Bob had an appointment this morning for his yearly wellness check. That's apparently something we're doing now as a result of the Affordable Care Act. It's done on a yearly basis I think. I did mine a week or so ago and all went well, I was in and out in about 15 minutes.
Bob's visit was well over an hour. Even the doctor was worn out by the time it was over. These doctors are inputting information into a computer the entire visit. There are many questions that have to be answered. It takes a very long time to see a patient like Bob. I almost felt the need to apologize.
The doctor drew a circle on a piece of paper and asked Bob to fill in the numbers of a clock. This is the second time she's done this. Apparently it's never dawned on her a very big clock is on the wall behind her. Bob just copies the numbers on that clock onto the paper and he always gets that one right and flunks all the rest. Sometime I may clue her in but Bob probably would prefer I not do that.
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Remember this pink Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form that I wrote about recently? I had turned Bob's in. It was scanned and entered into a registry, and I learned there's another purpose to this exercise. This morning the doctor handed Bob's back to me and told me to attach it to our refrigerator. She says emergency medical personnel are trained to look for this form attached to your refrigerator when they make an emergency call to your home.
I can do that. I wondered how emergency medical personnel were going to know what to do about life sustaining issues in emergency situations. Now I know.
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I'm going to run something by you just to see what response I get given we're living in such heightened conditions about treating all people the same, as well as being super sensitive to anything that could be construed as racist.
The MA (nurse) this morning was from India. She had one of the heaviest accents I've run across. Bob couldn't understand a thing she said, and I had great difficulty. A watched her very closely, and as often as not I finally figured out what she was asking by context rather than the actual question. I was totally unsuccessful in having a phone conversation with her last week.
She clearly knows her job. I have no reservations about the quality of her work. I'm not quite sure what to do about this. I'm going to be in a meeting next month at the hospital where I can discreetly mention it to the man who oversees the hospital's four clinics and see what he thinks but I'm not sure if that's appropriate. I guess I don't know the politically correct thing to do in this situation. What do you suggest?
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If you need a laugh today I suggest you go to Time Goes By blog and read what to expect from the free Medicare Wellness Visit.
