My doctor's office = completely worthless

Jeraden

Platinum Member
Oct 9, 1999
2,518
1
76
I'm 31 years old and really have never had any sort of medical or health problems that necessitated me needing to see a doctor. Well, last saturday I woke up with a really bad pain in my upper back. By monday morning it hadn't gone away, and it was extremely painful, so I figured its time to finally put my overpriced medical coverage to use. If only I knew...

The office has hours of 9am - 4:30 pm. I had called on Monday initially right as they opened, stayed on hold a long time, asked to get an appointment. They told me they were booked that day but I should leave a message for a doctor and they'll get back to me with a recommendation. I thought they'd get back to me fairly soon so stayed at my desk most of the day waiting for a call. As the day progressed my back actually started feeling a little better so I wasn't really all that worried about them not calling. By the time I was ready to go home, they still hadn't called.

Tuesday morning I woke up and actually felt fine, not perfect, but no severe pain. Got to work and saw I had a message. They had called me back the day before at 4:35 (5 minutes after they officially close). I didn't bother calling back because I thought I was pretty much all better. Big mistake.

Wednesday I woke up and the pain was worse than ever. I thought about staying home but I decided to go to work. My problem was actually a little different this day. Before the pain was in my upper left back, right next to my spine. Today the pain was in the upper right back, closer to my shoulder. I figured I'd give it a day and see how it felt the next day.

Thursday morning I was hurting pretty bad still, so I called them up again at 9am. On hold for 15 minutes again. Told again there are no appointments so I should leave a message with a doctor and am transferred to an operator. I mention that I had called on Monday about the same problem but thought I was better so I hadn't called back. Said I still have the problem and its worse now. She says she'll take the info down and have a doctor review it. I asked her what the doctor said last time, since she did call back on Monday at closing. She brushes that off and says that since this is a separate incident she has to leave a new message and have it reviewed again. Ok, whatever, take the message...

Noon rolls around, still no call back. So I call them to see if a doctor has looked at the note yet. She says the doctor is busy with patients all day and probably won't be able to review it till the end of the day. I ask if I should just schedule an appointment then since it really hurts and I want to have it looked at. She puts me on hold and then comes back and says she needs to have the doctor review it first. I again ask what the doctor said on Monday but she doesn't answer. At this point I assume I'm going to get another call back at 4:30 after they are closed, at which point Thursday will probably be booked so I won't be able to get an appointment the next day either. If they had just put me down for an appointment to begin with I might be able to see someone the next day.

This time they had the decency to call around 3pm. They tell me they are short-staffed this week and the doctor suggested I just go see an orthopedic specialist instead. I didn't want to fully get into my symptoms in this message, but I'm fairly certain its not bone-related, which is what orthopedic is for. I'm guessing the doctor just saw the word "back pain", which usually is a spinal problem, even though its not even my spine that hurts, and brushes me off to someone else. I still ask if they might have any openings the next day to get checked out first there, but of course she says no, they are booked up tomorrow. Gee , thanks for nothing.

So I spend an hour try to find an orthopedic specialist that actually is in my medical plan. There are only 2 close to me. One is booked for the next 2 weeks. The other gave some fairly unintelligible story about how they are in the network, but only for consultations, if I needed xrays and stuff they can't provide them, which means they are useless. I finally find someone totally out of the way to go to that can take me on Monday, which means I have to miss at least half a day of work since its so out of the way. It also means it will be 9 days from the time I first had pain until I finally get to see someone, and I don't even think the person I'm going to see is even the right kind of doctor. But at least its someone.

Now, it might be partly my fault for not following up on the callback from Monday when I erroneously thought I was better. But the whole practice of needing a doctor to review a note before allowing me to schedule an appointment is just stupid, since it almost assures its an extra day delay to get an appointment since they'll inevitable get booked up while I'm waiting to hear back. Plus giving me a referral to another doctor without even personally talking to me is ridiculous. I never once even got to talk to a doctor, just gave an operator a brief description of my problem. They did tell me I could go to the emergency room if I needed to, but its not that bad, plus I have a major high deductable on emergency room visits.

So now I'm all mad and in pain still. Definitely time to pick a new primary care physician after this is done.

Cliffs notes:
- My back is killing me
- Doctor won't see me due to stupid office policies
- refers me to a specialist who I believe is the wrong kind of specialist without even hearing my problem
- specialists booked up for too long, have to make appointment 5 days in future at completely out of the way location
- have to endure 9 days of pain before anyone can even look at me

 

Zim Hosein

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Super Moderator
Nov 27, 1999
65,138
399
126
Cliffs notes:
- My back is killing me
- Doctor won't see me due to stupid office policies
- refers me to a specialist who I believe is the wrong kind of specialist without even hearing my problem
- specialists booked up for too long, have to make appointment 5 days in future at completely out of the way location
- have to endure 9 days of pain before anyone can even look at me

WTH is your health-care provider Jeraden? :|
 

Pepsei

Lifer
Dec 14, 2001
12,895
1
0
Don't you have those place where you don't have to make an appointment?

There's a place here in Virginia called Patient First with multiple locations, you can go anytime you want as long as they're open. Granted, the wait time is about 1-2 hours.

I use them as my primary care provider.
 

SacrosanctFiend

Diamond Member
Oct 2, 2004
4,269
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0
Sounds like your GP's patient load is greater than he can handle. It bugs me when they do that. Of course, most private practice docs bug me.
 

SacrosanctFiend

Diamond Member
Oct 2, 2004
4,269
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Originally posted by: Pepsei
Don't you have those place where you don't have to make an appointment?

There's a place here in Virginia called Patient First with multiple locations, you can go anytime you want as long as they're open. Granted, the wait time is about 1-2 hours.

I use them as my primary care provider.

Walk-in Clinic?
 

Jeraden

Platinum Member
Oct 9, 1999
2,518
1
76
I have HealthAmerica. I never had to use them before so maybe I am just ignorant to how the whole thing works. I thought I had to call the Primary Care Physician indicated on my medical card - which I picked pretty much at random when I got hired since I had no existing doctor and this was the closest one to where I live.
 

HappyPuppy

Lifer
Apr 5, 2001
16,997
2
71
I didn't read all that, but if you are in sever pain go to the nearest hospital emergency room. They will take care of you. Hell, they take care of indigents with no insurance at all.
 

SacrosanctFiend

Diamond Member
Oct 2, 2004
4,269
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Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
I didn't read all that, but if you are in sever pain go to the nearest hospital emergency room. They will take care of you. Hell, they take care of indigents with no insurance at all.

And EMTs are their transportation!
 

Slacker

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
8,623
33
91
I feel compelled to reply whenever someone says they have "Back pain"

About three years ago I had an accute flare up of a chronic "back problem" it felt like someone grabbed a handfull of my back muscles and was squeezing/twisting them, this was the chronic part, the accute part was when I ended up in the emergency room being rushed into emergency surgery to have my gall bladder removed, it burst as they were removing it and I ended up staying in the hospital for a week.

Does alchohol or spicy food aggravate your condition?


I had no idea that my gall bladder was the problem, I thought I was having back spasms.
 

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
50,422
14,337
136
Pretty typical doctor experience IMO but then again I have Kaiser.
 

dsfunk

Golden Member
May 28, 2004
1,246
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Just make the appt. with the specialist. If you do get in to see the doctor, he is going to mumble a bit, and then say see a specialist. You will actually save a few days by not going to see him.
 

acemcmac

Lifer
Mar 31, 2003
13,712
1
0
Originally posted by: Slacker
I feel compelled to reply whenever someone says they have "Back pain"

About three years ago I had an accute flare up of a chronic "back problem" it felt like someone grabbed a handfull of my back muscles and was squeezing/twisting them, this was the chronic part, the accute part was when I ended up in the emergency room being rushed into emergency surgery to have my gall bladder removed, it burst as they were removing it and I ended up staying in the hospital for a week.

Does alchohol or spicy food aggravate your condition?


I had no idea that my gall bladder was the problem, I thought I was having back spasms.

I'm with this guy. If your healthcare provider stinks that bad, stick the emergency room bill to them- you deserve better.
 

Jeraden

Platinum Member
Oct 9, 1999
2,518
1
76
Well its just not emergency room material, it might have been Wednesday morning when it was at its worst. Actually I feel ok again today, its weird, although I can still make it hurt if I twist in a certain way. I'll still go even if I feel fine on Monday, since if I don't I know it will just come right back on Tuesday.