Lifetime Ban: A True Story

Saturday, March 21, 2009:URGENT CALL TO ACTION: PATIENT SAFETY ALERT NOW!

This was an online project on the quality of healthcare that was published on March 21, 2009:

"and right now this is the best I can do... recognize that this article is still very much a work a progress... but I need the your help and support personally, professionally. For our fellow brothers and sisters; here and across the world; for those who are unable to speak for themselves; for those without access to information or without the Internet; please join in my campaign: for I am merely a foot soldier, an army of ONE! Thanks to all you crazy those tweeters out there (and we all know who you are!) for helping me survive this difficult crisis... With love, edd"

Because I am finding this content being removed from the internet... this is STILL the best I can do.... I am hitting publish so I can get it online, as a social media experiment to see how long it will be allowed to stay there. Please note that I received no payment for this publication or any of the prior publication that has since been removed. Please contact me if possible if you happen to be some kind of magical hacker that can figure track back to the date of removal, IP address or source. I believe this is something everyone should know before walking into a for-profit Hospital in the United States of America.

If you wish to reference this article academically, please let me know.... if you plan to revisit it at a later date, I suggest you copy the content into a text document since not only was it removed; but it was removed without any notification, justification, or made available to me in its original form.

"Twatever..." I was contacted by regional administrator at my insurance company (not my region of course) that my case was under review two weeks after filing a complaint with the state. I have yet to hear anything about the status regarding the number of professional, ethical and legal violations described below.

Previous complaints regarding HIPPA violations, inaccurate billing and errors in claims data have been ignored. I was, at one pint told "Thank you for letting us know that 150,000 people may lose their TennCare this week.... and thanks to your inquiry, we are developing a protocol should there be any further inquiries regarding The Daniels Class of TennCare Recipients. 130,000 people in the state of Tennessee who are slated to be cut from TennCare starting immediately. When the state received concrete evidence from an attorney who accidentally came across some of private protected personal information, the legal department sent an email an appointed member of the Governor Phil Bredesen’s Cabinet who then forwarded the information to the legal department.

At that point it was suggested to me via email that I "may wish to contact federal authorities to report the HIPPA violations since they tend to take these things more seriously." It would have been nice had they provided a number, email, or direct contact so I wouldn't have to spend countless hours on hold with an automated system in Washington only to find out they were unable to release any information (ironically, due to HIPPA laws) so I am left wondering if there will ever be a time for justice in America for the average (non-litigious) person who just wants accountability, culpability and systemic change.

Regardless of whether I contact federal authorities, an attorney or an advocacy organization.... does that make the appropriate state agency, the insurance company, the individual medical providers or hospital administrators any less culpable? I think not, however, it is nearly impossible for a person in my circumstances (financially, physically, and personally) to find justice and accountability. Please take action. Please do not let this happen to anyone in America or any other place in the world.

Yes, I do have a mental illness. To that I will concede. However, I also have a medical condition that makes it difficult for me to use certain types of electronic devices such as the one I am using right now. I have OCd and try NOT to let anything go without multiple spell-checks, grammar checks, and punctuation references, but right now, I gotta go.

I am human and I am not infallible, so please do not contact me to complain about such things, I have much bigger problems to deal with. So if you see an occasional error, incorrect spelling typo, formatting flukes or whatever.... please don't be petty and ridiculous like the [person who actually thought it was a good idea to write me a letter to tell me that I spelled Obsessive wrong in an article I wrote about OCd. I guarantee at some point I will not only take notice of my own errors, but spend countless hours worrying about how I could be so careless, and stupid for letting this go out without double, triple, and compulsively checking it for errors. Right now I don't have time. Maybe you do.


So if you plan use this as an assessment of my character, intelligence, or technical skills-- you are probably not someone I want to hear from anyway. If you are someone who cares about the content... please feel free to edit, format, fix, or whatever, just please let me know, and send me the corrected content ;-)

I would not mind having this republished-- but if you are making money off of my experience, please have enough courtesy to recognize that I am not. It would be nice to know that my "work" has a value greater than the $10.52 I have received for all of the writing I have done for myself and others throughout the tears. (That was a typo-- meant to be "years" but one that I do not feel compelled to change-- yet for OCD and radical acceptance)

I would love to know that my words and experience have some value to society,

Keep in mind that I do not have the tools, skills, money and a number of other things that when I do not have the tools or I need to help me adjust to the insanity around me. I say that because this kind of treatment anywhere-- is cruel, unusual and insane. Being treated this way year after year after year, there comes a point where a person in my situation has nothing left to lose. I am there. So here goes... PLEASE RETWEET!

***
However, not only does this quality of care compromise my emotional and physical well-being, it doesn't help to be silenced or ignored. "Just because I'm Crazy, it doesn't mean I'm not right!" Since my identity has already compromised, used on false insurance claims, tax documents, and informal communications that I was made aware of by an attorney... I really have nothing left to lose by putting myself out there.

I do not check email at this site, so as an alternative measure, you may be more successful using an alternative such as ed70 (at) columbia (dot) edu

thepowersthatbeat.blogspot.com/2009/03/urgent-call-to-action-patient-safety.html

CLICK TO CALL: http://healthcareforamericanow.org/site/action_center

PATIENT SAFETY ALERT: Alliance for Compliance
ALLIANCE FOR COMPLIANCE: AN URGENT CALL TO ACTION... NOW!
healthcareforamericanow.org/site/action_center

After refusing to sign several documents while seeking treatment at the emergency room on March 7, 2009, I found my self locked up on a 6044 hold at a local hospital in Nashville, Tennessee.

The most critical documents included a complicated consent form (informed consent for treatment) and several others regarding the assignment of benefits, insurance forms, HIPPA compliance, payment responsibility forms, and a few others. state.tn.us/mental/t33/ModelForms.html

When I requested that I be given a few minutes to read and process the legally binding agreements I was being given, they became angry and impatient.

In retrospect, I suppose it really didn't matter what I was signing, since I clearly have a good argument for diminished capacity, especially now that I have had time to reflect on the sick irony of it all.

After all, how could I be asked to sign a document accepting financial responsibility if I was clearly out of my freakin' mind?

And although one could argue diminished capacity, or no fault by reason of mental defect or disease, hind-sight is 20/20, so I assumed that I would be held to that contract much like I was held to the terms of my student loans, my car loan, the non-compete clause from my last employer, or even the Columbia music club I signed up for when I was twelve.... you know the one where they send you 12 CD's for the price of a penny???

Yes, they all held me to the terms of my contract... either by hunting me down and harassing me endlessly over the phone; reporting adversely to the credit bureaus, sending me to collection; and even a few times to court in an attempt to collect a debt from a creditor. They all held me to the terms of my contract, . So i thought I should be cautious before entering into any others...

In fact, I was in Civil Court yesterday for a being sued for a $21 balance on my water bill. Granted it has since been paid in full and the check has been cashed... but now they have added late fees, attorney fees, court costs and a bunch of other things to the complaint, so I with the addition of a late fee of $4.50, so you can expect to see me in Court again next Friday, hopefully with an attorney present if I can find one to represent me against this ridiculous claim.

Keep in mind that it will cost me $12 to park; the fact that balance has been paid in full, and for those of you who have been following along and paying attention, don't forget about the four days I went without hot water.

Add to that the 12-24 hours I spent in constant contact with the police regarding a shooting in the just below mine, clearly I must be hysterical, on drugs, or both to make repeated calls to 862-8600 non-emergency police hotline, and then escalating it by making several calls to 911. Is it any wonder that I am acting just a little bit strange?

Well, to get back to the reason I am writing without reservation today, I currently face eviction and that makes me a bit anxious... because no sooner than I could return home form the Psychiatric Unit and take a hot bath at "my" apartment, the someone showed up from the Sheriff's office to serve me with a warrant (that was written on carbon paper and modified multiple times making it difficult to read or understand what I was being charged with, when I needed to be in court, and what I needed to do to adequately defend myself.

So within hours of being medically cleared and released from a 5-day stay at "Club Head." the Sheriff shows up with eviction papers, and my mother became extremely concerned that I she might lose money if she has to change the flight... well since then she has severed the "family plan contract" and removed me a primary account holder on my cell phone contract, turned off the e-mail and text messaging feature, changed MY password, and has sworn never to speak to me again.

My cell phone number is being held hostage through T-Mobile so I cannot take my number with me to another carrier (even if I had the money or the credit to open an account with another provider, and has promised to cut off my cell service on the last day of the contract, at midnight tonight (March 22, 2009. All this because I wanted to change my flight to Las Vegas to attend her fourth wedding to a man she met less than six months ago... but, I digress... and there I go, talking crazy again...

*RESET*
(...and now back to the original program... )

At the hospital... I refused to sign the admission papers until and unless I was given the opportunity to read the forms, process the information, and make an educated decision about the treatment I was requesting for whatever the hell was wrong with me.

Apparently this was an unreasonable request. By refusing to sign without being given the opportunity to consult with a member of my immediate family who serves both as my medical proxy and healthcare decision maker, and power of attorney, I was escorted by two security guards to the third floor where all of my personal belongings and cell phone were quickly confiscated.

Simply because I refused to sign a blank consent?

state.tn.us/mental/legalCounsel/olc.html

It was my understanding that informed consent is the standard of care for medical treatment in the united States. Furthermore, to be denied the opportunity to consult with my medical decision maker, it seems that they should have done so especially if they were planning to administer medical treatment without my consent.

My medical proxy is clearly identified in my medical records, and even listed on the back of my driver’s license with a "MR / ICE" [Medical Record / In Case of Emergency.]

So, I refused to sign.

Hospital personnel did not pull my primary care records or even attempt to take a medical history report, or locate my next of kin / emergency contact.

I chose this hospital because it is conveniently located on the same medical campus as my primary care provider, radiologist, and has a contract with my insurance company as a participating (and preferred) provider.

tennessee.gov/mental/t33/DMHT_bro.pdf

DMHT: Declaration of Mental Health Treatment:

tennessee.gov/mental/t33/DMHT_bro.pdf

The Tennessee Department of Mental Health & Developmental Disabilities
developed this form based on Tennessee Code Annotated Title 33, Chapter 6, Part 10.

6044: DMHT and the Tennessee Code Annotated Title 33, Chapter 6, Part 10 (HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM AC)

I have multiple cuts, bruises, abrasions all over my body. None of my injuries, including those that occurred while being "medical treatment" at a private, for-profit medical institution, were treated or evaluated during my stay. I was given multiple injections by security personnel after being forced into "compliance" in a private room. I was left unconscious without any emergency call buttons, fire exits, or safety precaution. The security guards removed their Identification Badges when I requested to see them, of course this was before they held me face down, twisted my arms and held them forcefully behind my back while one of them pulled down the leggings I had been wearing and then my underwear.

I had a 4 day supply of medication, (out of pocket) Trazodone was covered. I was released without any medication, just there prescriptions and returned to my apartment, without my car, or any way to get to the pharmacy. The 18 day prescription the doctor gave me cost $243.19. I could only afford a 5 day supply since they hospital staff did not get the medication pre-authorized by my insurance company as promised.

Just before leaving, I asked, just as I had each time I took my meds for the 5 days I spent on the unit if they were able to locate the record for the second injection that I was given while unconscious on the plastic mat. There was no mention of them anywhere in my medical records, even when my primary care physician requested them from the Medical Records Department.

I left with at least 7 puncture wounds from 7 injections (two of which were given by security guards) were not recorded in my medical records. I was not seen by a single physician -- not even an on call physician for over 72 hours -- a small fact which does appear in my medical records, but only if you calculate the time I was "admitted" and notes from the first time I met with a physician three and a half days later. cuts and bruises and abrasions, that were not medically treated or evaluated during my stay.

When I was released 5 days later, I was need prior-authorization for medication, transport to the pharmacy and transportation to a medical appointment scheduled on Wednesday at 10am. Effexor requires prior authorization, and the pharmacy then managed to fill the prescription incorrectly and mislabeled the bottle "take two tablets two times a day for two week, then take two tablets two times a day for two weeks." Once I realized the error, I promptly called the week a copy of my medical records from the psych unit ASAP, and do not feel I should have to pay $2.00/page for a copy. I had to pay $54 in cash for parking, and this is all I can type for right now. M

Maybe I'll write more on this later, maybe not..." edd, March 17th, 2009.

Please join me in an Alliance for Compliance to protect both individual rights, encourage medical compliance, and enhance patient safety, by letting you voice be heard.

PLEASE HELP IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF CARE FOR ALL.
CLICK TO CALL: www.healthcareforamericanow.org/site/action_center

Thank you all,

http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeGFu05xB-8
http://thepowersthatbeat.blogspot.com/