she’s a registered nurse! We’re having quite the experience out here with the gamut of medical care quality, from some of the best nurses I’ve ever worked with to the worst (the pain nurse) and quite a variance in the doctors as well, though I’ve managed to get away from the bad ones and get referrals to good ones so far. It’s pretty different from when I was a kid, and “the administrator’s daughter.”