How do you call a doctor? Sounds easy, huh?
Well for the past several weeks it has not been that easy and as a matter of fact has proven itself to be downright frustrating.
My spouse, recently had some tests done which were to be sent to a local laboratory for evaluation and reporting. When she attempted to get this information from this well-known diagnostic laboratory they replied that the information that was sent, even though it clearly said prescription on it was not actually a prescription and as a result they could not begin their evaluation.
After many many phone calls to both the diagnostic laboratory and the company doing the testing we ended up with the usual “If you are calling for a doctor, press 1: if you are calling for an appointment, 2. If you are calling for this, that or the other press a series of numbers that are given to you by phone.”
Don’t bother because most of them end up putting you on hold and you don’t actually get to speak to an individual. I know that sounds ridiculous but that seems to be the way the medical world is working now. Years ago I would call a doctor’s office and ask for the doctor by name. Of course now you are informed that the doctor is not available on certain days and may be available on other days and to keep calling. Great!
Let’s go back just a few years. Virtually all of my doctors at that time worked from home and did their examinations and prescription writing on their living room or dining room tables. Believe it or not, it worked.
I fortunately have or had many friends in the medical profession, some of whom I knew personally or played tennis with. It was always a matter of simply placing a call to their office and getting the results that I needed.
That is no longer the case for me or virtually anyone else. I listened to my spouse the other day spend several hours on the phone trying to get through to one of the doctors offices with no success whatsoever other than the promise that somebody would be calling us back soon. Did you ever receive that call? Neither did we.
Now, if I were just calling to order a bag of potato chips I suppose I could have a little more patience but when you have someone in your family with severe pain or instructions that are difficult to follow and you cannot reach anyone with a professional status, it can be very frustrating.
I am not quite sure who these young ladies are that work in the doctors offices and invariably promise to get back to you, but I can promise you that most of them are simply not doing their job nor recognizing the importance of some of the calls that they are handling.
We have tried being exceptionally nice to these people with the hope that they would be in turn nice to us. It just didn’t work out that way and we’re still waiting by the phone for several offices to return what we consider very important calls.
Any suggestions?
