Blood work mulligan accomplished!

[which_chick]

Today went better, though I was shocked to discover that my doctor office faxes lab orders to the hospital. When you go in, the outpatient lady walks over to THE FAX MACHINE and shuffles through a stack of paper to see if she can find your lab orders.



I am not... encouraged by the obsolescence here, but the fax thing probably explains why the lab orders didn't make it into the hospital portal as "ordered tests". I'm pretty sure that no portal is going to populate ordered tests from a fucking fax.

*gah* What a shitshow. The fax bullshit is apparently because the PCP (doc, not drug) is not integrated with UPMC but all the UPMC-integrated docs are not accepting new patients so if you want to have a PCP at all (which I kinda do because not having a PCP is another barrier to receiving care), you gotta shop outside the UPMC-integrated docs.

Anyway, on the Candyland-style path of Getting Medical Attention, I have navigated Fax Machine Follies and can now proceed to getting the second round of test results.

I don't know if UPMC has gutted the lab at Bedford Memorial or not. They don't do much at the hospital these days -- if you need anything at all that's even remotely serious, they send you to Altoona -- but I can't imagine them shipping all their lab orders forty minutes away... every single day, especially since most of that is done by some kind of automated machine. Also they're still pretending to have an emergency room urgent care with an MRI on the property. I think they have to have an in-house lab. I wonder if they upload the results to the portal before your doc gets to sign off on them...

Comments

[mistressofmuses]

I worked briefly doing office work for a PT office, and the number of things we were required to fax just absolutely blew my mind. UGH. So many doctor offices that would only conduct business via fax, and then yes, having to hope your request wasn't lost in the pile.

I have to embark on a blood test re-do, too.