I have been noticing something when I make appointments for Jessie lately. The thread about pulling a child out of school made me think of it. I am posting this here in general because I think many of us are finding it with our difficult children and their appointments.
Over the last year it seems very difficult to get an appointment with a specific doctor when I call a practice that has more than 1 or 2. Oddly enough it is less of an issue now that the kids are on medicaid instead of private insurance. I often have asked around and researched docs before I try to get an appointment. I even call ahead to see if the doctor is taking new patients with X insurance and what info does the pediatrician need to send to do the referral??
I make the appointment, thinking we are seeing doctor Desirable, who has done research on our problem, written papers on it and is highly recommended. Then we go to the appointment and, Surprise!! we get doctor Farting-Around that we either know nothing about or were advised to stay far far away from. But we are stuck because if we refuse that appointment no doctor in the practice will see us outside of the ER.
So we see doctor Farting-Around, who doesn't know a cough from a fart. We get him to do a little bit of what we think will help, write the rx's we are already on, and then check out. We make an appointment for the next time because we know we will have to have those rx's and the pediatrician will not (and should not) write rx's for those medications.
Then we come back and we see doctor Loony-Cartoony, who doesn't know why we are there, what the problems are, or anything else. He does draw a nice picture of a cartoon dog who licks his crotch in one frame, licks a sick child in the next frame, and in the last frame the child is all better because the dog licked her.
None of the docs are the one we ask for. If we ask ahead of time who we are seeing we are told it is doctor ??? and we cannot change to doctor Desirable because we would have to have permission from doctor-Not-Ever-Here and since the doctor isn't there at any time the staff is, well, that permission could take months to get.
We have gone through this with the pain docs, neuros in 2 practices, tdocs in 3 practices, and even family practice docs!!!
This just drives me up the wall. Most times I am told that I can schedule with doctor Desirable when I call the first time. Often even when I book the first appointment. It is only when we show up that we find we are with a doctor they think will suit us better. No one will tell us WHY this doctor will suit us better, and often it isn't the doctor the referring doctor specifically asked for.
Maybe if I had a WHY it would be easier to handle. But I am beginning to want to reach through the phone and scramble the brains of the people who keep doing this.
Is being able to choose the doctor you see becoming a luxury that no one will tell us the price of? I have spoken to other parents in waiting rooms and many of them are singing the same songs. Does anyone have any idea how to combat this? Insisting on seeing doctor Desireable, offering to stay in the waiting room all day until doctor Desirable could work us in resulted in an office mgr type offering to call security to "help us find our way". complaints to the head honchos of the hospital got no reply.
I am about out of my mind with frustration over this. Until i saw the thread about taking a child out of school I thought it was just my messed-up, bass-ackward state doing this.
Again, if this would be better in Watercooler, please move it. I just thought more people here might see it. (Can you tell I have been wrangling with appointments lately?)
Over the last year it seems very difficult to get an appointment with a specific doctor when I call a practice that has more than 1 or 2. Oddly enough it is less of an issue now that the kids are on medicaid instead of private insurance. I often have asked around and researched docs before I try to get an appointment. I even call ahead to see if the doctor is taking new patients with X insurance and what info does the pediatrician need to send to do the referral??
I make the appointment, thinking we are seeing doctor Desirable, who has done research on our problem, written papers on it and is highly recommended. Then we go to the appointment and, Surprise!! we get doctor Farting-Around that we either know nothing about or were advised to stay far far away from. But we are stuck because if we refuse that appointment no doctor in the practice will see us outside of the ER.
So we see doctor Farting-Around, who doesn't know a cough from a fart. We get him to do a little bit of what we think will help, write the rx's we are already on, and then check out. We make an appointment for the next time because we know we will have to have those rx's and the pediatrician will not (and should not) write rx's for those medications.
Then we come back and we see doctor Loony-Cartoony, who doesn't know why we are there, what the problems are, or anything else. He does draw a nice picture of a cartoon dog who licks his crotch in one frame, licks a sick child in the next frame, and in the last frame the child is all better because the dog licked her.
None of the docs are the one we ask for. If we ask ahead of time who we are seeing we are told it is doctor ??? and we cannot change to doctor Desirable because we would have to have permission from doctor-Not-Ever-Here and since the doctor isn't there at any time the staff is, well, that permission could take months to get.
We have gone through this with the pain docs, neuros in 2 practices, tdocs in 3 practices, and even family practice docs!!!
This just drives me up the wall. Most times I am told that I can schedule with doctor Desirable when I call the first time. Often even when I book the first appointment. It is only when we show up that we find we are with a doctor they think will suit us better. No one will tell us WHY this doctor will suit us better, and often it isn't the doctor the referring doctor specifically asked for.
Maybe if I had a WHY it would be easier to handle. But I am beginning to want to reach through the phone and scramble the brains of the people who keep doing this.
Is being able to choose the doctor you see becoming a luxury that no one will tell us the price of? I have spoken to other parents in waiting rooms and many of them are singing the same songs. Does anyone have any idea how to combat this? Insisting on seeing doctor Desireable, offering to stay in the waiting room all day until doctor Desirable could work us in resulted in an office mgr type offering to call security to "help us find our way". complaints to the head honchos of the hospital got no reply.
I am about out of my mind with frustration over this. Until i saw the thread about taking a child out of school I thought it was just my messed-up, bass-ackward state doing this.
Again, if this would be better in Watercooler, please move it. I just thought more people here might see it. (Can you tell I have been wrangling with appointments lately?)