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  • 2 days ago
Part 9

Continuing my May 17, 2023 phone call with Christ Health CEO Dr. Robert Record MD re: 2019 visit with their Nurse Practitioner Anna Musgraves & Dr. Terry Daniel Smith MD. Ironically, Record asked several times about subsequent medical visits which I was reluctant to share. I offered to send him a CT scan taken days prior to my Christ Health visits which showed the broken skull bone head trauma-based injury I took to his doctors and nurses to have treated. Record then claimed he was a "family doctor" and could not interpret CT scans. Sources on the internet, however, show one of his specialties is "Emergency Medicine". He is also the CEO of a medical practice and I believe he could easily find someone to confirm my injuries in the CT scan. Record offered to have one of his team take a look at my issues and "find a way forward". 2 weeks following this call I have not been contacted by Christ Health Center.

I was curiously given paperwork to pursue 3 financial assistance avenues for a urgently needed MRI of my neck and head (SEE IMAGES). I immediately applied for these (Ascension Saint Vincent's Access To Care / UAB Hospital / Cooper Green Hospital) only to find out I did not qualify. Musgraves told me to call her at the Woodlawn clinic to get the MRI referral once I had secured it.

2 days later I found American Health Imaging in Birmingham who agreed to do the MRI for $500 cash and a referral. After paying I had AHI call Christ Health Woodlawn where the receptionist was placed on hold 15 minutes before someone at Christ Health hung up the phone. I did not get the promised referral. AHI agreed to do the MRI without the referral. Radiologist Angus Baird MD (of Birmingham Radiological Group) did not acknowledge the several inch diameter injury between my skull and cervical column of my neck that appeared in the exact area where I complained of pain but it can be clearly seen (surrounded by infection) in those MRI images (and correlates to broken bone in the underside of my skulll that can be seen in a CT scan of my head and neck from an Ascension ER visit weeks earlier).

Dr. Record's response was less than adequate in my opinion. I spent several days chasing my tail, tangled up in Christ Health Center's web of denials and service offerings that led nowhere while I was carrying an injury that I almost died from.

Regarding visits I had at community health clinic The Christ Health Center (Birmingham, Alabama). I was referred here by Saint Vincent's East Hospital (Ascension) after a 2018 X-Ray (the injury was overlooked by reading radiologist Dr. Julian Patrick Druhan MD (also a member of Birmingham Radiological Group)) I had done was said to be "normal". Doctors Terry Daniel Smith ("T. Daniel Smith") did the encounter with me in May, 2019. Attempts to obtain a referral for an MRI to reveal the injury (I needed one that day, immediately) were not facilitated and he wanted to go a different route with the treatment.
Transcript
00:00I'm speaking to Robert Record, CEO in the state of Alabama, licensed medical doctor for Christ Health Center. Is that
00:07correct?
00:08Sir, yeah, this is Robert Record. How can I help you? It sounds like you're upset. I would love to
00:13be of great help to you. I know we've got you for you. What can I do for you? It's
00:17been four years.
00:18Oh, yes. It's been four years. I've been trying to get that issue resolved for four years, actually. I saw
00:25Dr. Terry Daniel Smith, MD, and he was at the Chalkville, Old Springville Road Christ Health Center.
00:34My issue with my Christ Health visit, 2019, I believe I received no measurable level of service in my visit.
00:43And I had two visits, okay? The one with the doctor, Terry Daniel Smith, and that visit was $109. I
00:52had a visit with nurse, NP, and Musgraves, $107.
00:59Okay. I was just trying to figure out the course of your medicine, your medical history there.
01:04Yeah, if you want to see some of those, I'll send you that CT scan, and you can see exactly
01:10what my condition was. Broke the underside of my skull. I had CSF fluid leak out of my skull. Almost
01:17died from the injury.
01:19I'm so sorry. I wish that I knew how to look at CT scans. I'm a family doctor, so interpreting
01:25CT scans is not in my...
01:28I don't have that skill. I am pretty much my entire team. We're completely dependent on what the radiologist reads
01:34and tells us. We're not able to look at those films.
01:38Okay. You're the CEO of a company, and you can make stuff happen to correct this thing, and I would
01:45like to see what you can come up with.
01:46Okay. What I would like to do is get one of our team who's fantastic at hearing patients' complaints and
01:54problems, and I'm not saying complaint as in it's bad.
01:57You've been through something terrible, who's very good at figuring out ways forward, and get someone on our team who
02:03does that for us to call you and help us figure out what forward looks like.
02:08Would that work for you, sir?
02:09Oh, okay. When will I get that call? Because, yeah, there's an issue. I don't play phone tag games, all
02:16right?
02:17And 12 calls to get in touch with you, that's way too many. I need to know a time of
02:22day. That's professional.
02:24Well, I'll have to get with them because they'll have to look at their calendar. I can't say their calendar.
02:28This is my first time calling. In your case, you're saying it took 12 calls to get in touch with
02:33me.
02:34The moment I got your call, I called you twice that day.
02:37I called you last week. You didn't call me that day?
02:41Last week. I called you as soon as the message got to me.
02:44I got records that show otherwise, sir.
02:48Yeah, I found many of the answers that Dr. and CEO Robert Record gave me during our conversation.
02:56On May 17th, some of these were absolutely appalling, and many fell short of what I think even a nurse
03:06or doctor employed for a medical practice would offer,
03:11let alone a CEO who has many doctors and nurses under his supervision, ultimately.
03:19Yeah, you can hear it in his answers.
03:21Okay, he talks about others, right? So others bear the responsibility, and yeah, you can hear he makes a lot
03:30of excuses.
03:31He mentions other radiologists, okay?
03:35Well, my belief is when a patient goes to a refer-ee doctor, it's the job of that doctor, the
03:44subsequent one,
03:45from the original doctor or nurse who made the referral.
03:49The next doctor has got to represent, be an advocate, and go to bat for that medical patient, all right?
03:59If there are issues that arise about the incorrect or erroneous diagnosis that came from the referring doctor or nurse
04:12visit,
04:12the subsequent doctor has got to represent the patient, and go back and try to get that corrected, and that's
04:19a proper service.
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