Re: MAGGIE/ EVERY BODY PLEASE READ

August 20, 2004

,

I revised your letter. You don't have to submit this ... but I just wanted to help you out if I could. I don't want to offend you though. You wrote an incredibly detailed letter. I hope that this complaint will help others while they deal with this office.

-.

Carey

12345 Carey Lane

Arlington, Texas 12345

Friday, August 20, 2004

Dear Executive Board,

My name is Carey. I am a 60 year old female who lives alone, and I am writing this letter per the request of Chrisie ---- regarding our conversation on 8/18/2004. This letter contains my concerns due to the lack of a timely response from the nurse, Maggie ---- employed by my former Primary Care Physician, Dr. Allan B.Ohman, M.D. A request from my pharmacy for the refills of my medications was placed into the hands of Maggie ---- who didn't follow through at the appropriate time. My scheduled appointment was on that same day, and I had a very satisfying conversation with Dr. Ohman. I asked him to spend a little more time than usual with me to address some concerns I had about my health. I had spent the weekend of 7/31/04 through 8/01/04 in the hospital due to Hypertension (221/119) and low potassium levels which had left me feeling dizzy, weak and with shortness of breath. I called 911 for assistance, and was transported to the nearest emergency room and that was Arlington Memorial Hospital.

My illnesses include Systemic Lupus Erythmetosus, Subacute Cutaneous Lupus, Hypothyroidism, and Severe Osteoporosis all of which were diagnosed in 1997. I have a very long history of losing my balance and falling and not having enough strength to get back to my feet alone. I have been hospitalized many times in the past for similar situations before I became a patient of Dr. Oman, and in fact had a similar experience in September of 2003. I presented myself at your After-Hours-Clinic and was seen by an associate of Dr. Ohman. At that time the doctor I saw at the clinic was concerned that I might be having a heart attack and was urged to drive myself to the North Hills Hospital Emergency Room. I was to bring with me the x-ray of my chest. The x-ray was done at the clinic along with the results of my Electrocardiogram.

I was admitted to the North Hills Hospital at that time and spent three days going through a battery of tests, which included everything except a Heart Cathe. I decided against the Heart Cathe because of the slight damage to my kidneys due to the Lupus. I am telling you all this past history to let you see that the prescription drug: Prednisone has been a large part of my treatment since 1997. My Lupus appears to be in remission at this time; however, I was recently diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and Sojourn's syndrome. These diseases leaves me in a considerable amount of chronic pain from which my current pain medication, Vicodin - taken every 4 - 6 hours, was not giving me enough relief. I felt it was necessary to ask Dr. Ohman about helping me with pain management as the chronic pain I was suffering was seriously impairing my quality of life. The doctor agreed with me, and said that there was hope that if we combined the muscle relaxer, Soma, with the Vicodin it would give the Vicodin a boost. He thought we should try that before going to a more potent pain medication. So he wrote a prescription for Soma to be taken -- just 1 tablet, 3 times a day.

He also told me that I could go back on the drug, Carb/Levo, for the relief of my Restless Leg Syndrome, which was keeping me from getting the proper sleep. I had later been advised by Dr. Pafford, to stop taking it, as he felt it was causing the rash that I am constantly fight whenever I try a new drug. Dr. Ohman has been primarily treating me for the rashes that cover my upper torso then later on my face -- if intervention with an injection of Depo Medrol, and the increase in my Prednisone dosage is not done in time. Again I am bringing all this up to let you know how much a part of my daily medications Prednisone is. Now to get to the point of why I have decided to leave Dr. Ohman, whom I have been very satisfied with. The only complaint about Dr. Ohman that I have is the fact that he seems to let his nurse, Maggie ---- make a lot of decisions in his behalf concerning the care of his patients. The reason I say this is because Maggie is the person to whom the pharmacist has to contact to get prescriptions refilled, or when there is a problem with the patient's insurance -- like in my case. My insurance company had a problem with covering the Soma medication that Dr. Ohman had written for me. My pharmacist came and found me in the aisles of the store to let me know that my insurance company required a preauthorization from my doctor before they could cover that many tablets of Soma for me. So I went home that same day, 8/9/04, that he had written the prescription and attempted to call Maggie ----.

Well, this is always a problem when I, a patient, or pharmacist has to contact Ms. ----. All I can do is leave a message in her voice mail box, and wait for her to contact me. I waited for 10 days, calling and leaving messages for her to 'please' return my call. She never attempted to return my call. I started calling my pharmacist, Lady ----, to see if she could get a response from Ms. ----. I needed my prescriptions, Prednisone and Carb/ Levo, to be refilled. Now everyone educated in medicine, moreso a nurse, knows that Prednisone can not be stopped suddenly -- especially at the dose of 20mgs which was what I was on. Well, it took Maggie 5 days to 'okay' the refills for my Prednisone and Carb/Levo. In my opinion this was putting my life in danger. I could very easily have wound up in the hospital or worse -- dead! I rationed the extra tablets I had and survived. But my cutting down caused my rash to flare and it came back with a vengeance. The decrease in Prednisone without my doctor's recommendation added more pain for me. As a result I kept worrying if Maggie was ever going to give the pharmacist permission to refill my prescriptions. My pharmacist was faxing her every day and no response. Ms. (Lady) finally called and left a message on Maggie's voice mail. I'm not sure of how the conversation with my pharmacist and Maggie went, but Maggie called Ms. (Lady) back just to let her know that she didn't like how she was talking to her. Her exact words were, "I don't like your attitude!" Maggie still did not 'okay' the prescription or let the pharmacist know if there was a problem with getting the preauthorization. All Maggie did at that time was let Ms. (Lady) know that she didn't like her attitude.

There had been another incident involving Prednisone a while back when I was between rheumatologists. I had found a new rheumatologist, but he was not seeing any new patients until June. Dr. Ohman had agreed to support my need for Prednisone until I could get in with the new rheumatologist. I called Maggie and for once she called me back to tell me, "Dr. Ohman is getting really frustrated with you because he has only agreed to prescribe Prednisone for you until you could get a new rheumatologist. You need to call their office back and 'be adament' about them getting an appointment for you sooner!" Well, this new doctor has the same voice mail system setup as Maggie. Unless you are already a patient, you don't get any kind of response -- you just have to leave a message! How am I supposed to 'be adament' with a voice mail robot?

Finally, I called my nephrologist, Dr. Epstein, who I would really like to commend. He called me back within 5 minutes. He could hear the hysteria and frustration in my voice, and he listened to my plight. He called in the prescription, Prednisone, for me immediately. He actually saved my life when it seemed like no one else cared. There is one other problem I have with Maggie, and this is in regards to getting my medical records from the Osteopathic Medical Center in Ft. Worth where I had been receiving all my care since my diagnosage in 1997. That medical center stopped taking my Secure Horizons Insurance. I had gone over there and signed a release for them to send all my medical records to Dr. Ohman. I kept contacting Maggie at your clinic's Medical Records Department, to see if they had sent them over, and Maggie kept telling me they hadn't. So I called the Osteopathic Medical Center again, and they told me that they had already sent the records -- and they would send them again. After calling your clinic incessantly, Maggie finally returned my call. She still insisted that they had not received my records. I told her that they could not be overlooked because it would have been a huge file! She then said, "Oh. Well, maybe they made a 'B' file for them." She put me on hold and sure enough, they had received 2 huge files for me.

So to summarize, I have called Secure Horizons. I've told them I needed to change primary care physicians and the reason why I needed to put forth this change. I was encouraged to file a complaint, and they are sending me a form to fill out. I have to send that form back to them and attach a letter explaining why I needed to change doctors. I already have a new PCP and the insurance company is sending me a new card with his name on it. Thank you very much for listening to me when I called and asked to speak to the office manager. I fully expected to get directed to a voice mail robot! I have already moved on, but maybe this letter will help make things better for other patients in the same plight. I just could not leave my life in the hands of Maggie any longer.

Sincerely,

Carey

August 20, 2004