April 9, 2024:
Mark: Before you go, do you have time for a question?
Nurse: Certainly!
Mark: I was a patient at [large HMO] NorCal for more than 20 years. They had a different communication protocol than here. I could use the app to text my physician, and always received an answer, from her not the staff, by the end of the day. Often within two hours. This let me ask follow-up questions to test results, discuss plan of care, and so on. Here, I text my physician and receive a pre-written reply from a staff member which perhaps only partially addresses my ask, or misses it entirely. The message is locked — flagged "No reply allowed." So that I'm unable to follow up for clarification. Is this department policy, or a system-wide configuration of the app at [large HMO] SoCal? I find it very frustrating.
Nurse: I understand the frustration. We don't like it either. It's imposed by the Communications Office, not an individual choice.
Doctor: I overheard your conversation. It's necessary to prevent us being overwhelmed with texts. There are patients who'll send fifty in a week. "ChatGPT told me xyz." It's not possible to answer them all.
Mark: I have no doubt there are people like that. I'm not one of them.
Doctor: Have you heard the expression, "One bad apple spoils the barrel"?
Mark: Sure. Have you heard the expression, "I pay for this service and I'm dissatisfied with its quality?"
Doctor: [walks away without comment]