RANT ALERT: Medical Disinformation & Pure Incompetence
I need a minute, because my blood is absolutely boiling.
Today, I called your company in Dothan on behalf of a patient. This patient is on home oxygen and simply needs additional portable cylinders at her house as a safety precaution in case the power goes out. Pretty standard, life-saving protocol, right?
Of course, because it's Saturday, they're closed and I got transferred to an "after-hours call center." And let me tell you, the "representative" I spoke to is an absolute, tier-one moron.
I explained the exact reason for my call. I gave the patient's name. I gave her date of birth. And what this absolute ditz told me next completely floored me.
With maximum confidence and zero brain cells, she tried to tell me: "The concentrator is giving her the same amount of oxygen as the tank, that's why it's called a concentrator."
I stopped her right there. "Ma'am, I don't like your condescending tone. I know what a concentrator is and how it works. It takes room air, pulls it in, concentrates it, and delivers it via a nasal cannula. The patient is receiving 2 liters per minute @ 21% oxygen."
You'd think she'd back down, right? Nope. This genius doubles down: "No, sir... she is getting the same amount from the concentrator as she would from the tank."
Lady, listen to me very carefully. I have 30 YEARS in EMS.
Let me break down the basic, elementary-school science of the oxygen concentration in room air--the everyday air we all breathe. The atmospheric percentage of oxygen in room air is 21%. The concentration of atmospheric oxygen does not change with a regular home concentrator. Yes, she is getting 2 liters per minute, which is the flow rate. And yes, that will be the same flow rate from the oxygen cylinder. But the oxygen in that medical cylinder is 100%, NOT 21%!
And yet, this medical administrative black hole still tried to tell me that I was wrong and she was right.
It is terrifying that people this profoundly uneducated are handling after-hours medical emergencies for vulnerable patients. If this woman were any dumber, someone would have to remind her to take a breath.
To Rotech in Dothan: fix your outsourced garbage fire of a call center before your staff's lethal incompetence actually costs someone their life. read more