Quick thread/update: It’s now day 8 of my #covid19purgatory saga and I still haven’t heard any results yet. I did, however, have a very constructive call with a representative from Howard County General’s patient relations team. 1/N
She was extremely apologetic about what I’d experienced, and we talked for a good 20 minutes going through the details of everthing that’s happened so far. 2/N #covid19purgatory
She didn’t have any information on my results, but she talked about the procedures that should be in place, and listened to my suggestions on how to avoid this happening to someone else. 2/N #covid19purgatory
Apart from the human errors that’ve taken place in my case - not sending in my complete sample for testing, providing me with incorrect test results - there’s clearly a systemic failure, and hopefully it can be resolved before others have to experience this 3/N #covid19purgatory
The first failure was providing me with a single point of contact for me to check on my results. Everyone keeps passing the buck, like when you lose Internet access and your ISP blames your laptop maker and your laptop maker blames your ISP. 4/N #covid19purgatory
In this particular case, the MD state health dept, the county health dept, and the hospital told me conflicting info as to who I should contact for my results. (Howard Co public health has at least been in regular contact with me, which I appreciate.) 5/N #covid19purgatory
To date, I’ve been told to contact the state health dept, 2 different county health depts, Howard Co General’s ER, their records dept, and my PCP. 6/N #covid19purgatory
There’s no agreed upon point of contact, though someone at Howard County Public Health is now trying to play that role, largely b/c someone there has taken the initiative to help me out. 7/N #covid19purgatory
Meanwhile, there is no #covid19 test tracking system available to me as a patient. Ideally I should’ve received a tracking number to know where my specimen was sent, who’s testing it, how long it’ll take, and the results. 8/N #covid19purgatory
Theoretically it should be possible; when I checked into Howard Co Gen, they gave me access to an online acct for tracking my status, including other test results. But since my #covid19 test had to be done at the state level, it doesn’t seem to apply here. 9/N #covid19purgatory
A proper #covid19 test tracking system could model itself on tracking your results when you submit a dna sample to companies like 23&me, or when you get something shipped from Amazon. Just let us know where the test is, who’s testing it, and update the ETA. 10/N #covid19purgatory
All of this would’ve been so much easier if I’d had access to a tracking number. Even being told “we have no idea when your test result will be ready” would’ve been better than being led on again and again. 11/N #covid19purgatory
Hopefully I’ll have the test results today, but nothing I’ve experienced so far has suggested that’ll actually be the case. I’ll let everyone know as soon as I hear anything. 12/N #covid19purgatory
In the meantime, I hope that talking about this publicly can help move the needle forward, so as #covid19 caseloads increase, there’s a better way for potential patients to have access to the information they so desperately need. END 13/13 #covid19purgatory
