In the course of arranging for Advocate Condell medical lab tests prescribed by a Cook County physician, I encountered generally well intended but overmatched clerical staff. Not the first time.   As a veteran of lab testing, I apparently knew more about Condell's procedures to contact physicians than Condell did.  I could tell how this would end. Though I talked the staff member through how to fill out the notification forms and signed for permission to share the data, I knew it would not work. I wanted two unaffiliated out-of-county physicians to receive faxes (Faxes?, Really?) of the lab work. They didn't get it.  So both doctors  (they were not business partners) suggested I contact Condell again and get Condell to resend the documents. They would not do it. I had to do it. Two doctors in another county, a large hospital, tests in a lab…..and I was the one who needed to make the communication work. There was an air of preposterous silliness to the entire episode.  One set of lab tests made it through and I made sure both doctors could see the blood work.  But gosh. Why does a hospital believe a patient/civilian living 15 miles from the hospital knows how a hospital works if the hospital itself does not seem to know? It's a rhetorical question.   I suggest this is first a test of institutional trinaing. I encountered a willing, pleasant staff member who clearly was up a creek without a paddle. The staff member who gets a patient plugged into the hospital information system must know EVERYTHING about how it works, both theoretically and in practice. They must be facilitators and fixers of all problems.   To place this duty functionally on the shoulders of patients (who often are distracted with their health issues) seems both inefficient and well, dumb.   But it's exactly what large organizations do when they need to refocus their training priorities.    David Rutter 847-445-7684
CND RA/XRY