Twenty-five minutes.
That’s how long I waited on hold to schedule a follow-up appointment at my doctor’s office. Ridiculous. How long would you wait on hold for anything? The woman on the other end of the line blamed it on a new computer system that had recently been installed by the hospital network they had joined. I would have blamed it on incompetence, but I’m not that much of a jerk. Had this been my only issue with my doctor’s experience, I probably wouldn’t be writing this post. So, with that said, here’s my real beef.
We’re Calling to Confirm for: Jonathan Steeurt.
I had agreed to an appointment at 1:30 this past Friday, not 1:15. I wasn’t a huge fan of was the schedule change. Now you may think, ‘what the hell is this guy’s deal with 15 minutes?’ If I tried to change my appointment by 15 minutes, they’d flip. Understanding that they work in a stressful environment, we are always the ones to bend. But in a social world the street goes both ways. The assumption that those 15 minutes aren’t important to me is wrong.
Detour
The last time I paid my doctor a visit, there was construction on the street half a mile before their building. It was annoying; they didn’t tell me about it prior to my departure, but I was able to wait it out until the PennDOT crews guided me to my destination. So this time, I left 45 minutes early, got all the way to the exact same intersection and then wanted to bang my head against the steering wheel. Again, the culprit was road work, this time on the street which the office is located. From the car, I could see the office, a great tease as I was kept away by giant ‘Road Closed’ signs. This information would’ve been nice to know.
I tried to follow the detour signs, to go rogue, listen to my GPS, all to no avail. Great. This is exactly what I was looking forward to. I called the front desk to make them aware that I was indeed going to be late. ‘With who?’, the receptionist barked; I had already provided my name, time of appointment, and scheduled physician. After I explained once more who I was, I started to voice my frustrations with having not been told about the road work for the second time. The woman on the phone responded with, ‘Well, it’s already 20 minutes past your time, I’m not sure if (the) doctor will see you‘. I didn’t see the doctor. Because I drove home. No sense in begging for time from a group that doesn’t value mine.
Referrals
I’ll probably begin the process of looking for a new general physician this week. My experience with the front desk has been brutal the last few visits, even outside of the the construction fiascos. All I was looking for, and all customers are looking for, is to know that if there is vital information we need to know, please do us a favor and provide that to us in a timely fashion. It’s a shame, because I like the doctors in the practice.
In the same way a practice need us to fill out mountains of paperwork with the same information dozens of times, we’d just like to know if we’re going to be serviced in a sensible time. I think that’s a fair trade.
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This post was authored by Jon Steiert, Storyteller and Social Media Swiss Army Knife for True Voice Media.