So it’s time to see the folks in the white lab coats again. I’ve been going to this particular office for ~ 10 years. Same Doc.
Me - Ring Ring, “Yes, I would like to make an appointment for a general check up please”
Them - “You have to call right at 8am, or you cannot get in”
Me - “No worries, sometime in a week or so is fine”
Them - “We only schedule same day appointments”
Me - “???. That’s not an appointment”
Them - “That’s all we can do. We cannot schedule anything other than same day afternoon appointments.”
Me - “Uhhh. Say what? That’s not a schedule, or an appointment, restaurants do that all the time”.
Them -“We can only schedule same day appointments. We don’t have any ability to make appointments except for the day you call. We can’t even get into the system, just like you. Call back in the morning”
Me - “What do you mean, and why only afternoon appointments?”
Them - “That’s just the way it is now”
Me - “Then, you need SOMEONE TO FIX IT. What do you mean only afternoon appointments, what does the staff do in the morning???”
Them - some excuse.
Now this is not some one Dr. office. It’s in the main hospital for the entire county. It’s in the Medical Office Building (the MOB).
I’m in real WTF mode now. I call back thinking we had a misunderstanding. Nope. I email this place and they give me no help.
I see some more phone calls an emails in my future.
Sounds like a new and stupid policy. Perhaps too many people were canceling their appointments at the last minute. I would go up the food chain until you get a clear answer to why you must jump through these hoops to schedule a check-up. It doesn’t make sense and discourages people from getting routine exams.
I was due for my annual physical in October. I called the last week of September to make an appointment. I was told that the doctor was booked solid through the end of the year. Holy crap! I’ve never had to schedule an appointment that far in advance - usually it’s about two or three weeks out. I was able to get an appointment for the Tuesday after Christmas. I guess when I go in I should ask if I can just schedule my appointment for next year right then.
Yeah. What COMPLETELY pisses me off, is I have to call the DAY I want an appointment and hope they have an opening. Ummmm… What??? Cannot schedule in advance so that, you know, we can all make plans. What are they, a 7-11? It’s rediculous.
Welcome to 2022, medical systems are collapsing all over North America at least. Over two years of COVID related stress has caused staff to leave the industry, and the people left are going a bit nuts.
Tell them you’ll be there Thursday at 2:30. They can put a post-it on their computer to read Thursday morning and remember to enter you into their computer.
Some doctors operate that way even thought they really aren’t. When I was a teenager the family doctor would make appointments in advance - but it was kind of pointless. Because then they would take people with no appointments for non-emergencies like camp physicals and see people in the order they arrived, so that someone who got there at 1 pm for a 4 pm appointment would be seen before the person who arrived at 1:15 for a 1:30 appointment.
And then my mother wondered why I found a new doctor as soon as I could. Which is really the only option for the OP if they don’t want to call every day at 8am until they finally get in.
At the end of September I got a text stating that one of my doctors had put in a request for an endoscopy, and asking me to call to schedule it. I called the number they gave me, went through the phone tree to get to the procedures appointment desk, and sat on hold for about fifteen minutes before giving up. I tried again the next week, and after only ten minutes someone answered. Before scheduling anything they asked me about my medications and when I said I was on Eliquis they said they needed to clear this with my doctor before they could schedule me, and they would call me back.
When they called me back, having apparently gotten permission to schedule me, they asked who had performed my last endoscopy so they could schedule me for the same doctor. Since this had been at least three years ago (pre-pandemic) I had no idea, so I got put on hold while they looked it up. When they came back, I had to wait while they checked the doctor’s schedule for any available dates. Well, it turned out that there weren’t any in November or December, and since the January schedule wasn’t yet available (note that this was already the beginning of November) I was asked to call back in a week and a half.
So I called back as requested, and once again had to wait while they searched the calendar.The only dates available were at facilities which weren’t near me, and the January calendar for the facility near me wasn’t available, so (all together, now) could I call back in another 7-10 days?
I’m going to try again tomorrow. Since it’s now almost December, I’m hoping that they’ll actually be able to schedule me for sometime next year.
Sucks. I hate afternoon appointments. It’s just the way I am. My Wife and I get up around 4am, go to bed pretty damn early. But I we are just weird.
Well, it appears that I rattled enough cages to get an appointment at 10:35 12/01/22. I must park at the back of the building though and a medical professional will come check me out. Apparently, I’m getting ‘treated’ in the parking lot Stranger, and stranger.
I had a cardiac ablation in August, and a 3 month followup in November. I called to reschedule the followup and was told his next available appointment is in September. 2023. Ten months away. However, wonton a few days I got a call with an opening in January.
I do really feel for medical care professionals. I really do. They have gone through hell the last few years. I was just allowed to work from home due to COVID. Which I’ve always wanted to do, and I still do. I should really just ‘quit my bitchin’.
I have had appointments scheduled for a month and a half in the future, arrange to have that day off, only to receive a phone call the morning of the appointment saying “We’re sorry, but your doctor is out of town at a conference so we will have to reschedule your appointment. Will (some date a month and a half later) be alright with you?”.
My problem is sorta the opposite. I make appointments a month or 3 in advance with zero idea of whether I’ll be home or in some other state or country at appointment time until just a few hours before I’m supposed to be there. And if work says I’ll be elsewhere, it’s time to set another appointment for ASAP = 6+ weeks hence and roll the dice again on that day. Lather rinse repeat. My planned Nov 5th specialist appointment I missed for work is now Jan 30th. I wonder if I’ll be able to be there?
The good news is for most of my providers I can often get in promptly on a cancellation basis.
Since we’re griping, I wanted to share a counterexample. I’ve had a lingering sinus/nasal congestion for 14 days now. Not COVID, not getting worse, but also not getting better. Feel fine except for persistent dribbling glop in head / throat / nose. Could work an ordinary job with this condition but can’t work my particular job. Oh well. The Boss will eventually ask when I’m inclined to return to work and that conversation won’t be pretty.
Call today = Mon at 10am after a 4-day holiday to arrange a telehealth with my PCP at her earliest convenience. Is 3pm today soon enough? Sure. Have the visit, she sends the appropriate scrip to my pharmacy, they text that it’s ready while I’m eating dinner and by 6pm I’ve got the meds in my belly. Tough to beat. When it works.
I just can’t see how only scheduling on the day is helpful on their side. Walk-in clinics make sense, since they’re basically just for urgent care. But a regular doctor needs to be able to schedule patients based on their need to be seen.
It would just seem to make everything much more difficult for everyone involved.