RED LAKE -- The Red Lake Margaret Cochenour Memorial Hospital sent out a Facebook post on Sept. 2 asking the public to stop contacting diagnostic technologists for laboratory results outside the proper channels.
In the post, the hospital wrote technologists have been receiving personal messages after hours from patients and their family members, requesting services or that they respond to calls, even though they are not on standby.
The post from the hospital stated that staff are getting texts asking for information regarding test results and that they have been instructed not to respond to any of these communications, as the technologists “work very hard and deserve their protected time off.”
The president and CEO of the hospital, Sue LeBeau, said the hospital discovered the issued after a routine check-in with staff to see what supports they needed.
“One of the challenges they faced is being asked about lab or diagnostic results when they’re in the community on their own time,” she said. “Maybe at the grocery store and so forth, and being caught by surprise by patients who want information at a time that may not be appropriate for them to be asking.”
It’s good people want to follow up on their results, said LeBeau, adding it’s just a matter of when and where. “I want them to understand that their results matter to us and that we do want to be able to provide those to them,” she said.
LeBeau said the best option is to call their primary care provider to be able to get those results, as there is often important information about treatment or a prognosis that go with the tests. “It’s not that we don’t want to, or we want to be difficult, but if somebody’s asked about their results say in the community, the technologist doesn’t necessarily have the information or the whole picture at hand… In some cases, they should not be releasing those results at all.”
This is the first time the hospital has sent out a message like this via Facebook.
