Health Project: Doctor round 2

The doctor I saw Monday seems good but red flags keep going up.

First of all, they had me arrive early to fill out paperwork but the doctor was running an hour late. Crammed into that tiny waiting room with a dozen other people for nearly an hour and a half, I eventually realized this was not out of the ordinary for this office. The look of exasperation on everyone’s faces spoke volumes. The receptionist on the phone saying ‘he’s just a tad bit behind’ said the rest.

That was the only moment I saw the receptionist sitting at her desk helping someone. The rest of the time she paced around holding files and folders like she was trying to figure out what to do with them. People standing at the desk in front of her were totally ignored until they demanded her attention. For the first 5 minutes I thought the real receptionist was in the bathroom or something.

In reality, a long wait time and a bad receptionist is a dream come true compared to what most people in the world have access to. So, I decided, no big deal. On the way out the doctor’s assistant gave me the phone number to make an MRI appointment and said if I called by 6:00pm I could make it right away.

That set off the 3rd of my three pet peeves about a doctor’s office: having to become the liaison between the doctors office and other offices. I called the imaging place. They told me to call the doctor and have them request the appointment. I asked if that girl would just take care of it but in her response I knew I wouldn’t hear from her again so I called myself.

To make a boring story shorter, I have made 6 phone calls trying to coordinate between those two offices. Both have different versions of the process and apparently believe I am the person responsible for sorting out their differences. Two days later I have neither an appointment nor has anyone returned any of my calls.

I realize calling once more to curse them both is impractical and probably immoral so although I am tempted, I’ll refrain. But speaking practically, if there happens to be an office nearby that has time to take care of me I would rather go there. So I have an appointment elsewhere on Monday at 10:00am.