I agree their are flaws in my suggestions, maybe thinking on it for 5 minutes gives me some leeway. Who knows the people in the comments are merciless so maybe not. shrug

Your PCP must have you on some good medication to think that CA or the San Francisco Bay Area (emphasis on Bay Area) are just San Francisco! California also has 3 of the top 10 hospitals: Cedars-Sinai, UCLA, and Stanford. Truly you are ignorant.

People really enjoy their food analogies huh…

The PCP I met with was through a virtual appointment and she is located in Amherst, MA. She is completely remote because that was the way for me to meet with a PCP next day. So no, not Salem hospital.

Enjoy your hotdog at French Laundry!

Yes clearly a mistake to even bring up CA in the initial post! I agree the wait times here are longer than what I have previously experienced.

Awesome this is such great information. Really appreciate the post and will definitely be checking out Atrius. Good to know they are partnered with BI.

Unfortunate to hear about your experience with Tufts since they are such a large medical institution. I’ll keep it in mind.

Thanks!

Sigh... I will give some advice on how to improve the current healthcare infrastructure. This is not all inclusive and just what I am thinking about off the top of my head in 5 minutes. Not even getting paid for this either...

1. Reduce the PCP wait times: PCP is the gateway into the healthcare system in Boston, so this is a no brainer. Virtual appointments are a relic of COVID, and are actually a good thing. I am glad this has been fully integrated into the regular swing of healthcare and I am sure improvements can continue to be made with telehealth to increase capacity. How about PCP clinics? Or days with open walk-in PCP visits? What about incentivizing our future medical practitioners to focus on primary care? How about more investment into supporting the mental and physical health of PCPs? How about flexible appointments like group visits or after hours/weekend visits? Spitball ideas.
2. The administrative burden is heavy: I am calling, waiting, and told to call this number. Then I call again, wait more, and no wait call this number. Boston's healthcare is built on a spiderweb of phone lines that is very inefficient. For every phone, there must be someone to pickup that phone. The entire registration process to get a Medical ID for MGH and BI is done on the phone. Get this online and get it online now. I am sure there are many other administrative duties that can be automated.
3. Lose the unhealthy pride: If you want to improve the system and provide better care, you can't lash out when someone speaks ill of it. This post was born of frustration because the system is flawed, and that is OKAY. There will always and forever be criticisms in every field. Being able to think rationally about the information being presented and distill that down to something useful is the name of the game.

Have a good one nkdeck07.

Weird you’re being so emotional about this. I was duly informed about the incorrect population value and fixed the figure about 12 hours ago. If insult of an incorrect numerical value is your stepping stone to act superior, I suggest therapy.

Yes I am aware of the PCP shortage.

I’ll check it out thanks for the recommendations. Sorry to hear you have the same experiences with the larger hospitals.

About a month ago.

It says no pre-authorization. A prescription is a doctors way of authorizing you to receive something that can’t normally be accessed.

The criticisms lie within the larger body of the post. The title was intentional to draw a large audience. I always expected there to be a large outpouring of prideful individuals unable to look at the post objectively. I’ve said this multiple times now.

Thanks for commenting and good to hear differing perspectives. Seems like this is a larger issue than people want to admit.

Hello! Appreciate the recommendation to One Medical. Do they have connections to the bigger hospitals/specialists? Or do they have their own internal specialists?

The title was created with intent. People respond quicker to titles with bold exclamations. Go look at Twitter, CNN, whatever news source you like and compare. They all do the same.

I did expect these types of responses, but I’m surprised how passionate people are with no regard for the issues with the current healthcare system in Boston. It’s like they’d rather just sweep complaints under the rug and keep preaching they are the “premier” and “best” hospitals. Doesn’t do much good if you can’t even accept that improvements can be made. There are many people who have commented on this post the exact same issues I’ve posted about, so I’m not a one off.

I promise you my PPO plan requires NOTHING from me to schedule with anyone anywhere in the country. If you call the scheduling office for any of the specialty departments they will ask for your referral. Or they will ask for your medical ID and lookup if you have a referral in the system to their department. They will REFUSE to schedule without that referral, regardless of insurance.

This was the case for both Neurology and Endocrinology. Maybe my blanket statement of “specialist” is too broad, but I assume Many many more specialty areas require the same.

My PCP is remote in Amherst, MA, but I would say she was pretty vocal about getting an appointment right away. Maybe she was under the impression that would be sooner than the timeframes quoted.

The risk is a potential prolactinoma - a tumor. I was vocal about this when attempting to schedule, but it was all the same. No urgency, no sympathy. Just the normal quotes timeframes.

Potential brain tumor has nothing on me!

I bet they are the Best in the country though! The best I tell you!!

Nice this is a good reminder. Thanks!

I’m confused, you say it’s not true, but the end of your comment says go see any PCP to get a referral? That would infer that a referral is necessary to see a specialist. Aka I can’t call a specialist department, give my medical ID, insurance info, and schedule an appointment. There must be a referral from a prior doctor to verify my symptoms.

Want to make sure I’m reading what you said correctly?

Awesome appreciate the response. Thank you and all the best!

Yup this is exactly what I am going to do. Thank you for taking the time to respond, I really appreciate. Wishing you all the best as well!

Appreciate the response and 100% I agree the affects of COVID are as prevalent as ever with the healthcare system.

The timing is definitely unfortunate. Hindsight is 20/20, but I would have got on PCP the waitlist as soon as we locked down our apartment had I known!

I think I'll probably get on the waitlist for a PCP at one of the bigger hospitals and for now just work with the remote PCP I have in Amherst, MA for prescription refills, bloodwork, referrals if necessary, etc.

Seems like from what you said, once you are in the system things start to smooth out, but getting in is the battle.

Yes because busy. Thank you for your contributions Particular_Ad_7831.

This exactly what I did and I found a PCP outside of the city. We have only met virtually, but it works for now. Do you happen to know what hospital your wife was able to see the specialist so quickly?

I realize this may also depend on this medical field specialist she was seeing.

Yes I realize the error of comparison and have since added the correct information of 5 million people. Not sure why the post doesn't update, but it looks updated from my end.

Through this post I have realized that these specialist hospitals serve a large portion of the population, but the same can be said for CA. Both UCSF and Stanford are nationally recognized hospitals with high honors in many fields and I can assure you people travel from far away to go there as well.

I have not tried getting a new PCP since 2020 in CA, but I had a surgery in 2021 with 100% elective ACL revision surgery with an orthopedic surgeon. A different surgeon than had performed my previous ACL surgery. in 2019 No crazy wait time, readily available for appointments (2-3 weeks). Again as I commented on another, this may be due to the specialist as orthopedics is likely more fluid than others (Neurology, etc.).

Appreciate your response to specific points. Very concise. Thanks!

Huh okay that's good to know. I figured the specialty would factor in - orthopedics is probably more fluid. Sorry to hear that you had an afib attack. I hope you have recovered and been healthy since!