To the editor:

My husband is in dialysis 3x/week at Portage Health. They take blood samples at least 1x/month for the many tests they run. My husband went to a neurologist, also from Portage and he requested two blood test that dialysis didn’t do.

We asked dialysis to draw one blood sample at his next visit, for the test the neurologist wanted and they informed him that they couldn’t do it.

He was told to go to Admitting the next day and then go to the lab and get the blood drawn there. We have also been told that if my husband is hospitalized, he has to go to Marquette because Portage will not take patients from inpatient room to dialysis room, but Marquette will. We have been told that this is all due to money issues and who will and who will not get paid for services.

Now I know why our country is so messed up, when our own little, local hospital cannot coordinate services for the benefit of the patient.

Why can’t one department pay another department when all the services are done at the one hospital? And you call yourself one big happy family.

Bonnie Jones

CHASSELL