This post will start out as your generic "stupid healthcare tricks" story, but there' a happy ending, really. So, my scooter is broken. On the bright side, I should have my parts tomorrow morning, and the repair dude said he'd come out tomorrow afternoon or evening, so I should be back in action in time for class on Wednesday. Today being a random holiday, that leaves only one day of classes I need to get to. (I have one class tonight, but it's in a small building that I'd be taking a taxi to anyway, so it's totally crutchable.)
I figured I'd contact student health and see what they could loan me - they've got to at least have manual chairs for when students break their legs and whatnot, yes? Even if they insist you rent your own from elsewhere, I can't imagine they wouldn't have a few that you could take back to your dorm while you're getting a rental. So I went to Urgent Care and asked. "We don't do wheelchair loans." Gee, how'd I guess you were going to say that? It finally came out that their hangup was that I wasn't injured. I pointed out that I had indeed broken my legs on Friday; it's just that my legs are plastic and motorized, rather than squishy and organic, my crutches notwithstanding.
The receptionist at Urgent Care was not that amused, but she did put me in touch with a patient care advocate. I'd never met this woman before, but I realized later that we'd emailed several times during my freshman year. Anyway, she was immediately willing to hunt down a wheelchair. She was apologetic - the only one they had in the inpatient wing was a large hospital wheelchair. Which was fine with me - I hadn't expected anything really nice or day-to-day ish (seriously, the day hospitals start stocking Quickie ultra-lights, I will be pleasantly shocked). She did some looking around, but I guess their wheelchairs have a tendency to walk off. Still, I'll need someone to push me to class anyway, so a self-propellable chair would be a convenience, not a necessity.
But. Here's the part that really impressed me and made me happy. They're going to treat this like any situation where they need a supply for a procedure that's normally covered by student insurance, but the supplies on hand aren't appropriate. They've contacted a local rental company, and I'll be picking up a pediatric-sized chair later this afternoon. Covered by my student insurance, even. How awesome is that? It remains to be seen how self-propelling I'll be able to be, and I'll still need help getting to campus, if not between classes, but either way it'll be much more comfortable.
(Okay, okay, I'm still fantasizing about a basketball wheelchair, because those things are so incredibly fun to ride. But, within the realm of actual reality, this is about as good as it gets.)
I figured I'd contact student health and see what they could loan me - they've got to at least have manual chairs for when students break their legs and whatnot, yes? Even if they insist you rent your own from elsewhere, I can't imagine they wouldn't have a few that you could take back to your dorm while you're getting a rental. So I went to Urgent Care and asked. "We don't do wheelchair loans." Gee, how'd I guess you were going to say that? It finally came out that their hangup was that I wasn't injured. I pointed out that I had indeed broken my legs on Friday; it's just that my legs are plastic and motorized, rather than squishy and organic, my crutches notwithstanding.
The receptionist at Urgent Care was not that amused, but she did put me in touch with a patient care advocate. I'd never met this woman before, but I realized later that we'd emailed several times during my freshman year. Anyway, she was immediately willing to hunt down a wheelchair. She was apologetic - the only one they had in the inpatient wing was a large hospital wheelchair. Which was fine with me - I hadn't expected anything really nice or day-to-day ish (seriously, the day hospitals start stocking Quickie ultra-lights, I will be pleasantly shocked). She did some looking around, but I guess their wheelchairs have a tendency to walk off. Still, I'll need someone to push me to class anyway, so a self-propellable chair would be a convenience, not a necessity.
But. Here's the part that really impressed me and made me happy. They're going to treat this like any situation where they need a supply for a procedure that's normally covered by student insurance, but the supplies on hand aren't appropriate. They've contacted a local rental company, and I'll be picking up a pediatric-sized chair later this afternoon. Covered by my student insurance, even. How awesome is that? It remains to be seen how self-propelling I'll be able to be, and I'll still need help getting to campus, if not between classes, but either way it'll be much more comfortable.
(Okay, okay, I'm still fantasizing about a basketball wheelchair, because those things are so incredibly fun to ride. But, within the realm of actual reality, this is about as good as it gets.)
posted by ismith at 12:05 PM
1 Comments:
Some of those heath care tricks can get pretty nasty though, to say the least - I'm severely disabled myself and doing a series about this on my blog.
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