General Etiquette > Life...in general

rude doctors and receptionists

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Emmy:
A few years ago, I called to make an appoinment at a ob-gyn for a yearly exam.  Ob-gyns tend to be very booked in my area and often you have to wait several weeks for an appt.  I had been to this particular clinic before and liked the doctor.  The receptionist who awnsered the phone said there was nothing availible until 3 months from now and encouraged me to call back later.  I told her I'd be glad to schedule an appoinment for 3 months from now.  She just told me to call back later.  I asked her wouldn't those appoinments now availible get booked if I called back later, therefore making the wait for an appoinment even longer.  Apparently she found my logic funny because she laughed and continued to give a hard time about scheduling the appoinment.  I just hung up the phone and decided that even if the doctor was good, I wouldn't want to continue going to a place where the staff was horrible.

Last year I got a really bad cold.  It lasted for a while and I figured it might be an infection that needed to be treated by a doctor.  I called my doctor on the phone and told him about these symptoms and he gave me a percription for a cough medicine which made me drowsy.  The sickness continued on.  Two weeks before my wedding, I called again.  I was still sick and didn't exacly want to be hacking in front of a hundred people on my wedding day.  The doctor still said it was just a cold and wouldn't schedule and appoinment after I was sick for 5 weeks and was getting married in 2!!!  I switched doctors and my new doctor saw me and percribed anti-biotics for my 'cold' (which of course was not just a cold) and she was suprised the doctor wouldn't see me.  I just can't believe my doctor wouldn't see me or believe there was something else wrong.  I wasn't the type of person who went to the doctor for every little thing.  Fortunatly I was feeling much better by my wedding.

Tabris:
My pediatrician office cannot book you for three months out because the computers don't allow it. I'm wondering if the receptionist at the OB office was facing the same problem, combined with the fact that she thought you were a mindreader and she didn't need to explain the system's limitations?

I've found that OB-GYN offices either have the nicest front office staff, or the rudest and nastiest people they can find. I have no idea why the extremes gravitate toward that kind of practice, but I've never experienced from any other kind of doctor's office the same extremes I have from the various OB practices.

And doctors that are too busy to see sick patients? They stink. Good for you for changing practices.

bopper:

--- Quote from: Tabris on January 22, 2007, 10:23:02 AM ---My pediatrician office cannot book you for three months out because the computers don't allow it. I'm wondering if the receptionist at the OB office was facing the same problem, combined with the fact that she thought you were a mindreader and she didn't need to explain the system's limitations?

--- End quote ---

My (former) OBs office was like this...all appointments for months were booked, and we haven't "opened' the book for November yet.  So if you call back in a couple of days, then it was "all appointements were booked, and we haven't opened the book for December yet".  I am not going to keep calling every day to make an appointment, people!  One time the Dr. told me to come back in 2 weeks for a follow up, and then I told the receptionist.  Got the same story, until I told them that the Dr. told me to come back, and all of a sudden there was an opening!   Anyway, too much hassle plus they decided to no longer take insurance.  I guess they had too many people coming to them!  I go elsewhere now.

Tabris:
I've had that happen too! "Come back in a week," says the doctor, and the front office folks refuse to book me for anything sooner than 14 days. Uh, in a pregnancy that's at term, you book someone in a week if the doctor says one week.

I was supposed to be induced with baby #2. They wanted to see me at the office before I went in for the induction, but the staff would not book me for sooner than 11:30 in the morning even though they knew it was an induction and that the midwife wanted to get me started as soon as possible. So I went out in the morning, did the daily Mass thing and got a huge cinnamon roll, and as soon as I walked in the door, the midwife was on the phone asking why I hadn't shown up yet at the hospital. I told her the office staff had refused to let me in earlier than 11:30, and she told me to come straight to the hospital, and she'd explain to them about not being ruled by the appointment book. :)

A friend was 41 weeks pregnant (so, a week overdue) and her office refused to book her for any sooner than two weeks out even though the doctor wanted to monitor her every four days at that point. She started raising screaming hell in the front office until they suddenly "found" her an appointment.

Sterling:
the receptionist at my GYN gave me an appointment time of 2:30.  I got there at 2:20.  now this was a Dr I have being seeing for over 3 yrs.  When I got there she said I was late.  I showed her the card where the time and date had been written down and she said that my appointment may be at 2:30 but I was suppose to be there at 2:00 for test  :-\

No one told me and she said I should have just known.  Wouldn;t make more sense to give me an appointment time of 2 pm if you want me there at 2?  Or at least tell me ahead of time?  Since doctors always seem to be running behind I would never show up over a half hr early unless it was new doctor.

Or am I just stupid?

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