Financial rant–HOW?

AM, I reported the card lost/stolen the day I got home from the unnecessary hospitalization. No charges had been made on it. The account was closed immediately, and I was issued a new card with a new account number. I reported the theft to the hospital (a gift card to the same store had also been stolen). I got two e-mails asking for further information, the second of which said the Patient Advocate would be notified. The Patient Advocate called me at work while I was on the phone with my boss, and she left a voice mail message. No more than five minutes later, I called her back, and got her voice mail. I gave my name, said I was returning her call, and left my phone number again. I’ve never heard anything else from the hospital. I can just see this Patient Advocate’s written report: “Attempt was made to contact the patient by phone, but was unable to reach her.”

I have filed two complaints. The first was against the general hospital, from the emergency department of which I was involuntarily sent to the psych hospital in a manner inconsistent with state law. The letter I eventually got from them said, essentially, “We’re sorry our service did not meet your expectations, but our actions were appropriate.” I found out, interestingly enough, that the social worker who executed the warrant for involuntary hospitalization works for the psych hospital’s Mobile Assessment Team; the general hospital has contracted with the psych hospital for this team to provide psych triage services. The second complaint I filed, therefore, was with the state Division of Healthcare Facility Regulation; they licensed both hospitals. After making a careful case, in writing, for the illegality of my committal, I wrote that I suspect a conflict of interest going on here wherein this arrangement between the two hospitals is being used to get business for the psych hospital. This written complaint was accompanied by the letter from the general hospital and sent via e-mail on July 15, one week ago.

I think it’s going to be a while before I hear anything about the second complaint, if I ever do hear anything. There is a phone number you can call to initiate a complaint. A voice mail system answers the calls, and the outgoing message asks you to leave your name and telephone number. It then tells the caller that, because they get such a high volume of calls, a complaint can be filed via e-mail, which I did.

I think that the middle of next week (I’m getting one of my neck shots on Tuesday and that will put me down for the day), I will call, and leave my name and telephone number, and ask if they got my complaint.

I did leave a negative evaluation of the psych hospital somewhere on line shortly after I got home, but I don’t remember where, and I don’t really remember what I said.

I’m going to have to see how to do those things, Ail.

By the way, when I got home on Friday night, I found two letters from the state Division of Healthcare Facility Regulation. They were identical form letters; one had the name and address of the psych hospital at the top, and the other carried the name/address of the general hospital. Basically, the letters acknowledged receipt of my complaint and spelled out the actions that would be taken to investigate it. A lot of it didn’t apply to my situation, but these are just standard form letters.