What would you do?

So, I came home and listened to my messages, tgere was a message for a dr. through Stony Brook. It was a woman who needed my sons insurance information for his appointment on Monday. I was confused, I did not remember making an appointment with any dr from Stony Brook. So I call, turns out it is a pediatric oncologist. My heart drops. He is 2. He has not been to the dr in 6 months. Never had blood work done. I was confused. The woman has,all of his info, my name, our number, address, etc. I never made the appointment. She xan not find where the appointment originated. No referral, nothing. We end the convo with it must have been a mistake somewhere. I am a little worried, all his info is out there. My sister is a nurse, she is in charge of patient files and the computers at her hospital. She says this is a huge deal, and against hipa laws. She said I should get to the bottim of it. I am going to xall his old pediatrician tomorrow and his new one that has his info, but hes never been yet. What would you do?

What would you do?

Have you ever seen a doctor from the Stony Brook system? Their systems are connected, so she probably just called the wrong person? I kept getting a call for my son for a doctor in Plainview. When I called back, they confirmed it was for another child with the same name, and they accidentally clicked on the wrong name and called me, and that we were in the system because we had seen another doctor that was connected to them.

Message edited 11/12/2013 8:35:29 PM.

What would you do?

Hes been to the ER. But she had an appointment scheduled for him. It was weird. They had his DOB, our address, my name.

What would you do?

Well if you have been to the ER you are in their system that is accessible by all of their physicians. The appointment could have been for someone with the same last name, etc., and the person making the appointment in the computer clicked on the wrong person.

Re: What would you do?

To me it sounds like a secretary at one of the pediatricians offices sent this SB Dr the wrong patient file. I would definitely call both peds and inform them about this, bc there may be a patient with a similar name as your DS who really is supposed to have an appointment there.

As long as you get to the bottom of it, I don't think any harm was done. I worked for a pediatric ENT and we were always receiving patient files via fax...and if the patient never showed, we'd just shred the file. But I would definitely want to get to the bottom of it.

Can you call the person you spoke to at SB and ask her where she got all of DSs info? Or if his files came from a certain referring Dr. She should have that info. If a ped sent her a fax, it would most likely be on letterhead.

Re: What would you do?

What would you do?

I would guess it's another child with the same name and like a pp said, if you've been in the system they may have just clicked on his name by accident. Something similar happened to DH once. He kept making appointments with a specialist and then somehow they kept being cancelled. Turned out they were calling another person with the same name who was of course cancelling them since they hand't made them to begin with. It happened at least twice before the office finally figured out the issue.

Re: What would you do?

I would call her back and try to get answers. I know you said you asked already but ask again. If you don't get any answers, I'd ask for a supervisor. If the supervisor can't help you then I would reach out to the institutions health information unit (every hospital calls it something else)
and let them start an investigation. Privacy Laws are HUGE and this needs to be addressed...both on your end and for others in the future.

I know pp said it could be a simple error and that may be the case but it shouldn't happen at all.

Re: What would you do?

When you went to the ER, or your child was born at the hospital (whichever was your first visit), you generated a medical record number. All your personal info (address, insurance, name, DOB) is stored under that number.

Anyone could have made an appointment for another kid with a similar # (off by 1). The secretary looks up the kid by number... And has all your entered information. It's super common and small mistakes like this are why before any procedure a dr will check your name, medical record number, and date of birth (3 identifiers).

While its creepy to get that call, it's just a typo and happens often.

Re: What would you do?