going to the doctors is a nightmare!

[evident]

I sprained my ankle in Saigon and when I got back to the states I wanted to go to the doctor and get it xrayed and stuff. plus I had a cold, and I haven't been to the doctor's in 3 years so i figured it would be good to get a checkup/physical as well.

I'm on my wife's health care now and we selected a doctor close to us. Making an appt as a new patient was a pain in the ass. I'm not sure if this office is completely swamped or what, but their policy is, for routine things, to e-mail them, or to call and leave a message (there seems to be no way to get an operator to pick up). So I called them and told them I was a new patient and wanted a checkup and my ankle hurt and i wanted an appt. waited 24 hours no call back. I called them up again and left another message. they finally called back and we scheduled an appt for 1:50 2 days later. I get there at 1:30 and start filling forms (new patient,etc). I didn't get called into the back room until 3:30 not even exaggerating. ugh. doctor barely sees me for 15 minutes, in the middle of talking to me takes another phone call for 5 minutes and gave me a referral to get an xray at the hospital. She was supposed to write a prescription for an air cast but i was never handed it. (I was under impression it would be at receptionist after i got my blood work done). Go to the hospital, wait another 30 minutes to get an xray, argh.

anyways, it's been 3 business days. Their website says to email them for lab/xray results. I sent them an email authorizing them to send me my results via email, get an auto reply to call them. WTF! I call them and left them a message at 8AM this morning, still waiting for a response. I think it's time for me to go back to my childhood doctor, even though they are 40 minutes away.


cliffs
going to the doctors is an inconvenience,
Doctor's office seems real impersonal and won't even pick up the phone and wants all communications done by email or leaving messages on their answering machine
if I was really sick i'd probably be dead waiting for them to respond back to me

Does everyone else's doctor have this impersonal crappy process? with my old doctor i'd be able to talk to a receptionist right away or at the most within 15 minutes.

 

[Bateluer]

You need to find another doctor. For the ankle problems, you should be able to use any local urgent care facility.

For the time being, you're still able to simply locate another MD.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Urgent care is a good idea. Expect what you got to be the norm as reimbursments and insurance complexities increase. People spend more and more time complying with bizarre requirements and so the time they spent with you evaporates.

 

[makken]

Hmm I just switched insurance and my experience was very good...

Got my new insurance card on my day off, and since I haven't been to the doctors in a few years, decided to go in for a physical. Created an account on my providers website. Then logged in and picked a doctor. I was able to view her calendar online, and penciled myself in for an appointment later that day. Got an email confirmation 10 seconds later for the appointment.

I arrived about 15 minutes early expecting to need to fill out a bunch of forms, but since I already entered my information when I created my account online, everything was on my card already, so didn't have any paperwork at all.

Doc calls me in about 5 minutes later and go through the usual. She orders some blood work and some medication for an allergy outbreak I was having. We schedule a follow-up, and I head down to the lab.

Got the email confirmation for my follow-up on my way to the lab. I head in, swipe my card and waited about 10 mins before they call me in for a quick poke and suck.

On my way out, I stopped by the pharmacy and they had my medication ready to be picked up. All in all, the whole ordeal took just under an hour.

When i got home, got an email summarizing my visit and everything that was discussed. The next day, the results of my blood work came back via email.

Have to say, I was very impressed with the whole experience.

 

[Brovane]

Some Doctors are horrible with timing of appointments. My wife had a appointment at her DR at 8am when they first opened. She gets there and by 8:15 is back in the room waiting for the Dr. Finally around 9:30 AM she hears his office for the first time in the office. As far as she can figure out he didn't show up until 9:30. If the DR isn't going to come into the office until 9:30 don't make a frigging appointment in at 8am. Recently I went to see a specialist. I had a 2:30pm appointment. I got lead back in the room at 2:30 and the DR came in at 2:35. Some offices are respectful of your time and some are not. If you need to, take your business elsewhere and let them know what you are leaving.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

I work in healthcare (IT) and you just got a crap clinic. Go somewhere else ASAP.

 

[Ns1]

wall of text
Have to say, I was very impressed with the whole experience.

HMO or PPO? What you wrote sounds like HMO, but good service sounds like PPO, so which is it?

 

[RocksteadyDotNet]

LOL, America.

 

[makken]

HMO or PPO? What you wrote sounds like HMO, but good service sounds like PPO, so which is it?

HMO

 

[Ns1]

HMO

damn that's what I thought.

HMO's are great until they don't give you what you want.

 

[jaedaliu]

HMO

Kaiser?

They've been my best experience.

And yes, the down side of a good HMO is that they won't always give you what you want. For most people, it's not a big deal.

 

[makken]

Yup. Kaiser

 

[xeledon20005]

I rolled my ankle like a month ago, ive iced it down but it still hurts. Debating on going to the doctor.

 

[xBiffx]

going to the doctors is a nightmare!

 

[evident]

damn that's what I thought.

HMO's are great until they don't give you what you want.

haha, that's kind of funny, i never had a problem with aetna, till today, I went to the durable medical equipment supplier closest to my house only to realize they don't take aetna, doh. another waste of 20 minutes. my fault though, i should have looked on the aetna website to find a place that takes my insurance before going, instead of assuming they do.

In my personal experience having an HMO is the best way to go. most PPO's that I had the option to be a part of pretty much screws you over if you have some type of catastrophic hospital visit, where with the HMO you pay a 3 figure copay for something that would otherwise be in the tens or hundreds of thousands. My mom was in the hospital for around 2 months- i thought we were going to be bankrupt but she ended up having a good HMO. thank god when the bill came, $500 :thumbsup:

I rolled my ankle like a month ago, ive iced it down but it still hurts. Debating on going to the doctor.

When i tripped down the stairs I did an "ankle inversion"- the xrays came back and turns out that its just bruised, no broken parts. If it hurts make sure you RICE it, rest, ice compression elevation. You should at least get it checked out to make sure it's nothing bad. you don't want to abuse it and not let it heal properly, because it will then be subject to injury again. i've been kind of guilty of this, i didn't really treat it properly till 1.5 weeks later

 

[TheVrolok]

LOL, America.

LOL, troll.

As for the OP, some places are great, some suck; find a new office.

 

[wirednuts]

i think doctors are great for physical injuries and heart problems... but for illness, not so much.

 

[Corporate Thug]

You need to find another doctor. For the ankle problems, you should be able to use any local urgent care facility.

For the time being, you're still able to simply locate another MD.

100% agree. My doctor has never kept me waiting more than 15 minutes past a scheduled opinion and 75% of the time gets me in EARLIER than scheduled. He is available by phone or email and asks which method of communication I prefer for lab results, etc.

Sounds like you just got a crummy doc.

 

[Gooberlx2]

OP, find a different doctor. Sounds like that office has overextended itself.

Kaiser?

They've been my best experience.

And yes, the down side of a good HMO is that they won't always give you what you want. For most people, it's not a big deal.

Kaiser is, by far, the most amazing medical system in terms of appointment efficiency I've seen. Their communication system works very well to receive labs and email the doc too. Getting through the departmental gatekeepers can be a terrible pain if you want to actually call them...but damn if they don't know how to run that system like a well oiled machine.

Had mixed experiences with the quality of their doctors...but that's going to be extremely variable based on region and whatnot.

 

[evident]

100% agree. My doctor has never kept me waiting more than 15 minutes past a scheduled opinion and 75% of the time gets me in EARLIER than scheduled. He is available by phone or email and asks which method of communication I prefer for lab results, etc.

Sounds like you just got a crummy doc.

I think i found out what happened. there were originally 3 doctor's but I think one really recently had a mid life crisis and quit or went on leave or something. I swung by yesterday and noticed that the doctor left a huge thank you letter on the wall. So the office must have been swamped. Otherwise i dont know how people would put up with this crap. Still going to try and go back to my childhood doc's office.

what's worse is that the med supply store doesn't have my damn air cast and has to special order it for me, and i have to waste another lunch break driving there to pick it up on thursday or friday. a week after my appt and still don't have an air cast. good thing i have my ace bandage at least!

 

[Chrono]

I had Blue shield before... not sure what they are now... but now I have Kaiser. Kaiser has been the best hospital experience I have had. I dislocated my hand and have had nothing but great support from them. The doctor that was attending to my orthopedic needs was also awesome.

 

[JTsyo]

Hmm I just switched insurance and my experience was very good...

Got my new insurance card on my day off, and since I haven't been to the doctors in a few years, decided to go in for a physical. Created an account on my providers website. Then logged in and picked a doctor. I was able to view her calendar online, and penciled myself in for an appointment later that day. Got an email confirmation 10 seconds later for the appointment.

I arrived about 15 minutes early expecting to need to fill out a bunch of forms, but since I already entered my information when I created my account online, everything was on my card already, so didn't have any paperwork at all.

Doc calls me in about 5 minutes later and go through the usual. She orders some blood work and some medication for an allergy outbreak I was having. We schedule a follow-up, and I head down to the lab.

Got the email confirmation for my follow-up on my way to the lab. I head in, swipe my card and waited about 10 mins before they call me in for a quick poke and suck.

On my way out, I stopped by the pharmacy and they had my medication ready to be picked up. All in all, the whole ordeal took just under an hour.

When i got home, got an email summarizing my visit and everything that was discussed. The next day, the results of my blood work came back via email.

Have to say, I was very impressed with the whole experience.

Sounds awesome. Nice to see businesses fully utilizing IT.

 

[Tommy2000GT]

I have Kaiser and it is the best because they take care of everything so easily under one roof.

My g/f went to a Sutter Health hospital for an emergency. There are like 100 different bills from every single doctor or staff who treated her. And then she has to go to the main doctor who diagnosed and did the operation on her for post op checkups in a different city instead of at the hospital because that is where her office is. So now I have to write letters to every single doctor and staff that has helped her because she has no insurance.

However Kaiser facilities and equipment look they are from the stoneage compared to Sutter Health.