Unwanted letters from hospital coming in to my parents house

Iwantmoney

I was seen by a doctor some time ago and he reffered me to a hospital. I asked him 3 times to make sure that NOT A SINGLE letter about this will come to my parents house (where i live when not in college) but so that the letters would come to my house over in where i am in college. He said that he will take care of that and i've nothing to worry about. However, this morning guess what happened? My parents received a letter about myself being on a waiting list in the hospital! I have a week off so i was with them at that time, so she just gave me the letter without opening it. But soon there is another letter to come, which will be about the date of my appointment in the hospital and at that time i wont be at their house but i'll be over in my place. When i wont be here my mother will open the letter and probably read it because she'll think its something urgent and i wont be able to read it for a week or two since i'm away most of the time. As you probably realise i do not want them to know anything about my visits to the hospital, appointments or anything at all. But the letter will come here and they will read it, so they will find out about everything and they're going to ask me questions. I can't let that happen since it will only make things worse for me. What do i do for them to not send any letters into my parents house, but so that they would send them to my place instead? The doctor told me that he'll take care of that but obviously he did not since the letter came here. Now i am regretting that i actually decided to seek help since as a result of that my family will find out about everything, just because a doctor couldn't do what i asked him to do. And yes, i'm over 18.

Peregrinus

Contact the hospital directly and ask to have your records changed to show only the address you want letters to go to. Tell them you no longer live at the old address.

As a backup, tell your parents not to open your mail, but to forward it to you, or simply let it wait for your return. You're 18; you shouldn't have your parents reading your mail even if they "think it's something urgent".

Wesser

What address did you supply? If it was your parents address then that just goes in to a big computer and then your name comes to the top of the waiting list it spits out a standard letter.

You have to give a different address if you want the letter to go to that address!!!!

The doctor us dealing with patients and has no control over th e computer which is issuing letters weeks after he saw you.

Iwantmoney

I gave the doctor the address for which i wanted the letters to come, and he said he'll write it all in the letter, for them to send letters to that address instead of my parents one. Do i have to go to the hospital to sort this out before its too late (before they'll send the final letter) or will i be able to sort this out by just calling them on the phone number they provided on the previous letter? Also, another thing is that i actually do in fact still live with my parents when not in college, i only live on my own for college time, so if i'll change the address then they'll have my address for my place (where i live only while in college) even after college..

Peregrinus

Iwantmoney wrote: »

I gave the doctor the address for which i wanted the letters to come, and he said he'll write it all in the letter, for them to send letters to that address instead of my parents one. Do i have to go to the hospital to sort this out before its too late (before they'll send the final letter) or will i be able to sort this out by just calling them on the phone number they provided on the previous letter? Also, another thing is that i actually do in fact still live with my parents when not in college, i only live on my own for college time, so if i'll change the address then they'll have my address for my place (where i live only while in college) even after college..

Well, obviously when you leave college you can change your address again. People do move house, and it defies common sense to think that the system used to send appointment confirmations to patients is designed to be unable to deal with a change of address.

I'd ring the hospital, say that the latest letter has been forwarded to you, explain that you have moved away from that address, and ask what you need to do to get your current address entered into the system. Odds are they'll sort it out for you over the phone there and then; if not, they'll explain
what you have to do to get this corrected.

After your embarrassing case of Harrison's Virulent Crawling Sexual Mange has cleared up and you no longer fear getting correspondence about it, you can if you wish repeat the process in order to put your parents' address back on file.

But the long term solution - or medium term, until you move out permanently to a place of your own - is to educate your parents not to open letters addressed to other people. I appreciate that's not necessarily easy, though.

dave98

If you already got a letter from the hospital, there should be a chart number or MRN (medical reference number on it). Ring the hospital, give that number and they will change the address for you. I have done it before. Then change it back when your finished with the hospital!
Best of luck with the doctors!

misstearheus

You need to speak to the Administration Dept. in the Hospital to change your Address, the Doctor might say they'll look after it but I reckon that's partially to placate you but also their interests most-likely largely lie in seeing Patients rather than sorting out Admin. stuff and Forms. If you get on to the Admin. Section yourself they'll do it straightaway for you.