Monday, September 5, 2011

The difference in doctors

This was posted July 27th and was my most recent post and therefore my last catch up post.

If you have read my previous posts you are aware of the difficulties I have had with my current ob office. Yesterday I was amazed at how different doctor offices can be. On Monday I called my pcp to get an appointment. I have been having some back issues and needed to go to a lab to pull some blood for my ob. I could go in to Lexington to their lab but if I can kill two birds with one stone why not? So I called on Monday and an appointment was set for Tuesday afternoon. Actually I was offered Monday afternoon but dh wanted to go and that was too short of notice for his work. But seriously? A doctor office that can fit you in same day or even the next day for a clear non emergency? What planet is this?

Before we left for the appointment I decided I need to call the ob and make an appointment now that I was sure I was not pregnant, to see if we can discuss the problems I have been having with the office and, if we decided to keep working with them, discuss a game plan. I called, went through the multilevel voice menu system, choose the number for making appointments and listened to the "Please hold, your call will be answered in the order it was received" spiel for nearly 15 minutes. Finally it changes, they have picked up, but are fumbling with the phone. For a good minute I hear rusting, background noise and people talking. He comes on the line and I say "I need to make an appointment with Dr ****." "Ok, please hold" and he transfers me to the nurse's station where I leave a message saying I need to make an appointment.

We head on in to town to see my pcp. We get checked in, called back, visit with the dr, talk about options and decide, since I'm not pregnant, now is a good time to go ahead and do tests that wouldn't be good to do while pregnant. We decide on mri's for my back and neck and x-rays on my foot. When should we schedule this for? Right down the hall for the x-ray and they will schedule the mri as well. Ok cool.

We go down and get checked in to radiology scheduling. They call me in to discuss the mri and schedule it. As she's on the phone with the mri receptionist, she looks at me and says "Do you want to do it right now?" Well sure, since we're already here, let's get it over with. So off we go to the radiology lab, they get me all set up and in that horrid little tube (my first mri, I am slightly claustrophobic, it was not fun). I get back in to my clothes, back to the waiting room with Mr TCI, wait a few minutes, they call me back to x-ray, we do the x-rays, I go to the bloodwork lab and get my blood drawn and we head up to the front desk to see if I am done for the day or if I need to see the dr again for anything before we leave. She tells us that the techs will go over my mri's and x-rays the next day and to expect a call from the dr then.

We head home. We are not even half way home when my phone rings, it is my doctor's nurse calling to tell me the results of the tests. We discuss the findings and what to do about them and she tells me to expect a call from the physical therapy place to set up physical therapy for my back.

Seriously? I was in to the office about 30 hours after calling to make an appointment, they handled all of this in about 3 hour's time and EVERY.SINGLE.PERSON was kind, respectful and happy. I got my results quickly and have a game plan we are happy with. Did I miss something? Did I wake up in an alternate universe or something?

Meanwhile the ob office has not yet called me back to schedule an appointment. Why that should surprise me since they haven't called me back since I left a message some 3 weeks ago saying I had some questions.

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