As a Caregiver I use My Chart. Asking questions, etc. Recently told office the stool softener need's to be cut down because patient's stool is too mushy and it is going into the female front part packed in and it is hard to clean patient. The nurse answers back continue stool softner and she may need an enema. I write back and say I do not understand what you mean by continuing stool softener and may need enema. Then I get a call from the doctor and says I am using the MyChart too much and need to make appointments to come in. I thought OMG here he is taking up for the nurse again. I think whenever I let her know her mistakes he doesn't like it because it is in writing and making the office look bad. She has made several mistakes previously. It is not right that this should happen.
Wake up Nurse and read the info sent in or quit the medical field.
It is NOT intended to use as a replacement for an actual drs visit. In fact, on My MY Chart it makes it pretty clear that problems or questions other than the ones they have "boxes" for will not be addressed and an appt should be made. You can ask a very simple question such as "Which is best for Mrs. X? Miralax or Colace? something VERY simple. But what you are describing requires a dr to check things out. Your client could be breeding some nasty infection.
My PCP is pretty on top of things and tries to 'clear out' his inbox everyday. That has not been my experience with all drs. Some will take up to a week.
IMHO, the nurse was answering your question the way the dr told her to.
If you are really unhappy with this dr and nurse, maybe you need to switch.
She was just at the doctors office. She only takes stool softener to help her not be constipated. But lately it was too much so I told them that she needs to cut back. So instead of understanding what I said by the nurse she says Doctor says to continue Colace and may need an enema. Simply put to them, but the nurse must of been in a hurry which can cause a lot of problems and mistakes in the medical field when a nurse does not pay attention or a doctor.
I told them it was too loose in the brief and going into front female parts and hard to clean. Anyway I stopped and giving only 1 colace per day.
I honestly believe that medical portals could create more hypochondriacs who mis-read reports. I finally got my sig other off the portals because he was a hypochondriac to begin with and the portals were making it so much worse :P
At my Moms AL everything went thru their nurse. She requested orders for stopping meds, adding a med or taking off a med. In my opionion Moms stole softener should be cut back or stopped.
And this is how it should be done. You take your concerns to the RN. She needs an order from the doctors office to change Moms meds. Same for a LTC facility.
Just curious, you are changing Mom? If so, why? She is paying big bucks for her care. Once my Mom was in her AL, I took advantage of them doing the bathing and changing her. Two jobs I didn't care to do if I no longer had to.
She was overlooked and and a few other things happened to her. I noticed she was not breathing very good and videoed it and showed the nurse and told her to tell the doctor. I asked to see any recent labs work they said it was good, but I felt something was wrong and I was right. Her hemoglobin was 8. She looked light she was going in shock and I had told them she looked lke she had a UTI, and dehydrated and that I felt the aspirin had damaged her stomach because she was given multiple meds daily on an empty stomach. I had the nurse call EMS and take my mom to the hospital. Immediately they had to give her a unit of blood and also antibiotics and fluids!
But recently I felt she was on too much Colace and wanted them to just reduce the amount in her chart from 2 to 1 per day or as needed. But they read it wrong and said increase the Colace and may need an enema. I wrote back and told them I didn't understand, because it didn't make since what they sent back to me. It showed it was not read correctly. Anyway I have it under control now. I reduced it and watching her stools.
Thanks for your comments.
But they do get back quickly IF it goes through the portal.
So it’s a doctors preference on how they want to run their practice.
Have you tried to find a geriatric primary? Maybe your mom’s doctor is one. I find a geriatric primary very easy to work with by comparison to the typical internal med doc with a diverse clientele.
Of course I also have HHC which is a great help.
If your mom’s insurance has a nurse hotline you might also find that helpful.