MAGGIE/ EVERY BODY PLEASE READ

[Guest guest]

To Christie,

I am writing this letter per your request regarding our conversation on 8/18/2004 about my concerns in regards to the lack of a timely response for the request from my Pharmacy for the refills of my medications prescribed to me by my former Primary Care Physician, Dr. Allan B.Ohman,M.D.

On that same date, I had a very satisfying conversation with Dr. Ohman on my scheduled appointment. On that day I asked him to spend a little more time than usual with me to address some concerns I had about my health, as I had just spent the weekend of 7/31/04 through 8/01/04 in the hospital because of an elevated Blood Pressure, 221/119 and low Potassium levels which had left me feeling dizzy, weak and with shortness of breath which caused me enough concern so that I called 911 for assistance, and was transported to the nearest hospital E.R. which is Arlington Memorial Hospital.

Since I live alone, and am a 60 year old female with a history of Systemic Lupus Erythmetosus and Subacute Cutaneous Lupus,Hypothyroidism, and Severe Osteoporosis 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 by myself. 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, in which I presented myself at your After hours

Clinic and was seen by an associate of Dr. Ohman.

At that time there was concern by the Doctor I saw that I might be having a heart attack and was urged to drive myself to the North Hills Hospital E.R.bringing with me an x ray of my chest which was done at the clinic.along with the results of an EKG which was also done at the clinic.

I was admitted to the North Hills Hospital at that time and spent three day going through a battery of tests, Essentially everything except a heart Cathe. which was decided against 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, Which leaves me in a considerable amount of chronic pain from which which my current pain medication, Vicodin taken every 4 - 6 hrs. just 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 my vicodin it would give the Vicodin a boost, and he thought we should try that before going to a more Potent Pain Medication.So he wrote a prescription for Soma, to be taken one 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 enough sleep.

I had been advised by Dr. Pafford, to stop taking it,as he felt it was causing the rash that I am constantly fighting each time that I try a new drug. This has been primarily what Dr. Ohman has been treating me for. the terrible rashes that cover my upper torso, and eventually 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 bring 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 for the most part.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, as in my case with my insurance company. They had a problem with covering the Soma, that Dr. Ohman had written me a prescription for on the day I had my appointment with him and talked about my pain management.

My Pharmacist came and found me in the isles of the store to let me know that my insurance company required a preauthorization from my doctor before they would would cover that many tablets of Soma.for me. So I came straight home on the same day8/9/04, that he had written the prescription and started to try to call Maggie.

Well this is always a problem when anyone, Patient or Pharmacist has to contact Maggie...All you can do is leave a message on her Voice Mail, and wait for her to contact you.....well I waited for 10 days, calling and leaving messages for her to PLEASE return my call. She NEVER did return my call, so I started calling my Pharmacist to see if SHE could get a response from her. I also needed my prescriptions for prednisone , and Carb/ Levo to be refilled....now everybody knows, especially a nurse. that prednisone can NOT be stopped suddenly, especially at the dose that I was on. ( which I asked Dr. Ohman at my appointment if he wanted me to stay at the same dose, which was 20mg. a day, and he told me yes, because my rash was still pretty bad.

Well, it took Maggie 5 days to O.K. the refills for my prednisone and carb/levo.

Which was putting my life in danger.if I had not had just a few tablets left from the prescription from my Rheumatologist. I could very easily have wound up in the hospital or WORSE-' DEAD'. as it was I was able to cut down on the ones I had , and I survived. But my cutting down caused my rash to really wake up and came back with a vengeance, plus causing me more pain in my body, you Have to taper off prednisone very slowly because your body still wants what it has been getting , and since prednisone suppresses the adrenal glands ability to make the natural steroids we need to sustain life, we are left without any steroids at all coming from any where.

As a result of my worrying if Maggie was ever going to give the pharmacist permission to refill my Prescriptions even though my pharmacist was faxing her every day, she finally called and left a message on Maggies.Voice Mail......well I don[ know what my pharmacist said to Maggie, but Maggie called her back just to let her know that she didn't like her "Attitude"....but still did not ok the prescription or let the pharmacist know if there was a Problem with getting the preauthorization or anything but her "Attitude" !

Because 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 that ,"Doctor Ohman was getting really frustrated with me because he had only agreed to prescribe for me until I could get a new Rheumatologist, and for me to call them and "BE ADAMANT" that they get me in sooner.

Well this new doctor has the same voice mail system set up that Maggie has......unless you are already a patient, you don't get a response, you just leave a message! How are you supposed to"BE ADAMANT" with a voice mail robot?

Finally I called my Nephrologist Dr, Epstein, who, by the way I really want to commend.....he called me back in 5 minutes , He could hear the Hysteria in my voice .....and listened to my plight, and called in a prescription for prednisone for me immediately.....he actually saved my life.

There is one other problem I have had with Maggie , and that 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 they diagnosed me in 1997 with Lupus until they stopped taking 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 calling your clinics Medical Records Dept, and Maggie to see if they had sent them over, and Maggie kept telling me they hadn't . So I called the Osteopathic Center again, and they told me they Had....but they would send them again.......after calling and calling forever Maggie actually returned my call, and still insisted that they had not received them.....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.....(yes I am finally finished,) I have called Secure Horizons, and told them I needed to change Primary Care Physicians, and told them why. I was encouraged to file a complaint, and they are sending me a form to fill out, and send back to them and attach a letter explaining why I needed to change.

Yes , I have to write another letter ! 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 am already out of there, but maybe this letter will help make things better for other patient in the same plight.

I just could NOT leave my very life in the hands of Maggie any longer.

Sincerely,

Carey