Kaiser Permanente

I recently had a breast MRI which I get once a year. I have a history of Hodgkin Lymphoma. My PCP said I had “normal imaging results”. I went to the radiologist’s report and he stated there is an enhancing mass within the R lateral chest wall and recommended further evaluation with contrasted CT exam of the chest. This is not a slight oversight. 3 months prior to this, I had routine lab work done and was told “everything is normal”. I went to view the actual numbers, etc. and my cholesterol was much higher than what is considered the normal range. Certainly not normal. When I asked about this she told me the results for that test get routed differently. Why say everything is normal if you haven’t seen all of the results? She could have looked at my results, just like I did and seen that everything wasn’t normal. I went through the proper process to file a complaint with Kaiser. I was told they sent me a letter to let me know what they were doing on their end. I never received said letter. I emailed again and was told they’d email me the letter, I never received an email. I was told they would give me the final notice of the outcome of their investigation within 30 days. We are beyond 30 days and I still have no resolution. We’ve been with Kaiser over 20 years and it’s shocking and dangerous how bad their care has gotten. If you are a Kaiser member, DO NOT take your PCP’s word for anything.

Finally, I have a diagnosis after suffering with pain for over a year and numerous visits and messages to my doctor. He told me I had osteoarthritis. He also told me it was gout and prescribed medication which I didn’t take after researching gout symptoms myself. I didn’t have enough symptoms to warrant the strong meds that were prescribed. A physician taking over for my doctor while he was out of the office, responded to one of my pleas for help by taking me off my statin. After not being on the statin, the miserable aches I experienced mostly in the evening have diminished in my calves. However, I still have periodic aches in my shin. My stiffness in mostly my right leg has crippled my walking ability! I can’t get to the bathroom without holding on to furniture and stumbling at night. My husband has to help me out of the car and I must hold on to him for stability when traveling. I use a cane to help me off and on. I have been desperate for a solution. My doctor tells me I must lose weight! I’ve lived a nightmare with my mobility thinking this is the rest of my life with little help. That’s why I finally begged my doctor I need a diagnosis to know what I’m really dealing with. I have asked for an orthopedic referral before during an office visit and I believe in one of my former messages. I was only referred to xray. I hope this message through my experience helps others that may have my same issues!

This app has mostly worked great for me. I like that I can view my test results as soon as they come in without having to wait for someone to call me with them. Also being able to order medication refills to be payed for and sent by mail is a huge time saver. The one suggestion I would make is to improve the reviewing past visits function under my medical record. If you want to view anything earlier then the last 7 or 8 visits you click on the bottom of the screen to load more visits. Let’s say you want to view two consecutive visits from 1 year ago. So once you find the one you want after clicking multiple times to load more visits and you view it then you have to hit the close button. However it then takes you right back to the most recent visit you had and then you have to go through the process all over again of clicking on load more visits till you get to the one you want. Instead of being able to go back to the first one you viewed and then be able to right away click on it you have to click so many more times just to get back to visits you need. There should be a search function by date or even month or year so you don’t have to spend so much time to get to the visit you want nor make it a multi step process to view multiple visits from around the same time. I just spent 10 minutes trying to find one visit from 2016 - it shouldn’t take that long. If this one function were improved I would give it 5 stars.