I got a letter today with the return address of my doctor’s office. When I opened it, I found a referral for a mammogram.
“Strange,” thinks I, “I didn’t call in asking about mammograms.”
Later this evening, I got a phone call. It was my doctor’s receptionist.
“Did you get the referral?”
“Yes, it came today, but I…”
“I’ve made you an appointment for blah blah blah…” She tells me the specifics of getting my mammogram on a certain day at a certain time. I’m a bit flummoxxed, but I say I’m agreeable, and she thanks me and hangs up.
I’m not opposed to a mammogram. I suppose it’s about time for another one.
But the more I think about it, I’m thinking, excuse me? You just went and arbitrarily decided to make me an appointment for a mammogram without even letting me in on it first? What if the day you picked was one I had planned for something else? I just think this whole thing is weird.
Has anyone else had an experience like this? Can a doctor just flat out decide to make an appointment for you for tests without consulting you first? Is this a normal thing now? I’m not sure what to think.
Often in an office, you’re put into a tickler file, and your name automatically comes up for certain tests at certain times every year, like mammograms. I’ve never seen it done exactly like this, but the system serves two purposes- so that you will get your tests and remain alive, and so that you won’t look to sue your doctor for not reminding you to get these tests. It’s just one office’s way of doing it- you’re always welcome to decline the appointment and schedule your own.
In other words, it’s 10% a service done for your convenience, and 90% a cover-your-ass move for your doctor to avoid getting sued.
Yeah, I’ve had a doctor’s office make appointments for me, and then leave a message on my answering machine. I feel no obligation to show up for such appointments, and told that doctor’s office manager that I needed to be notified BEFORE they thought about making an appointment for me. I still got phone messages notifying me of appointments.
I changed doctors, and yes, I did let the doctor know why.
Yes, once. When I first had to go to the doc in a box for what ended up being a rebroken bone in my left foot … the doc got the labs back and noticed I had an extremely serious case of hypercalcemia. He made an appointment with an excellent endocrinologist to make sure I could get in as soon as possible, then he called me at work and told me I had a fairly serious health issue and needed to get to the endocrinologist as soon as possible. How he managed to score me one of her rare saturday appointments, I have no idea.
On the plus side, she managed to get the situation sorted out while it was still osteopenia instead of full on osteoporosis.
She told me that I was incredibly lucky that when I was growing up I was firstly addicted to dairy, and worked a heavy labor job so I had very solid bone structure. If I had been more normally female gracile, I would have had a lot more serious issues. As it was, I had a vitamin d of 2 ng/ml, and a blood calcium of 14.9 mg/dl that she got down to 11.9 mg/dl within 30 days but couldn’t get any lower than that until I got sent to Yale to have a parathyroidectomy done.
The fatigue that came with the hypercalcemia was a killer, I amazed people as I was going through 4 or 5 cans of sugarfree red bull a day at work just to stay awake, and I was still nodding off periodically. I can’t take the taste of the stuff now.
The VA and military clinics do this. If your primary care provider thinks you need a specialist appointment, that appointment will be made for you. Sometimes, they tell you enough in advance that you can keep the appointment with no inconvenience, sometimes they don’t. They’re nice that way. :rolleyes:
Almost but not quite. Without checking with me, the doctor sent a referral for me to a mammogram place, which keeps calling me to remind me to set up an appt. But at least they didn’t just go ahead and schedule me without asking first.
If you hadn’t spoken to them personally and they had just left a message on your answering machine, and you just didn’t show up, would they have tried to charge you a penalty for not keeping the appointment?
This is the concern I suppose. My mum loves it, she’s 70 odd and the clinic does this sort of thing regularly. She can always change the appointment if necessary and they call to remind her on the day. British national health service - still plodding along. I’d love it too. Mammograms are covered under our government health service here too, but we have to make our own appointments, which I’m surely overdue for.
Mr Kitty’s docs at the ‘secondary’ hospital are doing this, and it’s driving me a bit mad. He’s in process of being evaluated for the transplant list at this other hospital, and they’re calling with all sorts of appointments already set in stone. I can’t say anything because it’s important that he gets these things done, but it would help if they could come up with a list of tests, schedule them all at once, and get them over with, rather than the 1-2 every other week.
But they’re going to have to be okay with the fact that the barium enema they scheduled for Friday is going to have to be moved, since he’s in the ICU at the moment. :rolleyes:
Personally, I’d be totally pissed. I’ve made it clear to my MD there’s no way I want to be brutally squished for a humiliating test. Aside from that, what business do they have prescheduling stuff without even a by-your-leave? Day-um, that’s offensive.
