Is this a common problem? Getting images sent?

So, I'm wondering if my case is the exception, or if we all are dealing with incredibly outdated systems. Did your doctor receive your MRIS, ABUSes, and mammos in a timely manner?

Two weeks ago, I was supposed to have my first meeting with a surgeon who was going to have already seen my films and come up with a plan for me. Unfortunately, when we got there, we were told my images hadn't arrived yet. That was frustrating because I had asked if I needed to do anything and was told, "No, no, they're sending them over to us, don't worry!"

Silly, silly me. I imagined they were sending them electronically. Via one of the many online patient information systems, or some kind of inter-hospital PACS system. Or by, *gasp* email.

No. They Fed-Exed them. And then they sat around a mailroom. They actually technically had arrived in the building before me, I learned later when I asked for the tracking number, but then they sat in the mailroom waiting to be processed for a few days.

And then I found out my MRIs hadn't been included.

So those were requested again.

And we waited, and they never came.

And I called around until I found out Shields allegedly never received the request the second time around, and needed a new req from the doctor.

So I had the doctor send a new stat request, and I said, "I'll go pick them up and drive them over," and was told again, "No, they have to FedEx them."

Best case scenario, by the time my doctor gets them -- if she gets them this time -- and has a chance to review them, it will have been three weeks since I was "supposed" to have a plan in place.

So here I am, sitting around, trying to figure out why our information-sharing is stuck using 90's technology. Who in the heck still burns CDs anymore, besides, evidently, the people who take care of our Very Important Medical Information? I can't imagine that is still necessary. I know kindergarteners who could at least have put that info on a thumb drive and handed it to me. People more familiar with HIPPA and hospital administration than I am, what is the deal? I know there is bureaucracy and I know information systems are expensive and I know not everyone has the same level of technical know-how. But when a patient gives permission to transfer images from location A, shouldn't we be able to do that electronically, and have it show up in location B pretty much immediately? Furthermore, why can I not, via PatientGateway, or MyChart, or PatientPortal, just access my own records and send them over to someone?

Edited to add: LESSON LEARNED. We are not in 2021, and I will just bring my own thumb drive/blank CDs with me to all future appointments!