Yesterday North Country Healthcare attorney Leslie McLean emailed about discussing the issues next week as we stayed the litigation for two months to try to resolve the litigation against North Country.
I haven’t had much time to research North Country, but they’re a nonprofit, and looking at their website, they SHOULD care to do so much better.
https://northcountryhealthcare.org/
Here is my 6/9/22 reply:
Hello Leslie,
Been thinking about North Country a lot lately, as I just ordered labs again, paid for by me.
The lack of medical care for INSURED people is just horrific. I could cry every time I talk to one of my neighbors. I’m afraid to visit him anymore because he’ll talk LITERALLY for hours about his medical troubles, how nobody cares, how he has NO diagnosis, 75 years old and likely not going to be around much longer: NOBODY CARES!
KRMC does an outstanding job of utilizing their many expensive machines, this scan and that scan, they get big bucks from insurance, but they don’t seem to care about making people well. Too many are left to die.
Senior citizens on limited income have to make MULTIPLE 120-mile round trips just to get their prescriptions because the doctors do NOT care and make so many mistakes.
As I communicated with North Country’s Amy Langord, I noticed that they have a “real” email system with REPLIES. But, they do NOT plan on upgrading their PATIENT communications.
Leslie, please have a look at the North Country messages regarding my blood test, Covid test, etc. Just reading through those messages aggravated me so much, I haven’t even looked at the other records yet.
Below is the screenshot of the patient portal.
I’ll put everything online, highlight and explain in more detail, but I have to redact my personal info first and it’s been nightmarish for me the last 2 months with so many computer / software problems. And I’m suffering the exact same abuse by the companies I have to deal with. Nobody actually solved any of my problems, but they wore me out, kept me busy — delete the account, recreate the settings, bla bla bla until I gave up, did the research and fixed it myself. Bought a new drive, reinstalled everything, and bought new software … It’s been so hellish, my eyes changed, and all of a sudden I can no longer read without reading glasses.
I can’t change how these businesses operate, but North Country is a non-profit, our lives depend on them and they MUST improve.
1) North Country needs to immediately upgrade its patient communications.
Much easier and more efficient than the “email chain” is HELP DESK software with a ticket system. There is so much software available!
I recently had to take my blind and deaf dog to the vet for the first time in 12 years and he got better care than I do at the LOW-COST place in Kingman. It was a breeze scheduling my appointment online! https://humanesocietymc.com/book-appointment/ They do about 70 surgeries every day and hundreds of exams / shots. It’s a madhouse, but they’re well-staffed and super nice people. Highly organized. Not at all stressed out like the poor souls working at North Country.
North Country needs to move into the 21 century NOW.
2) The extraordinary incompetence at North Country.
On 1/2/22 I requested new blood tests (labs).
When I asked for the number at my insurance because they were not approving my labs, they gave me the number for AHCCCS, as if it had ANYTHING to do with that! I hoped for the contact info for my insurance, Health Choice, and NOT the general number on my card, but for the department that actually handles the approvals. Are these people dimwitted?
Or are they DELIBERATELY frustrating and stressing me?
Did I miss the message about my labs?
Did Health Choice NEVER approve my labs?
I should have been able to make an appointment for a Covid test the next day, it LITERALLY takes less than a minute.
WHY insist that I call them at 7 am to set up an appointment?
To give me another fantastic opportunity to have an accident or trip and break a hip because I only slept 2 or 3 hours because I had to get up so early?
Are they deliberately DISCOURAGING sick people from getting medical care?
This is just so incredibly frustrating. I’m so lucky I can afford to pay for labs, many of my neighbors can’t.
Looking at the patient portal screenshot, seeing my street and city MISSPELLED — unreal.
3) North Country needs to create a full-time position to analyze and improve its operations.
Presumably, Medicare and AHCCCS pay just enough for substandard minimal services. So, North Country needs to provide a handout to every patient when they check in and wait and have time to READ why they don’t get the healthcare they deserve and what they can do about it.
The handout lists our state and federal representatives’ phone numbers and emails so we can all LOBBY for MORE MONEY to healthcare providers, especially for community clinics like North Country. I’m sure you are aware that doctors don’t want to go into general family practice because it doesn’t pay.
Our Mohave County board of supervisors allocated over $3 million for a new animal shelter:
https://mohavedailynews.com/news/138098/supervisors-ok-31m-for-new-animal-shelter/
$3 million isn’t much when it comes to healthcare and old people aren’t cute like puppies, but the humans here deserve so much better than the ABUSE they suffer when they are sick and/or age.
We had a wonderful clinic in Meadview for a few years, but they couldn’t make it. It was a full-time job just getting insurance to pay what little they paid.
North Country needs to LOBBY, contact our reps and COMMUNICATE the results to their patients. They need to write letters to the editor at the Kingman Miner and other media about our dire healthcare situation and the substandard care we receive. They need to publicize the TRUTH on social media.
4) Alzheimer’s and Dementia
I had several North Country appointments due to concerns about having Alzheimer’s as I had memory problems and the “medical care” I got ought to be considered criminal neglect. They told me to do crossword puzzles. North Country did NOT do the genetic testing for the Alzheimer’s gene. Did NOT refer me to a specialist.
They told me that I didn’t have Alzheimer’s because I passed the idiot’s test.
Person, woman, man, camera, TV. I’ll probably remember “genius” Trump’s 5 words for the rest of my life.
Why didn’t they refer me to a SPECIALIST?
Why didn’t they tell me about https://brainhq.com? Why don’t they negotiate a group deal for their patients? At least they should recommend it to EVERYBODY over 40!
Alzheimer’s actually starts several DECADES prior to symptoms.
Relying on the idiot’s test for a patient with memory issues is equivalent to limiting diagnostics for a patient complaining of organ pain / problems to a visual exam for tumors.
It’s MALPRACTICE.
So I just purchased an extra access pass for the Reversing Alzheimer’s docuseries:
https://reversealzheimers.drsummits.com/
Is there anybody at North Country who’d like to LEARN?
FREE ACCESS! But it does take TIME to watch these interviews and READ the studies.
If North Country doesn’t get enough insurance money to provide proper healthcare, they need to ADMIT to it. Publicly, and they need to inform every patient.
As KRMC is incredibly hostile and ignored all attempts to discuss my issues with them, I’m planning on attending their board meeting and personally handing the board members my complaint and DEMAND answers from the board. They seem to be mostly local business people or maybe aspiring politicians and I wonder whether they know what’s going on in that hospital. I intend to find out.
Presumably, North Country also has a board, but I haven’t even had time to look into that yet.
2.5 years after I suffered stress-induced brain damage and despite this lawsuit I still don’t get ANY healthcare, not even a blood panel in well over a year, a referral to a specialist, or a Covid test, or a tetanus shot. NADA.
WHY???????
Many studies show that proper healthcare reduces the overall healthcare cost. PREVENTING Alzheimer’s and Dementia can easily save hundreds of thousands in nursing home costs.
Arizona established the Community Paramedicine program, funded by insurers because better healthcare LOWERS COSTS.
https://directorsblog.health.azdhs.gov/whats-community-paramedicine/
When it comes to dementia, the cost savings through prevention are astronomical.
Sorry for the long email, it got so long, it became my first post about North Country at my yet to be properly designed website, been too busy.
These important and complicated issues must be addressed. Preferably without going through VERY EXPENSIVE discovery and depositions.
I hope we can make it happen!
Christine
