What's Worse - The Government or The Doctor?

I just got off the phone with “Julie” in Medical Records at a local doctors office. She called to see if there was anybody they needed to contact to get records from prior to my upcoming doctor’s visit.


[Props to this doctor having his staff to do this beforehand. Sounds like they are running their practice as a business.]

She asked if I had any primary care physician (to which they should send or get records from), and I explained that I do not, and that this is on purpose. I continued, telling her that the “on purpose” part is that it is so darned difficult to get a doctor’s appointment in any reasonable time (no, 4 weeks is not reasonable), and then, after getting an appointment for a visit, say, at 9am, to be left waiting until the doctor gets around to seeing me which is almost NEVER at 9 am, or any reasonable time thereafter.

I told her that I am a businessman and my time is valuable too, and that while others may put up with such treatment, I do not. I further continued, saying that it is unacceptable for a doctor to not manage their practice and see people within a reasonable time, and that when I encounter such things, I get up and leave.

You see folks, while all of you are thinking such things, I just happen to be one of those that talks about it. (And one that would rather bleed to death than wait 2 hours on a doctor that can’t keep to a reasonable schedule) BTW - Can you imagine any other profession doing this?? Can you imagine what Southwest Airlines would look like financially if they engaged in such practices??

And NO, I do not want to hear about how the doctor can’t determine in advance how delayed he will become because that each patient needs variable amounts of time. That is a load of crap. Doctors generally do not give any patient the time they need, and the modern doctors office is all according to the doctor’s needs (or the doctors business ignorance) and not the needs of the patient. To prove it have YOU ever tried to “stay” with your doctor over YOUR 15 minutes of allotted time or tried to give your doctor your list of questions, or even tried to have a free-form discussion with your doctor?

No? Well, just try it sometime, and see how you are herded out or how your doctor gets fidgety and starts ushering you to the door.

Regardless of this excuse about not knowing how much time each patient may need, the doctor is supposed to be running a business, and it is his job to “load plan” with extra float time/capacity, so that the lettuce is not left waiting in the heat to wilt because he wants to cram 12 patients into a morning according to a 15 min per patients so as to maximize HIS income. What part of the “Do No Harm” does the profession not understand?

Doctors of the world, do you not realize that there are people out there that detest you because of how you treat them like cattle? Sure, you can get away with it, and perhaps that is why you continue to do it, but that does not make it right. In addition, do you not realize that there are those that would pay more for better service?? Do you not realize that there are those that will eventually try to use the government to force you to pay a fine each time you are late in seeing a patient?

Back to the beginning of this story, I then asked “Julie”, if they had gotten yet the records off a remote monitor device that they had wanted me to wear. She, after all the preceding. told me she did not know ...... and that I would have to call back and ask somebody else in the office if they had gotten them.

Wait ... SHE is in medical records, and now in typical doctor’s office illogic and arrogance wants ME to waste MY time to call her office back and speak to someone else about M..E..D...I..C..A..L R..E..C..O..R..D..S.????

As you can imagine, I went ballistic on this and told her that I am not going to spend MY time calling them back and that it was THEY that needed to call ME.

Follow Up - to their credit I got a call a short time later and they report that they did get those records. But that is not the point is it?

Post-Script - No wonder old people want to commit suicide. They would rather do that than see a doctor.