Good morning folks,
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It has nearly been a week since I last posted and I really have no excuse other than I couldn't find the time. Things have been very busy lately at work and at home and we have a lot going on right now we need to prepare for. It isn't going to be fun. I apologize for the lack of posts but as things settle down you should start seeing the post count climb steadily again.
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I had to take my wife to a Dr's appointment a couple days ago. This was a follow-up appointment to another appointment which was also a follow-up appointment to another. She hasn't been feeling well lately and as a result the Dr's are putting her through test after test trying to figure out what exactly is wrong. They've done almost every test I can think of as well as tests I hadn't thought of. We showed up at the Dr's office 10 minutes early for her appointment hoping she may get in a bit early. Hope, unfortunately, was not working very well for us.
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I went on a huge rant after the appointment as we were driving home. Not only did we need to wait in the waiting room for over an hour, she was only in the patient room for a few minutes before coming out with yet ANOTHER form to get more blood tests done. I think Dr's offices need to handle their patients better. If they had given us a call at home letting us know the Dr was over an hour behind in appointments, we could have left a bit later rather than hurry there to be early. Also, because the Dr obviously had some idea of what she was going to tell my wife, she could have easily emailed the form to us (this is the 21st Century after all) and we could have printed it off and skipped the wait.
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I don't know why things need to be so difficult when it comes to Dr's offices. It really should be a simple matter. We have the technology to connect Dr's and patients without actually having to be in front of the doctor. If there is no need for us to be there, we should have been called instead of scheduled to come down there. Now I wasn't in room with my wife to hear all the Dr said but from what she told me, it was a simple "Hi, we still don't know what's wrong and we need to do more tests. Here's a blood request form, come back in 2 weeks.". SERIOUSLY?!
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Dr's offices need to show a little bit of common decency. Yes they make a lot of money, yes they see a lot of patients day after day. Yes they expose themselves to potential deadly diseases and deal with miserable annoyed people but that is the job, that is what they signed up for when they spent the money and years in school to become a Doctor. Perhaps I'm missing something here, but Dr's need to embrace technology (not just in the operating room) and utilize it in their day-to-day patient handling. This isn't the dark ages anymore, we have computers, wireless devices and mobile email.
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Speaking of mobile email, I laugh at my sisters all the time when we're getting together for a family event. Sister A will be at my house while Sister B is somewhere between their house and mine. Sister A will "TEXT" Sister B asking where they are. Of course Sister A does this from her mobile phone. See it? Yes folks, they have a mobile phone (you remember what a phone is right?) that has the capability to call out and immediately get in contact with someone. No, of course the mobile phone is so 1990s, these days everyone texts to each other which is considered "faster" and more reliable. I just don't get it :) Maybe I'm old fashioned or maybe I lack the understanding of texting. I can see it's uses like when you want to send someone a quick note to remind them to pick up milk on their way home, but when you need information (like "where are you?"), it may be easier to just dial the number and get someone right away rather than waiting to see if they ever answer your text.
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Ok, I'm done for today. This was more of a Rant than a Musing over coffee, but they are almost one in the same anyway. It just so happens this was on my mind this morning and I decided to write about it. I hope everyone has a great day and with any luck I'll be back here tomorrow to wow you all with my genius. Or at least say Hi :)
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Cheers,
Al
ok, just for the record... I have to stick up for Dr's offices only because I work in one and know how things work. It isn't the individual doctors office who make up the rules that you have to come in only to get a blood requisition, it is the company that governs "Doctors of Nova Scotia" as well as MSI. A doctor will not get paid unless the patient is actually seen in the office. Doctors spend countless hours after work, in the office, at home, in their cars wherever doing copious amounts of paperwork, calling pharmacies, specialists, among other things. This is time they don't get paid for. So it is only fair that they make patients come in, even if it is just for a blood requisition, because you don't know how much work they are doing behind the scenes that they don't get paid for. Your probably thinking boo hoo, but if you could only see their side of the job you would realize. I would never in a million years want to be a doctor after now seeing what they have to do in the run of a day.
ReplyDeleteAlso, regarding the whole bit of doctors running an hour behind. I totally understand your frustration, doctors generally schedule their patients with a the appropriate allotted time, however as you know, sometimes things take longer than others. Sometimes people don't book the appropriate time for an appointment (ie. a physical would generally be a double appointment, but some patients may only book a single appointment) and therefore the doctor gets behind.
It is unrealistic for a receptionist to gauge how far behind a doctor is running because they are not in the room with the patients/doctors and do not know how long an appointment is going to last. For example, today one of my doctors was running about 45 mins behind and someone checked in and asked if they had time to go run an errand. I told them how far she was running behind but said she could catch up quick depending on what the next few patients were there for. So I strongly suggested he wait, which is did. Thank goodness because it wasn't even 10 minutes later that the doctor called him in.
Now had I called this guy before his appointment and told him that the doctor was running 45 minutes behind, he would have showed up too late and missed his appointment and who's fault would that have been?
And for the record about texting... I think your just jealous! :P
Thats my rant for the day!
Dawn