Failed First Attempt
At least, that's how I feel about the front desk people at my cardiologist's office. Two weeks ago, I scheduled a full battery of tests: blood work to check my cholesterol, a nuclear stress test, a stress echocardiogram and a CT scan of my heart. My co-worker was fine with me taking half a day for everything which should have been today.
However....
Yesterday, the front desk person phoned yesterday as I was walking to lunch. "Um, I forgot that the echo tech [for the echocardiogram] works only part-time and isn't at this location on Wednesdays." I froze in my tracks. "We wanted to know if you could come in again on Thursday for the echocardiogram but still keep your appointment tomorrow for the CT and the nuclear test." Actually, no I couldn't. We have two people in my office now so even taking half the day off for the test required a bit of tweaking to our schedules. And why didn't you know about this two weeks ago when YOU scheduled the appointment? "I'm sorry, sir. I know how you must feel. But we don't have a tech here on Wednesdays." She kept repeating that instead of answering my questions. So I told her I needed to think on it, discuss options with my co-worker.
I called back later yesterday afternoon and was immediately transferred back to that same front desk person. I told her that I wanted everything done on the same day, in one fell swoop. "Can you come to the Newport Beach office? We have a full-time tech there." Can I keep my same appointment? "No, I'm sorry, it's all booked." Grr..... "But the Newport Beach office has many more time slots available." And after listening to her "hmm" for about ten minutes as she checked the calendar, the only time slot she could find was for next Friday at 11:30 AM. I'd had enough of dealing with her so I told her to pencil me in. Then, silly me, I asked about the blood work. "We don't have you scheduled for blood work." You have got to be shitting me!! (Okay, I didn't say that out loud.) The doctor specifically told me that he wanted blood work to check my cholesterol. "Well, we have someone who can draw the blood on-site so you should be okay." Yipee.
Perhaps this was the actual stress test....
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
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6 comments:
that sounds oh so common and typical, alas.
oh, Greg, you are pushing all my magic buttons with regard to the medical profession!!!! My heart goes out to you (no pun intended). For a group that is arrogant, rude, self-important, and demanding (not to mention expensive) they are among the most incompetent people on the face of the planet. Someone needs to rein them in.
Wow nothing like stressing a patient out. Hope everything goes well. Take a lot of deep breathes.
Oh boy, FULL STRESS TEST IN OPERATION here.. That sucks. There's no excuse. One place, all at the same time, get 'er done.
Hope everything materializes and "comes together" soon.
As you well know, this is a subject that I cannot touch upon without my blood pressure going through the roof.
I'm sorry you're having to deal with this and I hope it all works out for you just the way that you need it to.
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