- Oct 28, 2005
- 9,840
- 6
- 71
It is now day 3 of my struggle with Hospital. It started when I found out that they had scheduled a bunch of tests for me downtown (30 minute drive one way) and locally that are in the morning and evening of the 16th and I have an appointment the day after downtown. Both of these are work days and the schedule is unachievable. They clearly ignored my instructions on how to schedule these appointments. They went ahead and scheduled them without consulting me and they did not even notify me of these appointments. This will not stand.
So I called the scheduling assistant for my doctor. No answer. Called a few times, no answer, left a voice mail. Round 1: Hospital.
The next day I call the assistant but no answer. I then choose the "emergency scheduler" option on the phone menu and I get connected to wwhat turns out to be just the receptionist. I explain I am a patient of Dr. X and am trying to reschedule. She promptly connects me to the same assistant who I have been calling and it goes to voice mail. Well played Hospital. I then call the receptionist back and explain that I cannot get ahold of the scheduler. The receptionist then tells me that she will send an e-mail to the scheduler to get back to me. Later that day I get a voice mail from a different scheduler. She tells me that she got the e-mail but she is not the scheduler for Dr. X. Hospital is a master at this game. I call the number that this new scheduler left me and it goes to voice mail. A few more attempts and I actually reach the scheduler. She tells me that Dr. X's scheduler is actually out (a bold strategy!) but she can connect me with the scheduler that is covering for them. The connection goes through and I get voice mail and I do not know how to contact this scheduler directly in the future.
I then notice that on the Hospital website of my appointments that I can submit a request to reschedule my appointments. I proceed to put in a request and play the waiting game. I figure that will be the end of it as it is already late afternoon and by 4:15 I have heard nothing on my phone. But I was mistaken. When I got home, I found out that Hospital pulled a sneak attack! The covering scheduler tried to call me but they did not leave a voice mail! Then I found out that they responded to my website request but the notification goes to the "Updates" category in Gmail so I do not get an automatic notification of the e-mail on my phone. The new scheduler says that they cannot reschedule my scans to be all on the same day as the appointment with Dr. X but that they could do it on the weekend. Indeed, Hospital knows how to play the long game here. I send back a message to schedule me for the weekend if possible and the day draws to an end. Hospital remains the clear victor here.
Today I figured out how to get in contact with the new scheduler. Her name is attached to the replies to my website requests. This is the first signs of weakness! I call the receptionist and ask to be connected to the new scheduler. As the connection goes through, I hear a few tentative rings on the phone and I am disconnected. I see that Hospital is not going to go down without a fight. I then call the receptionist back and get retransferred and I end up at voice mail once again. I leave a new message repeating what I had said in my reply on the website. Later this morning, I go through and check my appointments and I find that new appointments have been made on the weekend! Haha, a sure victory now! But I find that they figured out how to keep me down when I saw that the tests scheduled on the weekend are the wrong ones. In addition, they also have more tests scheduled for me in the middle of January. I hastily send off another website message noting the discrepancies and immediately after it is sent I get a message from the scheduler saying that some of my tests have been moved to the weekend but that she is still working to get it all scheduled. The crafty dogs!
All through lunch I closely monitor my appointment schedule on the website for the first hint of weakness. Soon after lunch I find that new appointments have been moved to the weekend but the same erroneous tests are still scheduled and others are still missing, sitting out there in lonely January. I make a desperate gamble and call the scheduler again and it pays off! She answers the phone! I quickly relay my concerns about how I am supposed to get a CT scan of my abdomen with and without contrast and a chest x-ray. However, they only scheduled is a CT scan of my chest with contrast and a CT scan of my abdoment without contrast. This is when their deviousness shines through! I am told that my doctor scheduled the CT of the chest! Now they will have to talk to the doctor to verify his orders. Another layer of defenses have arose! And now that I have called and talked to the scheduler about this issue, I finally get a read receipt back from the website message that I sent detailing the same concerns. This is where things stand now but I am determined to continue the fight to schedule my appointments!
And to think, I can look forward to 4 more years of dealing with these people. I can only imagine how much they have to teach me in the ways of war.
So I called the scheduling assistant for my doctor. No answer. Called a few times, no answer, left a voice mail. Round 1: Hospital.
The next day I call the assistant but no answer. I then choose the "emergency scheduler" option on the phone menu and I get connected to wwhat turns out to be just the receptionist. I explain I am a patient of Dr. X and am trying to reschedule. She promptly connects me to the same assistant who I have been calling and it goes to voice mail. Well played Hospital. I then call the receptionist back and explain that I cannot get ahold of the scheduler. The receptionist then tells me that she will send an e-mail to the scheduler to get back to me. Later that day I get a voice mail from a different scheduler. She tells me that she got the e-mail but she is not the scheduler for Dr. X. Hospital is a master at this game. I call the number that this new scheduler left me and it goes to voice mail. A few more attempts and I actually reach the scheduler. She tells me that Dr. X's scheduler is actually out (a bold strategy!) but she can connect me with the scheduler that is covering for them. The connection goes through and I get voice mail and I do not know how to contact this scheduler directly in the future.
I then notice that on the Hospital website of my appointments that I can submit a request to reschedule my appointments. I proceed to put in a request and play the waiting game. I figure that will be the end of it as it is already late afternoon and by 4:15 I have heard nothing on my phone. But I was mistaken. When I got home, I found out that Hospital pulled a sneak attack! The covering scheduler tried to call me but they did not leave a voice mail! Then I found out that they responded to my website request but the notification goes to the "Updates" category in Gmail so I do not get an automatic notification of the e-mail on my phone. The new scheduler says that they cannot reschedule my scans to be all on the same day as the appointment with Dr. X but that they could do it on the weekend. Indeed, Hospital knows how to play the long game here. I send back a message to schedule me for the weekend if possible and the day draws to an end. Hospital remains the clear victor here.
Today I figured out how to get in contact with the new scheduler. Her name is attached to the replies to my website requests. This is the first signs of weakness! I call the receptionist and ask to be connected to the new scheduler. As the connection goes through, I hear a few tentative rings on the phone and I am disconnected. I see that Hospital is not going to go down without a fight. I then call the receptionist back and get retransferred and I end up at voice mail once again. I leave a new message repeating what I had said in my reply on the website. Later this morning, I go through and check my appointments and I find that new appointments have been made on the weekend! Haha, a sure victory now! But I find that they figured out how to keep me down when I saw that the tests scheduled on the weekend are the wrong ones. In addition, they also have more tests scheduled for me in the middle of January. I hastily send off another website message noting the discrepancies and immediately after it is sent I get a message from the scheduler saying that some of my tests have been moved to the weekend but that she is still working to get it all scheduled. The crafty dogs!
All through lunch I closely monitor my appointment schedule on the website for the first hint of weakness. Soon after lunch I find that new appointments have been moved to the weekend but the same erroneous tests are still scheduled and others are still missing, sitting out there in lonely January. I make a desperate gamble and call the scheduler again and it pays off! She answers the phone! I quickly relay my concerns about how I am supposed to get a CT scan of my abdomen with and without contrast and a chest x-ray. However, they only scheduled is a CT scan of my chest with contrast and a CT scan of my abdoment without contrast. This is when their deviousness shines through! I am told that my doctor scheduled the CT of the chest! Now they will have to talk to the doctor to verify his orders. Another layer of defenses have arose! And now that I have called and talked to the scheduler about this issue, I finally get a read receipt back from the website message that I sent detailing the same concerns. This is where things stand now but I am determined to continue the fight to schedule my appointments!
And to think, I can look forward to 4 more years of dealing with these people. I can only imagine how much they have to teach me in the ways of war.
