An Observation, a Question, and a Warning

My wife was scheduled to have a Pacemaker implanted for her heart when I made an interesting observation, leading to a question and a warning. There were five entities with whom I was communicating in preparation for the procedure.  Obviously, I had to communicate with the Surgeon’s Office.  In addition, there was the office of the Cardiologist, the Surgical Center, the blood work lab, and the insurance personnel.  It was the insurance folks who started the most chaotic few days of my recent life when they called to say they were declining to pay for the surgical procedure.  Upon further examination, I discovered the rejection was based on my wife’s potassium level, which was too high for surgery.  This got the blood work lab involved, as well as the surgeon’s office which had to file an appeal with the insurance company. When the Surgical Center called to confirm procedure plans, I had to inform them that everything was on hold, a fact that they had not heard. Meanwhile, on a Friday we were sent for second opinion blood work, which could not be shared with us for three days since the surgeon’s office was closing for a three-day weekend. Finally, we met with the Cardiologist who was amazed that no one had told my wife to stop taking a certain prescription medication, whose side effect was an  elevated potassium level. As of this writing, my wife has not yet had the Pacemaker implanted.  Now the observation: Everyone involved in this merry-go-round seemed to do their job well but did not communicate with each other. Thus, each entity had a different version of the status of the Pacemaker surgery.  So, my question –  could it be that we have trained a generation of computer users and online specialists who do not see value in face-to-face, group communication?  My warning (at the risk of biting the hand that fed me), churches should be prepared to function with staff members who have done much, sometimes all, of their theological training through online classes.  In our rush to be like the rest of Accademia, we may have lost sight of the educational value of interactive teamwork.  Even more so, we may be getting close to the results that Jesus warned His disciples about when He discussed letting “your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (Matthew 6:3, NASB).