A person who has written to me included their "brushoff" letter from the hospital that destroyed her life as she knew it. She correctly wrote a letter of complaint to the hospital and here is an excerpt from the brush-off letter she received in return.
Quoting; "Please be advised that your concerns regarding the above referenced account were reviewed by the facility. The above account was for a scheduled surgery for which you signed the consent form. Our records indicate that your treatment and care were appropriate. I would like to apologize if your expectations were not met at our facility."
This is the kind of "kiss off" letter you can expect from the medical center. They "reviewed" the concerns of this patient. Really? It sure doesn't sound like it! Nowhere in this "screw you, pay up" missive is a single concern listed. What concerns were reviewed? Just like the phony "informed consent" this phony "review" doesn't even bother to address the concerns by name. This is obviously a form letter, probably available on-line, with a discount for buying in bulk. (I had to add this later; "the facility" cannot review anything. "The facility" is an inanimate object... I'm just sayin'! So who, living person, employee, fellow, doctor, nurse, secretary, lawyer, janitor etc "reviewed" the concerns?)
The next sentence is another screw you! "The above account was for a scheduled surgery for which you signed the consent form." I happen to know the rest of this story, and this patient did NOT sign a consent for anything like what happened. The true story is that her MOTHER was conned into signing a consent after this ADULT patient had refused. The consent that her MOTHER signed wasn't even for what happened! Unfortunately for this patient, the anesthesia provider used Versed in order to facilitate this horror show. They deliberately injected her with Versed before trying to get her to sign off on way more surgery than she had originally allowed. Now we have the hospital snidely saying "YOU signed the consent form." No she didn't. She refused to sign it, because she didn't agree! That is her right by LAW!
The lesson to learn from this is that Versed will be used to incapacitate you if you don't agree to the plan of action. They will do this without consent. They will have whomever your companion is sign a document once they give you Versed. Or they will claim that you finally DID give consent by "not objecting" once they isolate the patient in the OR. (My story) So, what did this hospital investigate, if they never even looked at the consent forms? They NEVER EVEN LOOKED! They investigated NOTHING!
"Our records indicate that your treatment and care were appropriate." What records do they refer to? Appropriate to whom and for whom? Obviously not this patient! My contention is that this generic form is purposefully vague, and usable in ANY AND ALL situations with a patient who has been harmed. Can YOU hazard a guess as to what this letter is referring to?
The last "up yours" in this letter is this "I would like to apologise if your expectations were not met at our facility." What expectations? The expectation that this patient would be treated with respect and dignity? The expectation that federal patient rights LAWS would be obeyed at this "facility?" Or maybe the expectation that this patient wouldn't be permanently HARMED by medical care?
Words mean something. I want to point out that the sentence directly above once again resorts to pointing the finger of blame at the hapless patient. Look at the "YOUR expectations" phrase. What it really means is that the patients expectations were unreasonable. They are going to apologise for "YOUR expectations" not being met. You can't apologise for somebody else's "expectations" now can you?
If my treatment center had actually sent me a letter like they claimed, I would bet money that it would contain this exact verbiage.
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