Wednesday, July 7, 2010

What if we all acted this way... and other rants from Captain Cranky

I had a doctor's appointment today at 1:15pm. I show up at 1:00 pm. I get all the forms filled out, pay the co-pay, and sit and wait. At 1:15pm I'm called back to the room. I talk to the nurse for a few short minutes. She gets her information and then says, "The doctor is just finishing up his lunch break. We'll be back in a few minutes."

Now I think to myself, "If he is just finishing up his lunch, I'll probably be sitting here for about 15 minutes waiting." That seems perfectly reasonable to me. At 1:30pm, I think, "Maybe just a few more minutes. Won't be long now."

At 1:50pm, I begin to get irritable. We are officially past "finishing up" lunch. We are now taking another lunch on top of our previous lunch.

At 2:05pm the doctor graces me with his presence. I was out of the office by 2:15pm.

And now I ask... why is it that doctors/doctors offices can act this way? If you made an appointment with someone at 1:15pm and then moseyed on in 50 minutes later... would you not be reprimanded? Or lose a client? Or lose your job?

I make appointments with students all the time. Sometimes things happen and I'm 5 to 10 minutes late. But darned near an hour?! After I've been told you are "finishing up" lunch? How unbelievable arrogant of you to assume your time is more important than mine. And to come in and not even apologize for taking so long. GRRRRRRRR!

It is unfair I tell you... Unfair. All I'm asking for is a little honesty.  Here is a list of things (I love lists) that would have made this experience okay.

Nurse: "It'll be a little while. The doctor is just now getting his steak on the grill."

Nurse: "The doctor went to school for 8+ years so when he's good and ready we'll get started."

A sign at the front desk: "We tend to run 30 min to an hour behind. Twilight saga in the corner if you want to read them all in the mean time."

When they called to confirm: "Yes, I see your appointment is at 1:15pm. If you could roll on in between 1:30 and 2:00pm we should be fine."

Lastly, upon signing in receptionist says: "It'll be a while. You can watch HBO in the room to your left or the napping room is down the hall on your right. We'll wake you when he's ready."

Ahhh if the world would just ask me for suggestions more often...

2 comments:

  1. We need a day to just sit around and bitch to each other, instead of all this facebook chat nonsense. LOL
    And also, I want to go to the zoo. Those are my requests. And I want to play with your kid. That's it though.

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  2. Tell me when you want to come to the zoo and we will sure take you! The kid will be there Friday night. You can play with him and bitch at the same time. He isn't talking yet so that's still acceptable.

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