[Doodlegirl]

It was during the Christmas-New Year's holiday,the MD was on vacation and being covered by one of six other physicians in the practice. An MRI
was ordered for a Saturday two weeks hence, and I called to ask the MRI
dept. if they could find some way to get him in earlier. Something was wrong, and he was unable to walk. They fit me in, called the covering doc and told him, and in we went in two days, by self pay ambulance since he couldn't walk and I couldn't carry him. His dx was cancer of the spinal fluid...and it
had obviously deteriorated the ability to balance. Talking with the radiologist
at the hospital it was suggested Hospice be called to which I agreed. My Dad
passed away ten days later at our home. The paperless Primary never called, it was only when I made an appointment in my father's name, two weeks after his passing that he learned of Dad's passing. I made the appointment because I wanted to point out the massive screw up between
the paperless physician, and the full of paper Hospice. The MD was shocked, I remember saying to him, "Hey, how come Dr. X didn't mention to you that
you had a patient going South?" I can still see the stunned eyes looking at me. I was not a happy camper. I made the doc show me the paperless note where it indicated Dad had been 'stumbling' and 'falling' for two months previously. I shook hands with him and left, he knew I knew the paperless
aspect had been a total failure. Physicians and nurses and computer tech's are only as good as the notes that are filed as quickly as possible in a patient's chart, and regardless of many of us with paperless pasts, the technology and the humanity have not yet caught up. IMHO My Dad's
physician was also my physician.