The joys of American healthcare: tracking down test results

[MountainLaurel]

Disclaimer: I'm not looking for medical advice.

I was just wondering how long you wait for a physician's office to call with your test results before you start bugging them about it. I've had a few standard tests lately to rule out various serious causes for some weird lady bleeding. This is at a fairly large medical center where the tests are performed in the same facility as my doctor, and they use the same electronic record system. With the last one, I waited a week and a couple days before calling about it. I got a result then, and then the doctor's nurse called me 2 days later (not sure if she realized that I'd already called). For this test, it's been a week and I'm trying to decide whether to call.

With my last doc, at a small group practice, I knew they would call within a couple days for anything that couldn't be determined at the time.

This has me wondering -- what has been others' experiences with trying to get test results. Do you know that your practitioner will contact you in a reasonable time frame? Do you know that you'll have to do the calling, perhaps several different ones, to track them down? Who does the information come from? To talk to doctor about them, do you have to make an appointment?

[truedelphi]

1. Yeah, it might make sense to schedule an appointment,

Especially given that so far you haven't gotten the results. Doctor scheduled visit should ensure that you have the results (Good idea to tell the scheduler about not getting the results, and that the point of the visit is to know the results and discuss them.)

And if any of the tests are borderline, you might want to have a serious discussion about that as well.

[MountainLaurel]

5. Would probably be 3 weeks for an appointment

As a non-OB patient, I seem to be "squeezed in" between the pregnant folks as it is, so I likely wouldn't get an appointment for at least another 10 days (and there was no expectation that the test would be anything other than negative based on the others, so I'm not much of a priority; it's just a step they have to check off before telling me they have no idea why my periods are doing weird things). I'm on vacation then, so it would be another week before I could come in.

I'll call midday Monday after the morning rush is over.

[Warpy]

2. They get the results within hours for simple tests

and usually within a couple of days for more exotic ones. They call you if there is something very abnormal and you have to be seen at once.

It might be nice to call in. If the tests were normal, they should be able to tell you that much. If they weren't normal, they should tell you to schedule an appointment to discuss them.

If they were very abnormal and they didn't contact you, then you need to consider going elsewhere. Really.

[virgogal]

3. I have been lucky. I had some tests done for some mysterious woman's

symptoms seversl years ago,heard from the MD herself within 3 days,and was in surgery 5 days later,

[Jane Austin]

4. I just went through the same thing.

Doc suspected a UTI based on a routine urinalysis.

Asked me to come in for another test.

I went in to the large clinic after 5 pm, so my results were called to me at my office over the weekend by the "Night Clinic". (It's the same lab, in the same location just inside the door of the large clinic.)

I didn't get the message during the weekend so I called back on Monday. No one called me back.

Waited a day, then called again, only to be told my Doc and his nurse were out of the office "for a couple of days."

I got testy, so the nice receptionist went looking for someone to call me back. Said they would as soon as they got my chart.

Nothing.

Waited a day and went in to the clinic in person and told them I was staying there until someone gave me my results.

The lab called in a supervisor who found my results as well as a doc to prescribe and a nurse to talk to me.

Turns out I do have a UTI, and needed treatment.

WTF? When my mother was my age, she was in terrible shape from a UTI that got up into her kidney. My father finally realized how sick she was and got her to the hospital.

Meanwhile, I finally got to see an outside GI doctor for other problems I am having.

His nurse called over to the clinic for some lab tests I'd had in May. On the first try, no one had ever heard of me! Her second call got the results, but really, WTF?

How many people have time to play phone tag with their clinic for a week? How many have time to go park themselves at the office and make themselves a nuisance until someone finally responds.

I also think it's stupid for a business to cause its employees to have to spend endless time on the phone trying to track down stuff. Time is money, doncha know?

I don't really want to go doctor shopping at my age, but good grief.

(Edited for typo.)

[hedgehog]

6. Funny you should ask - my daughter just went for a routine physical and

had some blood work drawn. She asked when she should know the results. I told her to give it two business days, then CALL THE OFFICE! Our doctor has a well run office and generally they will call to say everything is fine. But all it takes is for someone to be interrupted while looking over a report, and something can be missed.

You should know what tests were done and what the results mean. This is easy enough to track down on the internet these days at various reputable medical sites. Don't ask if the results were OK, ask what the numbers were. The others are professionals and try to do a good job, but no one has a personal interest in getting this right like you do!


On edit: this is why we need to go to an electronic record keeping system. I've been trying to get a simple question answered myself, but the specialist has 4 offices and my file got sent to a different office, so I've been calling around trying to track my file. It doesn't help that those offices have different hours and different closing days.