I was just looking for a phone number or address to file a complaint with Medicare for the deficient wheelchair Medstar Surgical provided me with and came across Medicare's definition of abuse:
Abuse occurs when doctors or suppliers don’t follow good medical practices...
Sound familiar anyone? Sounds a lot like the care I am getting from St. Charles too.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Medstar Surgical Piloting a Ship of Fools and St. Charles Hospital is On Board!
After waiting ten months for my new wheelchair, six months longer than Medstar promised, I finally got my new wheelchair last week. Finally, I can enjoy the new chair, right? NO FUCKING WAY!
It seems nobody at Medstar or the wheelchair clinic at St. Charles Hospital bothered to consider seat height. The new chair is more than three inches higher than my old chair. Since I can't walk or even stand, I must transfer by sliding across my chair on or off the bed, toilet or recliner. An additional three inches above my existing chair might as well be on the roof!
How could this have been avoided? First, we will go with the obvious - St. Charles' wheelchair clinic did an extensive evaluation of my needs ten months ago. Surely seat height was considered. Or was it?
Medstar could have figured it out when they did a home evaluation. Unfortunately, the home evaluation amounted to measuring a few doorways. If Medstar was more concerned with patient care than pushing another $25,000 wheelchair out the door, maybe they would have measured the height of my bed and toilet.
Maybe if Gail Ferrentino-Walsh of Medstar and Rudy Rogers, Pride Manufacturing's representative, made good on the offer of a loaner chair back in the fall, I could have discovered the problem for them, months before the chair was even ordered.
Maybe if Medstar provided me with the documentation I requested, this could have been avoided. But, of course, they refused.
Or maybe it is contained in my medical records at St. Charles' wheelchair clinic? I requested my records seven weeks ago, but I have heard nothing from Laura Beck, St. Charles Director of Outpatient Rehab. Another opportunity to get it right was missed.
What facts are Medstar Surgical and St. Charles Hospital hiding? Why is it so hard to get information from them? With just a modicum of transparency, most of the problems they created could have been avoided. Or is honesty bad for business?
My most recent letter to Medstar and St. Charles follows:
Marc E. Charest
256 Sebonac Road
Southampton, NY 11968
April 18, 2011
Mr. Gerry Dickerson Director of Rehab
Medstar Surgical and Breathing
15-40 128th Street
College Point, NY 11356
(and)
Ms. Laura Beck, Director of Outpatient Rehab
St. Charles Hospital
200 Belle Terre Road
Port Jefferson, NY 11777
Re: New wheelchair.
Dear Sir & Madame,
Six months after it’s expected arrival, I finally got my wheelchair at the St. Charles wheelchair clinic on April 11. Upon arriving home, I was shocked to realize this new chair was unusable - it is more than three inches higher than my existing chair. FYI- my current chair, a Permobil, has all the same power functions as the new chair, so a suitable power chair can be built. The new chair also lacks the removable abductor bolsters discussed at my evaluation.
After Pride Manufacturing’s rep Rudy tried lowering my chair Friday April 15, I decided to give it another chance over the weekend. Rudy was only able to lower it about three-quarters of an inch.
The excessive height of the new chair makes it impossible for me to transfer from the toilet to the chair. Sunday morning, while home alone, it took me 15 minutes to get into the wheelchair from the toilet. In the process I pulled a muscle in my lower back. My toilet is two and a half inches higher than a standard toilet already, and it would have to be raised an additional three inches to make transfers safe.
Transferring from my bed to the chair is marginally easier, but I expect that would also be a source of pulled muscles in the future. Raising my bed or toilet enough to match the chair’s height would make them too high for my feet to reach the ground comfortably. That would also make it impossible for me to get dressed or do exercises and physical therapy at my bed.
Compared with all the detailed information collected during my evaluation at the wheelchair clinic, the cursory home evaluation done by Medstar involved measuring door widths only. The person doing the home evaluation had a tape measure. What would have been the difficulty in doing a comprehensive home evaluation?
Both of your corporations failed to consider the elemental issue of seating height. After waiting an incredible ten months, six months past Medstar’s salesperson’s estimate of October 2010, I am now no closer to a useable power chair than I was in June 2010 when this comedy of errors began. How much longer will it take before I get the chair I need? When will someone, anyone, step up and make this right?
Mr. Dickerson- no more emails. I expect you to respond with a phone call or in writing. Please stop hiding behind “policy” and blaming Medstar’s continuing failures on “difficulties with Medicare”.
Ms. Beck- On February 28 I received a call from you promising help. After I wrote another letter and left two messages for you, I have still not heard from you.
One or both of your organizations created a problem that could easily have been avoided. I recommend you confer with each other before responding. In your response, I need to know how you will expeditiously provide me with an adequate wheelchair that finally meets my needs. I am unwilling to waste an untold number of months waiting due to your mistakes.
Sincerely,
Marc Charest
c.c.
US Rep. Timothy Bishop
Ms. Kim Smith, Attorney
Pride Manufacturing
It seems nobody at Medstar or the wheelchair clinic at St. Charles Hospital bothered to consider seat height. The new chair is more than three inches higher than my old chair. Since I can't walk or even stand, I must transfer by sliding across my chair on or off the bed, toilet or recliner. An additional three inches above my existing chair might as well be on the roof!
How could this have been avoided? First, we will go with the obvious - St. Charles' wheelchair clinic did an extensive evaluation of my needs ten months ago. Surely seat height was considered. Or was it?
Medstar could have figured it out when they did a home evaluation. Unfortunately, the home evaluation amounted to measuring a few doorways. If Medstar was more concerned with patient care than pushing another $25,000 wheelchair out the door, maybe they would have measured the height of my bed and toilet.
Maybe if Gail Ferrentino-Walsh of Medstar and Rudy Rogers, Pride Manufacturing's representative, made good on the offer of a loaner chair back in the fall, I could have discovered the problem for them, months before the chair was even ordered.
Maybe if Medstar provided me with the documentation I requested, this could have been avoided. But, of course, they refused.
Or maybe it is contained in my medical records at St. Charles' wheelchair clinic? I requested my records seven weeks ago, but I have heard nothing from Laura Beck, St. Charles Director of Outpatient Rehab. Another opportunity to get it right was missed.
What facts are Medstar Surgical and St. Charles Hospital hiding? Why is it so hard to get information from them? With just a modicum of transparency, most of the problems they created could have been avoided. Or is honesty bad for business?
My most recent letter to Medstar and St. Charles follows:
Marc E. Charest
256 Sebonac Road
Southampton, NY 11968
April 18, 2011
Mr. Gerry Dickerson Director of Rehab
Medstar Surgical and Breathing
15-40 128th Street
College Point, NY 11356
(and)
Ms. Laura Beck, Director of Outpatient Rehab
St. Charles Hospital
200 Belle Terre Road
Port Jefferson, NY 11777
Re: New wheelchair.
Dear Sir & Madame,
Six months after it’s expected arrival, I finally got my wheelchair at the St. Charles wheelchair clinic on April 11. Upon arriving home, I was shocked to realize this new chair was unusable - it is more than three inches higher than my existing chair. FYI- my current chair, a Permobil, has all the same power functions as the new chair, so a suitable power chair can be built. The new chair also lacks the removable abductor bolsters discussed at my evaluation.
After Pride Manufacturing’s rep Rudy tried lowering my chair Friday April 15, I decided to give it another chance over the weekend. Rudy was only able to lower it about three-quarters of an inch.
The excessive height of the new chair makes it impossible for me to transfer from the toilet to the chair. Sunday morning, while home alone, it took me 15 minutes to get into the wheelchair from the toilet. In the process I pulled a muscle in my lower back. My toilet is two and a half inches higher than a standard toilet already, and it would have to be raised an additional three inches to make transfers safe.
Transferring from my bed to the chair is marginally easier, but I expect that would also be a source of pulled muscles in the future. Raising my bed or toilet enough to match the chair’s height would make them too high for my feet to reach the ground comfortably. That would also make it impossible for me to get dressed or do exercises and physical therapy at my bed.
Compared with all the detailed information collected during my evaluation at the wheelchair clinic, the cursory home evaluation done by Medstar involved measuring door widths only. The person doing the home evaluation had a tape measure. What would have been the difficulty in doing a comprehensive home evaluation?
Both of your corporations failed to consider the elemental issue of seating height. After waiting an incredible ten months, six months past Medstar’s salesperson’s estimate of October 2010, I am now no closer to a useable power chair than I was in June 2010 when this comedy of errors began. How much longer will it take before I get the chair I need? When will someone, anyone, step up and make this right?
Mr. Dickerson- no more emails. I expect you to respond with a phone call or in writing. Please stop hiding behind “policy” and blaming Medstar’s continuing failures on “difficulties with Medicare”.
Ms. Beck- On February 28 I received a call from you promising help. After I wrote another letter and left two messages for you, I have still not heard from you.
One or both of your organizations created a problem that could easily have been avoided. I recommend you confer with each other before responding. In your response, I need to know how you will expeditiously provide me with an adequate wheelchair that finally meets my needs. I am unwilling to waste an untold number of months waiting due to your mistakes.
Sincerely,
Marc Charest
c.c.
US Rep. Timothy Bishop
Ms. Kim Smith, Attorney
Pride Manufacturing
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