I bitch about shit.
Like this one doctors' office? Hated 'em. I decided to change doctors along with hospital networks and just stop bitching about it.
New Doctor was like, "Well, we're not taking on new patients, but, we could squeeze you in for a consult..." and Old Doctor was all, "What are you doing? Where are you going? Are you breaking up with me?"
New Doctor wanted my records from Old Doctor, and Old Doctor responded, "Welllll you have to pay per page copied and it's this really complicated elaborate scale of payment and we don't make the copies and a service comes in and does it for us and they only come in once every couple of weeks so it will take 4-6 weeks to get copies of your records faxed over."
Really? Are that many people requesting their records from your practice that you can't get copies made within a week? Like, just take 10 pages of information written about me and run them through your big copier and I'll come pick them up. No. This is not a Kinkos.
So I just begged. "Pleeeeeease can you just fax over that one sheet of paper dated November 10, 2007 to New Doctor?" and my desperate persistence worked, that time.
BTW, why do some people think that faxing medical records is more private than emailing or sharing them on a private network? I had this argument with my mother recently. You don't think copying services or the people at Staples read your printed materials when they're waiting to collate? When I was 22 I spent my days photocopying stuff, reading every bit of the copy jobs. That's how I figured out what was going on and then I got promoted from making copies all day so there's a moral in there somewhere.
Today I went to New Doctor. Everything was wireless electronic, balls-out-awesome.
New doctor listened, gave me a chance to ask questions, looked at me as I was talking, didn't condescend or rush me out, was a totally normal person who felt like a partner and not like a snotty bully. Plus I was in and outta there in 45 minutes. I guess I was so accustomed to bad doctor-patient relations that I thought this was AMAZING for a specialist that is in demand and "not taking any new patients."
New Doctor went above and beyond a consult. Now I'm her patient. She has a plan for me.
20 minutes after I left her office, I got this email:
"Welcome to New Doctor. As one of our ESTABLISHED patients, you may now use a secure online service for NON-URGENT appointment and prescription requests ONLY.
Patients find this service more convenient than the telephone. It is also safer than e-mail because it uses secure technology to help protect you."
This made me SOOOOOO happy!!! Yay technology.
Nice! I want to go to that doctor. Well, probably not since it is a specialist and don't want to need a specialist.
After my last peeve about my new doctor's office, I also decided to stop bitching and just get a new doctor. It is actually a new doctor for my daughter. I miss our old doctor and can't wait until we go back on PPO next year (HMO this year just because I'm pregnant and it will save us $3000).
Posted by: Peeved Michelle | 05 March 2009 at 11:26 AM