Doctor's Office Vent

[Christine]

This just gets to me.

My doctor wanted me to have an MRI of my ankle, fairly soon. I did it right away and scheduled a follow up on Monday to get the results.

The office called my home phone and left a message cancelling my appt. on Monday and told me to call back and reschedule.

Now, they have ALL my phone numbers and "preferred numbers to be called at" during the day (I had to fill out 9 pages of info on my first visit).

They close at noon on Friday and they called me at 11:55. They called at home when the form clearly states what my work phone is and hours are.

It's just annoying because I revamped my whole work schedule next week around this stupid Monday appt. I just wish they wouldn't call at the very end of their day with NO chance of you calling back to try to work on a new appointment. Why do they bother asking for all that information? Why do they wait until closing to cancel your appointment?

 

[stashbin]

This has happened to me twice with the same doctor. The first cancelation was because he had the stomach virus. I totally understood. The second time was because the appointment desk made my appointment on one of his surgery days. That was the appointment desk's fault.

It is very irritating. I am sorry that happened to you.

 

[Pakey]

This happened to me last Friday. I had a 1:00 pm appt for a CT scan and the imagining center called my house phone at 12:15 to tell me they were cancelling it because of mechanical problems. The problem with that is that I was at work so I didn't get the message. When I got there I asked and had them verify that my oncologist had also given them my cell number. OK, call house first if you must but given that it was only 45 minutes notice and you got a machine, don't you think you could have taken an extra minute to try the cell number given to you?

 

[merryweather20]

I had nearly the same thing happen with my specialty pharmacy! Inexplicably they dug around in their files and phoned my Dad's old number on a Friday afternoon. This even meant they had to call long distance, when all of my numbers were local. Heck, given that its medical information wouldn't they want to call the up to date number just for privacy reasons?

Turned out to be nothing, but they worked long and hard to make sure I had to worry about it over the week-end

 

[Christine]

This happened to me last Friday. I had a 1:00 pm appt for a CT scan and the imagining center called my house phone at 12:15 to tell me they were cancelling it because of mechanical problems. The problem with that is that I was at work so I didn't get the message. When I got there I asked and had them verify that my oncologist had also given them my cell number. OK, call house first if you must but given that it was only 45 minutes notice and you got a machine, don't you think you could have taken an extra minute to try the cell number given to you?

That's bad. It just shows that they don't care. I'm to the point that I really am just going to stop giving out my home number anymore. I'm never there during business hours. It's just habit I guess--pretty stupid of me because I get burned on that a lot.

The best was my old endocrinologist's office. Back when I was actively dealing with thyroid cancer, I'd be waiting for test results. They would call me, seemingly always on Friday, at 3:55 and then they'd turn their phones off.

 

[mom2travel]

That stinks!

I know things sometimes come up that they have no control over, but there are definitely times that you wonder whether anyone is reading the paperwork
Recently my gyn wrote a script/referral for my next mammo and after reading my chart told me to go to a particular clinic, a different place than I had gone to in the past - she told me it was not necessary to go to the other place based upon my results from the past couple of tests. ok, fine. So I make an appt for 3 months later (first I could get). I get both an email and a phone call confirming the appt for 9am on the given day. Late the day before, a tech in the clinic calls me to say that I can't have it done there, I need to go to the original location because Dr X (who I have never even heard of - must be someone who reads the results, but isn't the doctor I have actually seen when I had a biopsy) has a note in my chart that says I need a follow up, which is apparently different than an annual exam So why didn't my gyn see the note? Or anyone else? All of these offices are part of the same health system. And to make matters worse, the person she told me to call in the "correct" clinic said I'm not allowed to make my own appointment, it needs to be done by a doctor's office! I left messages with several different people and no one has called me back - I guess none of them think it is their job? Needless to say I am now overdue for this. No wonder people skip routine medical reviews. Ugh.

Sorry for the vent - it started off with sympathizing with you and ran amok!

 

[2binak]

My biggest medical office pet peeve is the "preferred number to reach you at". Why do I bother giving that to them when they ALWAYS call me at home anyway? I've even told them, in-person while in the office that I always want to be called at my work number and yet, it never happens. I temped in a dr's office once and calling patients at the end of the day was the routine. The last 15 mins of the day was set aside to call patients It didn't make sense to me then and it still doesn't.

I'm sorry your entire work schedule was revamped for what turned out to be no good reason.

 

[Christine]

I'm sorry your entire work schedule was revamped for what turned out to be no good reason.

Thanks! And that part of it is REALLY not their fault but what irks me is that I will be getting back in there sometime next week and if I could have made that appointment today rather than Monday morning at 9:00 a.m., it would have made things SOOOOO much easier.

 

[dis-happy]

That stinks!

I know things sometimes come up that they have no control over, but there are definitely times that you wonder whether anyone is reading the paperwork
Recently my gyn wrote a script/referral for my next mammo and after reading my chart told me to go to a particular clinic, a different place than I had gone to in the past - she told me it was not necessary to go to the other place based upon my results from the past couple of tests. ok, fine. So I make an appt for 3 months later (first I could get). I get both an email and a phone call confirming the appt for 9am on the given day. Late the day before, a tech in the clinic calls me to say that I can't have it done there, I need to go to the original location because Dr X (who I have never even heard of - must be someone who reads the results, but isn't the doctor I have actually seen when I had a biopsy) has a note in my chart that says I need a follow up, which is apparently different than an annual exam So why didn't my gyn see the note? Or anyone else? All of these offices are part of the same health system. And to make matters worse, the person she told me to call in the "correct" clinic said I'm not allowed to make my own appointment, it needs to be done by a doctor's office! I left messages with several different people and no one has called me back - I guess none of them think it is their job? Needless to say I am now overdue for this. No wonder people skip routine medical reviews. Ugh.

Sorry for the vent - it started off with sympathizing with you and ran amok!

That sounds soooo aggravating!!! I'd try calling the first place and see if you can't make an appt. anyway. I know for my mammos (even the follow up after a problem ones) they let me make my own appt.

 

[laurie31]

I have the opposite problem - they always call me at WORK when I'm not there. I work evenings, part time. So I'm only there 3 days a week to start with, and I don't come in until 4pm, so leaving a message on my voice mail is a totally impossible way to reach me. Why not call my home, my cell, any of those numbers I put on the form? I only put the work number on the form because there was a blank for it.

I finally got wise and put the number of our department on there instead of my personal extension, so at least they'll get a human being, who will tell them I'm not there now, and I won't be there again for 6 more days, so they might want to try contacting me another way if they want me to actually get the message.

By the way, it's not just doctor's offices. I have this problem with the school too. I actually stopped filling out the work info on the registration forms. They were all "but we NEED your work number" and I said "What for??? Are you going to call me there between 4pm and midnight? I didn't think so."

Does ANYONE read all the paperwork they make us fill out??

 

[MIGrandma]

I would have been irritated at that too.

I had an ultrasound on my thyroid on Monday, and have an appointment on the 21st to get the results. It's just a yearly check-up so I'm not concerned, but what annoys me is my insurance will pay for the actual ultrasound but will not pay for the office visit to get the results so I'll have to pay about $75 to spend about 2 minutes in his office to hear the results. I wish they would just tell me over the phone what the results are, so I could save that ridiculously high charge.

And I hate it when the doctor's office calls and just says to "call us back." They won't give any hint of why they are calling, even though I have told them before that it's fine to leave a detailed message on our machine because it's just DH and I here and I don't mind if DH hears anything that they think should be "private" but they still won't do it.

They called the other day, late in the day of course so I had to call them back the next day. She said I was due for some blood work. She couldn't say that in her message on my machine? Then I told her, "well I already have an appointment set up in 2 weeks." She didn't even know that. Don't they check their computer, to see if someone has an upcoming appointment, before they call someone? I guess not.

 

[pilotwife_02]

That's quite frustrating. We are a cell phone only household now and have been for about 3 years and told the dr to delete the old number off our account. We don't only have a home line and I have repeatedly told my sons' pediatricians' office this. When I call to talk to the doctor and leave a message I will leave my cell as the call back number, but for some reason 3 out of 10 times I won't get a call back so I call them back and they will say we called but didn't get you.

Gee, probably because you called a number that isn't good anymore. For some reason they aren't deleting my old home number from their system even though I have asked them a few dozen times to do it, even when I'm in their office standing in front of them

Even on the forms they have you refill at the beginning of every year isn't doing the trick. I don't know if it's because they see my cell phone number in the home number slot and see it's same number they have as my cell number and think they are smarter than me and assume I'm dumb and must be writing it in the wrong area and leave both, I don't know, but it's frustrating. Especially when I'm waiting for a call back and feel bad calling them and sounding like a hounding patient.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

That's bad. It just shows that they don't care. I'm to the point that I really am just going to stop giving out my home number anymore. I'm never there during business hours. It's just habit I guess--pretty stupid of me because I get burned on that a lot.

The best was my old endocrinologist's office. Back when I was actively dealing with thyroid cancer, I'd be waiting for test results. They would call me, seemingly always on Friday, at 3:55 and then they'd turn their phones off.

That is what I do now. I never check my home phone for messages, so if someone called to cancel I would never know it.

 

[maelstrom]

My mother had to have her doctor's office completely remove the house number from her records in order to stop this kind of nonsense.

 

[anotherdisneygal]

Tell the doctor! Many doctors have NO IDEA how horrible their support staff is because patients don't tell them. If you tell your doctor that you have a problem with the way his/her office is run, you are more likely to get the result that you want. That's always worked for me.

 

[Swimnoid]

You would think in today's age of mobile electronics they would understand. Geez! I have the same problem with one of my doctor's offices. I see a doctor in FL twice a year. I always arrange a vacation about it. They will call my house to confirm it every time even though I tell them every time I am there to call my cell. They will call 2 or 3 days ahead to confirm and I am always already in FL....usually at WDW ...when they call. Just use the cell number!

 

[wilderness01]

Tell the doctor! Many doctors have NO IDEA how horrible their support staff is because patients don't tell them. If you tell your doctor that you have a problem with the way his/her office is run, you are more likely to get the result that you want. That's always worked for me.

I agree with this. Actually when you received the message on your machine, you should have called his service to have him paged, explained your problem and had him followup. That is what I would have done. Believe me, I have worked in a dr's office and this would have worked.

 

[HoneyPooh]

I agree with this. Actually when you received the message on your machine, you should have called his service to have him paged, explained your problem and had him followup. That is what I would have done. Believe me, I have worked in a dr's office and this would have worked.

This would not work at our office. Our service would not page our on call doctor for a complaint about the office. The doctors use the service for emergency medical needs only. Your call would generate a message that would be received by the office the next business day.

 

[minniecarousel]

What I think is criminal is: doctor's offices that call on Friday afternoon and ask you to call them back! What?! I have to wait all weekend to find out what you want to tell me?!

 

[2binak]

Tell the doctor! Many doctors have NO IDEA how horrible their support staff is because patients don't tell them.

This is true. Our dr's answering service tried telling me that there weren't weekend hours when in fact there were. Luckily, I knew there were and called back in the am to get an appt. After the 2nd time they did this, I told our pedi and she made it a point to call the service and correct them. She was so upset that they were giving patients incorrect information, causing some parents to wait out the weekend with sick little ones who weren't sick enough to go to the ER, but were sick enough that they needed to be seen by a dr.