Write a letter requesting a copy of your medical records. I had to call three times asking for mine before I finally realized that if it wasn’t in writing they felt free to pretend it never happened.
I hate doctor’s that overbook. I know they don’t want to have too much down time, but you’d think after the first few months of having patients seeing the doc at 3:00 for the 1:30 appointment would make them realize that they really need to either set aside more time, or teach their schedulers to ask better questions so they actually book enough time for the visit.
Our doctor horror story: 10 years ago mr.stretch got a phone call at work to report on the results of routine tests. He was told, on the phone, by the doctor, that guess what! You have Hep C and 5 to 10 years to live! Tell your wife to get in here and get tested , cuz she may be dying too!
Went to the doc and she told mr.stretch how he’d probably die soon, and he needed to see a specialist, and by the way, here are some brouchures about Hep C. When we got home and read the brochures, it was quite apparent that mr.stretch was not facing imminent death, nor was he necessarily likely to die as a result of Hep C anyway. As an added bonus, with simple precautions we can be pretty sure that I’ll never get Hep C, so I’m probably not going to die from it either. New doc was found quite quickly after that little thrill ride.
I refuse to wait more than 30 minutes for a scheduled appointment. I don’t understand why people think that a medical professional has an inherent right to waste their time in a way that say, a mechanic doesn’t*. The bottom line is that I’m paying them for a service, and I expect that service to be rendered promptly and competently.
*The one exception I’ve always made to this rule is my ob/gyn. When a patient goes into labor, he’s gotta go. But given the nature of his job, his staff always let waiting patients know that he wasn’t in the office, and might not be for some time, and asked if we would prefer to wait, or to reschedule.
I had a resident examine me before the doctor came in and he told me “it looks like it’s C” *exactly * the way he said it and said the doctor would talk about it when he came in. Don’t they teach students how to talk to people?
It’s a good thing that I had a little more medical knowledge than this intern apparently did because they hadn’t even done the biopsy yet. Yes I told the doctor and wonder what kind of wonderful bedside manner this idiot developed.
My mother went into emergency once and every time she asked a question the resident turned to me and answered the question. She’s not an idiot and was infuriated. He gave a script for pain medication and told me to watch her because ‘old people’ sometimes fall when taking medication and to be careful.
I complained to the administrator about how she was treated as a non-person. It’s not surprising this is the way you were treated if they’re allowed to treat you like a warm body even before they’re doctors.
If my husband ends up at the emergency room for any reason, they try to admit him because of his heart problems. If he cuts his hand and needs stitches? “Well, I want to admit you for observation to the cardiac ward.”
Anyway, he went for a bad burn on his foot and the doctor said he was going to admit him. Hubby says no way, very forcefully. The doctor leaves and goes over to the nurses’ station in the middle of the ER and says, really loudly, “THE IDIOT OVER THERE WITH THE BURNED FOOT REFUSES TO BE ADMITTED. JUST MAKE UP THE DISCHARGE PAPERS BUT SAY ON THERE THAT HE IS LEAVING WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. I HATE WHEN IDIOTS LIKE THAT COME TO THE ER AND WON’T LISTEN TO MY ADVICE. DOES HE THINK HE’S A DOCTOR?”
There’s no way anyone in that ER didn’t hear him. I was furious.
But what’s sad, he isn’t the worst doctor we’ve ever encountered. There was the doctor who told my husband that he needed to divorce me if I didn’t cook better foods for him. There was the one who said that he didn’t have a choice but to have cardiac bypass surgery immediately and that he would drop dead at any moment. There was the psychiatrist who referred to himself in the 3rd person and denied that the drugs he had prescribed could have side-effects: “Patients of Dr. X do not get side-effects from these drugs.” This guy kicked my husband out of his office for saying that one of the drugs made him ill.
It works the same way with young people. I broke my arm when I was 13 and did the same thing. Whenever I asked a question he’d either address my mother or scold me for interupting him. When he showed my mother my x-rays of my broken arm and I asked to see them he even said “This does not concern you.” When my arm was set another doctor (who otherwise was very respectful of me) insisted that I didn’t need to be drugged when he set it (or reset it after I put the cast on). He just said to be a man about it and had my mother and his nurse (who was the mother of one of my classmates) hold me down. I still had my shoes on. The second time hurt worse than the first (contrary to what he said would happen) and my right foot got free and I kicked the nurse in the nose breaking it in the process. Or when on my 16th birthday when I need to have spinal fluid drawn to see if I had a pseudo-tumor. They failed to explain why I wasn’t allowed to wear underwear for the 4 hours I was waiting for the procedure or my glasses (I have 20/200 vision, being without them for an extended period of time in a strange place makes me freak out).
After over a quarter century of training and practicing medicine, along with nearly 50 years of being a patient, I conclude that a lot of my fellow doctors are idiots, and a lot of my fellow patients are, too.
So there.
BTW, it’s more than OB docs that have emergencies. I’ve gotten tied up at the hospital with patients suddenly trying to die, while my office patients were pissed at me for not being there to see them. And I’ve had situations where an urgent procedure, such as sewing someone back up, opening an abscess, or placing a cast on a person needed to be done unexpectedly at the office, throwing my schedule to hell and beyond.
My receptionists however, notified waiting patients that I was tied up.
It’s that last sentence that makes the difference. I wish more doctors and their staff understood that it is far better to be told up front that you’re going to have a long wait because of an emergency or whatever and to be given the option of leaving & coming back another time.
I also find it interesting that my dentist NEVER, EVER keeps me waiting more than 10 minutes despite the fact that he certainly has emergencies crop up. I know, because I’ve been one a couple of times. One thing I know he does is to schedule realistically, allowing enough time to actually see each patient.
I used to work for an HMO. We were working on fixing* that when I left. Soon enough, dentists will be part of the plan and get patients shoveled at them the way PCPs are.
*yes, I’m being sarcastic.
even if the doc doesn’t have to go to the hosp like the ob, they may still be set way behind schedule if one or more of their pts is crashing. I’ve had docs on the phone over and over again for the same pt, they may be working closely with the icu staff, or they may have scheduled hosp rounds in the morning and office appts in the asfternoon, only to get hopelessly tied up in the er or icu. certainly a “good” docs plans for the possibility and keeps their staff informed.
it’s nice to see people advocate for speaking to the pt. I know i’ve pissed off a few people (mothers are the worst) by talking to the pt first and then getting family to fill in any missing bits
I had to wait an hour to see a dermatologist, for crying out loud. I’m sorry, but I can’t see any life-threatening emergencies that would involve a dermatologist.
I complained about the wait, the receptionist got me in to see him, and he spent all of 30 seconds with me before giving me the wrong prescription, as I discovered when I went to see another dermatologist about my rosacea, which hadn’t improved.
Yes, I wrote him a letter telling him why I wouldn’t be back. And my rosacea has cleared up beautifully.
Not the most user-friendly document, but here’s information on patients’ right to access their own medical information under HIPAA.
While we’re grousing, may I add the astounding number of legal, medical, and psychological providers who can’t spell HIPAA? I’ve been to more than one training in a hospital where it was spelled HIPPA and the PowerPoint explaining it was decorated with hippos, underscoring the writers’ and presenters’ complete obliviousness to the words in the acronym.
Necrotizing fasciitis sets in pretty enough to qualify as an emergency, but I don’t know if you’d consider it a strictly dermological situation. Same problem with anaphylaxsis triggered by a contact allergy. The immediate treatment will be systemic.
Hyjack aside, send a letter requesting your records, biggirl. And pay the extra cash to send it certified/return receipt. That way you have proof that they got it.
And I understood where you were going in the OP by mentioning that most of the other patients seemed elderly with language barriers.
I had the rheumatologist from Hell. He ran a practice in downtown LA at Cedars Sinai, and had clinics at my local hospital every week. I would have appointments for 8:00 pm and have to wait until well past midnight to get in. The last time, I told the receptionist to call me at home about 20 minutes before I would actually be seen. She called me at 3:30 am. I basically told them to fuck off and die, especially since he had been testing me over and over and over and over for the same things (lupus and rheumatiod arthritis) and they always came back negative (“I can’t believe you don’t have Lupus! Your test was negative!” he’d exclaim). Asshole ratfucker liked my dual insurance coverage, I expect.
I was diagnosed a couple years later with Fibromyalgia. From my new GP in Colorado, no less. I still HATE to go to a doctor.
I have a funny memory of my father. He came to my workplace and was in my office. The door was open. I said, “Dad, what’s up?” and he asked me if I’d take him to the hospital for some tests because, “My doctor says I have syphilis!”
I think every one of my coworkers heard him. It was hilarious.
I understand that emergencies come up for doctors, but every single time I have an appointment? With every single doctor I’ve ever gone to? I’m not buying it any more. They overbook, plain and simple, and it doesn’t seem to be a concern how long patients have to wait.
I know the medical system is shitty; I know that most doctors are good people, trying to do right by their patients; I also know that my time is as valuable to me as a doctor’s time is to him, and he doesn’t get three hours of it when I have made the effort to schedule an appointment in advance. Making up all the shortfalls in the system by making patients wait longer isn’t any kind of fix at all.
