Communication Frustrations

I have called and left messages twice now, once last Thursday and today and have not had a return call from my surgeon's nurse. It is very frustrating to not have my phone calls returned. Anyone else have these issues at Duke?

I would suggest calling them again and letting them know of your frustrations and that you would like the number for their patient assistance office, if you can't get a call back within the next 24 hours. 

 

That's pretty much SOP as far as i know... especially with Dr. Pryor...  She did my surgery.... But i sure don't have a lot of good to say about her commincating with her patients... having said that.  I must admit (grudgingly)  she did a great job on the actual surger part.  So i guess that is the important thing!

They definitly do not return calls in any timely manner. I am soooooo disappointed with there post op care, but am not sure what I want to do about it yet. I am a nurse and have a rather big mouth so I am debating on who to contact or who do write to. I may get 5 on your side to do a story on it.
My husband wants to take out a full page add in the News and Observer.If it is important and you can not get anyone to call back, I would call Durham Regional and have the Bariatric resident paged. That is what makes them a center of excellence. They have to have someone available 24 hours a day. If he ask why you paged ask your question and tell him they would not get back to you from the office.

Good luck,
Audra

I truly feel your pain!!! None of this is new... i had RNY just beforeChristmas in 2007.  After coming home i had problems... reaching someone was IMPOSSIBLE.  My husband was beside himself.  We attributed it to being the holidays.  Not true... just the continuing saga of Duke. 

When hubby decided to ave WLS he chose UNC because of the lack of communication whne i had my surgery.  Communication is NOT a problem at UNC... however, there is practically NO post  surgery care.  They psych there is incommunicado, the nutrition care is just not there, and there are no follow up group meetings after surgery. 

I don't know... maybe you justhave to choose your poison... go to Duke, have a great surgery, great followup available and no communication.... go to UNC, have a great surgery, great communication, and no post surgery care available.   If  I had to do it all over again i don't know which i would choose.  Maybe i would look for a third choice...

BTW... hubby just got his THIRD "repair" surgery after his RNY... as i said, choose your poison.

Be a pain in the ass!  That's what I did and now I get my calls returned in a timely manner.  I joke that I think "Pain In The Ass!" is written in my medical file in bright red permanent magic marker!  

Seriously, call each person you've left a message with EVERY day and leave another one.  They'll get sick of hearing from you and call you back just to shut you up.  (At least that is what I think happened to me.)  I've also called and told the receptionist who answers the phone that I need to make a formal complaint and she has patched me right through to the patient care advocate/administrator.  I had another friend do this AND also complain to Durham Regional's patient advocate. 

Another thing is, if someone's not returning your calls, call the main number and state that so and so is not returning your calls and you need to speak with their supervisor. 

Do you live nearby?  I'm 3 hours away, but if I were closer, I'd go down there in person and demand an answer to whatever my issue was.  I kind of did that once, actually.  I had to fight to get all of my pre-op stuff scheduled for one day and then once I was there I was told that Dr. Sudan might not be able to see me.  I said I'd be there all day and would wait until he could.  He saw me!

Be assertive and be persistant.  Cross over to aggressive and *****y if you need to!