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What is the public's right to obtain the business email addresses for certain medical professionals? 

If I look at a web site, phone numbers are posted. But I need email address in order to report  our recent experiences at the hospital. I have written a letter but don't want to send it by post,  believing email gets directly to the people.

The hospital is Southern Ocean County Medical Center in Manahawken. It recently was taken into the Meridan system.

I think our experience would help others needing hospilation. We also want to give the hospital and Mecicare a heads up in first hand experience.

I would write a letter to the head (President? CEO?) of the hospital and send it via postal mail.  I think that is likely to get the most attention.

Sometimes what I do is look at the news/media section of a site, the press releases, and there you will see how an organization's emails are structured. In this case, appears that emails are first initial then last name @ meridianhealth.com.

So if you want to reach Jane Doe, email would be: jdoe@meridianhealth.com

Doesn't always work, but worth a try. I would add the COO to the list of recipients. But agree, if this doesn't work, mail a letter.

Do you have the names of the people you are trying to reach?  Can you find any email address at the hospital?  Take a few guesses with innocent questions about generic stuff just to see if you can get a response and thus confirmation of correct domain. 

I know here, we have the hospital's website which gives us contact details for certain departments within the various campuses. That includes email. For feedback purposes, we also have Patient Liaison, Public Relations, Patient Advocates and Social Work departments - all separate departments, plus Community Engagement which includes the Consumer Advisory Group which takes  direct (often anonymous) feedback, because we work with hospital specialty committees. Details are on the hospital website but it's confusingly presented (perhaps on purpose).

(I'm currently representing two families and an independent Advocate to the GCUH via the CAG, plus presenting the case of a group of family doctors who feel the after-hours arrangements imposed on them by the health service are a disservice to their patients.)

Whatever you choose to do, I'd suggest send a copy to the CEO as well as the dr involved. Always gets action, faster. 

Depending on what you are wanting to report, there is also an ombudsman for many hospitals.

mtierney said:

What is the public's right to obtain the business email addresses for certain medical professionals? 

Call Mr. Coyle tomorrow,  and ask his administrative assistant for the email addresses. 

If this request is denied, pose the question above to the individual -  and report the response to us here, please.

Assuming you have the name(s) of the hospital staff you want to reach by email, I would suggest calling the hospital's general information number and asking for the contact information you need.  Tell the person that you need to send this person(s) written information regarding your husband's care as quickly as possible and would like the email address (of each) so you can do so.  Chances are they will either give you the information immediately over the phone or take down your email address and have the person(s) office contact you directly.  

Regarding informing Medicare, they want your feedback.  You should be able to provide this directly on their website.  

In my experience, both the hospital and Medicare sent us questionnaires asking for my  husband's hospital care experience a short while after each discharge.  Unfortunately, he was physically unable to respond to them.

thanks all, after two visiting nurses come tomorrow morning and I meet the new day home health care aide who is coming tomorrow afternoon, I will try to clear the decks and concentrate on getting those email addresses!

I will report on how it goes.'

Since you are beginning visiting nurse and home health care, I recommend you have at least one other person with you to take notes as they introduce their service and what is expected of you.

My experience with visiting nurse was that all were excellent in their care but some were awful in explaining what needed to be done. Don't let them leave until you are comfortable with what is happening. Video record the visit if possible.

Hope you and yours are doing ok and heal quickly.

Jasmo said:

Hope you and yours are doing ok and heal quickly.

This. I have been thinking about you and your husband a lot lately...

I believe it is still not allowed to send medical advice over email. For this and other reasons, health care people hesitate to give out addresses. Even when a patient agrees, they may send an email asking a question without realizing that a response would be medical advice.

I'm not saying you shouldn't use email. Use it if it works well for everyone involved. But understand it may not.

Sometimes email can be the most effective means of communicating with a medical provider. When Bernie was having trouble maintaining his sugar levels,  I was able to email his blood sugar level readings and get feed back by email as to how to adjust his insulin dosage.  

Why don't you just call the person's office and ask for the email address?

Joan, I'm glad it can work. Maybe that rule is rescinded, or maybe Bernie's doctors broke it, but either way, it's good.

if you can find any email address for the hospital, just add the names in front..try various configurations such as first.last@hospital.com  or firstlast@hospital.com  or first initial/last time, etc.

but don't expect anything...evidence doesn't matter without an actual lawsuit...they just rationalize abuse...and say you are lying..the only way to get justice is with a lawyer...and unless it is worth a lot of money...you need tens of thousands to pay the lawyer.

in my experience, the patient advocate/ombudsman is a joke....reporting to medicare is a joke..i had a doc bill for a service that I would not have gone to her for at a time I couldn't have possibly been there...provided receipts to medicare and they took her falsified records over my receipts and other records that prove I could not have been there.
yes, email can be used for medical purposes, the sites the provider uses must be secure and there may be limits on what type of 'advice' they can give.  there are even special apps for providers to communicate via text.....i have had a couple docs that use email to communicate minor things