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I've already posted parts of this story on the Off-Topic board, but it continues to get even more ridiculous so I thought I'd compile the whole thing here.
About a month ago, I had an appointment with my clinic for my annual well woman's exam (breast exam, pelvic exam, pap smear, STD testing.) It was the second time I'd gone to this doctor, Dr. G. I wasn't overly impressed with her when I met her last year, but I didn't know anyone else and didn't really want to get established anywhere else, and thought, it's just an annual exam, what's the worst that could happen?
Famous last words.
There were a number of things that annoyed me during the first visit:
1) Dr. G came in and talked to me for a few minutes, then told me to get undressed and put the gown on and she'd "be right back." I waited 15 minutes for her to return...and I was freezing.
2) Her hands were like ice during the exam!
3) She used a cold metal speculum.
4) I found a huge cricket in the corner of the room while I was getting dressed.
While I was there, I asked her about changing my birth control pills to something that would only give me 4 periods a year, because I tend to get migraines during my menstrual cycle. She agreed it would be a good idea to try and said she would write me a new RX. I had asked for Seasonique, just because I'd heard the name before, and she said she wasn't going to write it for Seasonique but for something similar that would give me 4 periods a year.
When I got the RX filled and got it home and opened it up, it was for a pill called Microgestin, which is a standard 21/7 pill (21 active pills, 7 inactive pills during which time you'd get your period -- once a month.) The script had no special instructions on it indicating that I should skip the inactive pills, and there were only 3 packs filled, which would be 63 pills; just over 2 months worth, not 3.
The following day, I called her office and asked the receptionist about the RX. The receptionist said she'd put in a request for the dr. to call me. Later that day, a nurse named M called me to give me instructions...except her instructions were WAY off-base. First she told me to take the active pills continually for 3 months, then stop for 2 months. Then she told me I had to come back in after 3 months to have tests done. Dr. G never mentioned anything like this during the exam so I was completely confused, and asked M to put in a request for Dr. G to call me herself so I could talk to her directly about this.
The next day, M called me back (another strike, Dr. G didn't bother to call me directly like I had asked.) M said that she had talked to Dr. G and the instructions were to take the active pills from all three packs continually, and then break for one week to get my period. Except, that's still only 63 pills which, again, is only a bit over 2 months and means I would still get more than 4 periods a year. At that point, I was pretty fed up with dealing with M because she clearly didn't really know what she was talking about, so I hung up without requesting further clarifications and decided to try and find a different dr. to write me a new script. Plus, I was confused as to why Dr. G didn't just prescribe my old birth control (which was also a 21/7 pill) with orders to take the active pills continually for 3 months, instead of giving me a completely different pill.
So I called a few places (including my insurance company, who said that they would gladly cover me getting more than 3 packs of a normal 21/7 pill in a 3 month time-frame...if the script is written by the doctor correctly...which mine was not, according to the pharmacy) and made an appointment at a different clinic with a different provider. This was about four days after my initial exam, and the appointment with the new clinic was scheduled for about a week and a half after that. I also emailed a customer service/HR email address for the first clinic, explaining why I was not happy with their service and that I had made a new appointment with a different provider because I felt that they had dropped the ball. I got a brief response back from a woman named H, saying she would look into it, and then nothing.
Two days before my appointment with the new provider, I realized I had not heard the results of my pap smear yet. It had been about two weeks since the first exam at this point, and I figured they should have the results by now, so I called the original clinic and asked what was going on. The receptionist looked at my chart and saw where the sample was taken during my exam, but nothing since then, so she said she'd contact the lab and get back to me.
The next day, I got a call from a woman named Y who works at the original clinic. She is some kind of supervisor, and she told me that the vial with my pap sample had gone missing and that they needed to take a new sample so the lab could process it. I pretty much lost it on her; I was fed up and disgusted already at this point, and now she's telling me I have to go through an uncomfortable and invasive exam again? I yelled and I cried, but I didn't swear or abuse her. I think I was well within my rights to raise my voice at that point, and she was shocked when I told her about my initial visit. She had not heard anything about it and didn't know that I had emailed H about it. We talked for about 35 minutes and she apologized up and down and told me that they had seriously dropped the ball, both during the exam and in losing my pap sample. I told her I didn't want to go back to her clinic and that I had an appointment with a new provider the next day, and she said she didn't blame me and would happily send the new provider my charts if needed. She also recommended a different female provider at their clinic, should I feel like ever returning, a nurse practitioner named R, since I was rather unhappy with Dr. G. I told Y I wanted to meet with my new provider, and Y said she would be in touch with me in a few days to see if I needed my charts.
So I met with the new provider and I wasn't really impressed with her. There was nothing in particular that she did wrong or that bothered me, but I have a very strong sense of intuition and if my first impression of someone is not positive, it takes a lot for me to change my mind. (I started listening to my intuition when I got a very bad vibe the very first time I met the new high school band teacher when I was a sophomore, and it turned out that he was drugging and raping students.) I was hoping that it was going to be a very easy visit; I would go in, tell her the results of my pap smear, and she would write me a new script. Of course, with no pap smear, she wouldn't do anything for me. I understand that, that's not what bothered me. Anyway, I decided to make an appointment with her for a pap smear to see how I liked her the second time, and I needed to have the exam done again anyway.
Two days later I got a call from H, the customer service/HR coordinator at the first clinic, who I had emailed initially and she never got back to me. Turns out she had been out sick, and then the person she wanted to speak to regarding my case was out sick, so she hadn't had a chance to look into my situation until then. They had pulled the recordings of my phone conversations with M regarding my prescription, and had agreed that M was very much confused about my script, and had passed that confusion on to me. They had since coached M in the proper way to handle a situation like that. H also said that the script DID have special instructions on it to take the active pills continually for 3 months, meaning the pharmacy should have given me 4 packs instead of 3, but for whatever reason they didn't. She offered to called the pharmacy and get them to change the instructions, or write me a new script, or whatever I wanted.
She also gave me happy happy news: They found the vial with my pap sample in it and it was still good, so they sent it off to the lab and they would have the results in a day or two. Joys of joys! I immediately called the second provider who I had just met with and canceled my pending appointment with her.
That turned out to be a mistake, for the next day, Y called me and told me the unfortunate news: While they had found the vial containing my sample and sent it to the lab, the lab told them there were insufficient cells to run the test and thus they needed a new sample. So we ended up right back at square one.
At this point I was tired. I had already canceled my appointment with the new provider, they were going to charge me to walk in the door, and I didn't really like her anyway, so I agreed to met with R, the nurse practitioner from the first clinic who Y had recommended. They weren't going to charge me anything since it was their fuckup, and R was just going to do the pap smear and nothing else, whereas the new provider wanted to do a full physical since she had never met me. I was able to get an appointment R for early on a Monday morning at 8:20am.
That appointment was today. The problem with just about any clinic is that they're only open 8-5 M-F, which are the exact hours my husband works. And since we only have one vehicle and he takes it to work, he has to take time out of work to bring me to any doctor appointments. This appointment was early enough that he didn't bother going to work first, meaning less trips back and forth. Plus, we were hoping there wouldn't be much of a wait; how backed up could the clinic be first thing in the morning?
Famous last words...wait, didn't I learn my lesson yet?
So we get there at 8:15. I get checked in. The receptionist tries to charge me the standard office visit fee, but I told her Y had said the fee would be waived due to a screw-up on their part, and the receptionist didn't really question that and didn't charge me, so no big deal. I get called back right at 8:20 by a nurse's aid, A, who takes my vitals, brings me to an exam room, hands me a gown, tells me to get undressed, and she and R will be right with me.
She left the room at 8:25.
At 8:55 -- after having sat there for 30 minutes, naked, in a gown, waiting, with no sort of contact or update on the situation from anyone -- I got dressed and tracked A down. She was sitting in an office plunking away at a computer, looking bored. I asked her where R was and what was taking so long, and in a very nonchalant, "this is no big deal stop wasting my time" sort of manner, she responds,
"R is running a little late. She had a family emergency she had to deal with. She'll be here in 15 or 20 minutes."
I stared at her. "She's not even in the building?"
Again with the 'why are you bothering me with this' attitude, "No, she's not here yet."
I lost it. Again. I spun on my heel, ran out into the lobby, grabbed my (very stunned) husband, and shouted, "We're leaving!" The receptionists looked bewildered. I snarled my name at them and told them to check me out because I wasn't coming back, and literally ran from the building, bawling the entire way home.
When I got home, I had a voice mail on my cell phone. It was from a woman named L, who is the director of the clinic. She about fell over herself apologizing. She said she must have just missed me -- we may have even passed each other in the hall near the exit, or in the parking lot, since she arrived at the front desk about 60 seconds after I had run off, with the nurses and receptionists trying to figure out what had just happened. When L heard my name and that I had run out crying and that R was running late, she very quickly pieced together what had happened and called me and left a message, begging me to call her back.
About an hour after I got home, I had calmed down enough to return her call. She asked me what happened. I told her that A had left me to sit, naked (well, with a gown, but come on -- naked) in an exam room for half an hour with no notice that R was running late, then acted like I was bothering her when I asked her what was going on. L just about lost it. She kept saying how much the clinic has failed, the staff has failed, and she has failed. Lack of communication, unacceptable behavior, etc. She didn't try to sugar-coat any of it. She said she was embarrassed, appalled, and disgraced at the whole situation. She had heard all about my previous conversations with Y and H and had been planning on meeting with me during my exam that morning, but didn't realize it was right when the clinic opened, or else she would have been there waiting for me herself personally.
She said she wanted to make things right, if I could let her. I had told her that it was difficult for me to get to the clinic since we don't live very close and my husband works during their hours, and that it wasn't fair to him (let alone me) to make him sit there for so long, for something that should have taken less than 5 minutes, when he was supposed to be at work. So she offered to buy me a cab to bring me to the clinic and then to bring me home, and that we could still do the exam today to get it over and done with. Right now, she said, if you're available (this was at about 10am this morning.) I told her to give me a couple of hours to calm down, and she said she'd send a cab over at 1pm.
So the cab shows up at 1, I get to the clinic, and one of the other supervisors was waiting at the door for me. She brought me back and immediately introduced me to Y, who stayed with me during the whole time I was there (except when I was getting undressed/dressed before and after the exam.) I met R, who apologized profusely for being late. I told her I wasn't mad at her, and really, I wasn't; I understand stuff comes up, life happens, and sometimes you're late. If A had just TOLD me that at the beginning, or, you know, at some point during the half an hour she let me sit there, I would've been okay with it.
Anyway, we got the exam out of the way, Y called the cab back, I got home, and promptly ordered a large pizza for myself. So much for my diet, but fuck it, I needed something after that ordeal.
Oh yeah, and we did get the script resolved. It took a few phone calls back and forth between me, Y, and the pharmacy, but I finally got my script for my old birth control pills (the ones I've been on for about 5 years), with special instructions to take the active pills continually for 3 months, and then off for 1 week to get my period. And the pharmacy filled it for 4 packs this time!
Now just cross your fingers that someone doesn't drop the god damn vial that has my sample in it and smear it all over the floor.
About a month ago, I had an appointment with my clinic for my annual well woman's exam (breast exam, pelvic exam, pap smear, STD testing.) It was the second time I'd gone to this doctor, Dr. G. I wasn't overly impressed with her when I met her last year, but I didn't know anyone else and didn't really want to get established anywhere else, and thought, it's just an annual exam, what's the worst that could happen?
Famous last words.
There were a number of things that annoyed me during the first visit:
1) Dr. G came in and talked to me for a few minutes, then told me to get undressed and put the gown on and she'd "be right back." I waited 15 minutes for her to return...and I was freezing.
2) Her hands were like ice during the exam!
3) She used a cold metal speculum.
4) I found a huge cricket in the corner of the room while I was getting dressed.
While I was there, I asked her about changing my birth control pills to something that would only give me 4 periods a year, because I tend to get migraines during my menstrual cycle. She agreed it would be a good idea to try and said she would write me a new RX. I had asked for Seasonique, just because I'd heard the name before, and she said she wasn't going to write it for Seasonique but for something similar that would give me 4 periods a year.
When I got the RX filled and got it home and opened it up, it was for a pill called Microgestin, which is a standard 21/7 pill (21 active pills, 7 inactive pills during which time you'd get your period -- once a month.) The script had no special instructions on it indicating that I should skip the inactive pills, and there were only 3 packs filled, which would be 63 pills; just over 2 months worth, not 3.
The following day, I called her office and asked the receptionist about the RX. The receptionist said she'd put in a request for the dr. to call me. Later that day, a nurse named M called me to give me instructions...except her instructions were WAY off-base. First she told me to take the active pills continually for 3 months, then stop for 2 months. Then she told me I had to come back in after 3 months to have tests done. Dr. G never mentioned anything like this during the exam so I was completely confused, and asked M to put in a request for Dr. G to call me herself so I could talk to her directly about this.
The next day, M called me back (another strike, Dr. G didn't bother to call me directly like I had asked.) M said that she had talked to Dr. G and the instructions were to take the active pills from all three packs continually, and then break for one week to get my period. Except, that's still only 63 pills which, again, is only a bit over 2 months and means I would still get more than 4 periods a year. At that point, I was pretty fed up with dealing with M because she clearly didn't really know what she was talking about, so I hung up without requesting further clarifications and decided to try and find a different dr. to write me a new script. Plus, I was confused as to why Dr. G didn't just prescribe my old birth control (which was also a 21/7 pill) with orders to take the active pills continually for 3 months, instead of giving me a completely different pill.
So I called a few places (including my insurance company, who said that they would gladly cover me getting more than 3 packs of a normal 21/7 pill in a 3 month time-frame...if the script is written by the doctor correctly...which mine was not, according to the pharmacy) and made an appointment at a different clinic with a different provider. This was about four days after my initial exam, and the appointment with the new clinic was scheduled for about a week and a half after that. I also emailed a customer service/HR email address for the first clinic, explaining why I was not happy with their service and that I had made a new appointment with a different provider because I felt that they had dropped the ball. I got a brief response back from a woman named H, saying she would look into it, and then nothing.
Two days before my appointment with the new provider, I realized I had not heard the results of my pap smear yet. It had been about two weeks since the first exam at this point, and I figured they should have the results by now, so I called the original clinic and asked what was going on. The receptionist looked at my chart and saw where the sample was taken during my exam, but nothing since then, so she said she'd contact the lab and get back to me.
The next day, I got a call from a woman named Y who works at the original clinic. She is some kind of supervisor, and she told me that the vial with my pap sample had gone missing and that they needed to take a new sample so the lab could process it. I pretty much lost it on her; I was fed up and disgusted already at this point, and now she's telling me I have to go through an uncomfortable and invasive exam again? I yelled and I cried, but I didn't swear or abuse her. I think I was well within my rights to raise my voice at that point, and she was shocked when I told her about my initial visit. She had not heard anything about it and didn't know that I had emailed H about it. We talked for about 35 minutes and she apologized up and down and told me that they had seriously dropped the ball, both during the exam and in losing my pap sample. I told her I didn't want to go back to her clinic and that I had an appointment with a new provider the next day, and she said she didn't blame me and would happily send the new provider my charts if needed. She also recommended a different female provider at their clinic, should I feel like ever returning, a nurse practitioner named R, since I was rather unhappy with Dr. G. I told Y I wanted to meet with my new provider, and Y said she would be in touch with me in a few days to see if I needed my charts.
So I met with the new provider and I wasn't really impressed with her. There was nothing in particular that she did wrong or that bothered me, but I have a very strong sense of intuition and if my first impression of someone is not positive, it takes a lot for me to change my mind. (I started listening to my intuition when I got a very bad vibe the very first time I met the new high school band teacher when I was a sophomore, and it turned out that he was drugging and raping students.) I was hoping that it was going to be a very easy visit; I would go in, tell her the results of my pap smear, and she would write me a new script. Of course, with no pap smear, she wouldn't do anything for me. I understand that, that's not what bothered me. Anyway, I decided to make an appointment with her for a pap smear to see how I liked her the second time, and I needed to have the exam done again anyway.
Two days later I got a call from H, the customer service/HR coordinator at the first clinic, who I had emailed initially and she never got back to me. Turns out she had been out sick, and then the person she wanted to speak to regarding my case was out sick, so she hadn't had a chance to look into my situation until then. They had pulled the recordings of my phone conversations with M regarding my prescription, and had agreed that M was very much confused about my script, and had passed that confusion on to me. They had since coached M in the proper way to handle a situation like that. H also said that the script DID have special instructions on it to take the active pills continually for 3 months, meaning the pharmacy should have given me 4 packs instead of 3, but for whatever reason they didn't. She offered to called the pharmacy and get them to change the instructions, or write me a new script, or whatever I wanted.
She also gave me happy happy news: They found the vial with my pap sample in it and it was still good, so they sent it off to the lab and they would have the results in a day or two. Joys of joys! I immediately called the second provider who I had just met with and canceled my pending appointment with her.
That turned out to be a mistake, for the next day, Y called me and told me the unfortunate news: While they had found the vial containing my sample and sent it to the lab, the lab told them there were insufficient cells to run the test and thus they needed a new sample. So we ended up right back at square one.
At this point I was tired. I had already canceled my appointment with the new provider, they were going to charge me to walk in the door, and I didn't really like her anyway, so I agreed to met with R, the nurse practitioner from the first clinic who Y had recommended. They weren't going to charge me anything since it was their fuckup, and R was just going to do the pap smear and nothing else, whereas the new provider wanted to do a full physical since she had never met me. I was able to get an appointment R for early on a Monday morning at 8:20am.
That appointment was today. The problem with just about any clinic is that they're only open 8-5 M-F, which are the exact hours my husband works. And since we only have one vehicle and he takes it to work, he has to take time out of work to bring me to any doctor appointments. This appointment was early enough that he didn't bother going to work first, meaning less trips back and forth. Plus, we were hoping there wouldn't be much of a wait; how backed up could the clinic be first thing in the morning?
Famous last words...wait, didn't I learn my lesson yet?
So we get there at 8:15. I get checked in. The receptionist tries to charge me the standard office visit fee, but I told her Y had said the fee would be waived due to a screw-up on their part, and the receptionist didn't really question that and didn't charge me, so no big deal. I get called back right at 8:20 by a nurse's aid, A, who takes my vitals, brings me to an exam room, hands me a gown, tells me to get undressed, and she and R will be right with me.
She left the room at 8:25.
At 8:55 -- after having sat there for 30 minutes, naked, in a gown, waiting, with no sort of contact or update on the situation from anyone -- I got dressed and tracked A down. She was sitting in an office plunking away at a computer, looking bored. I asked her where R was and what was taking so long, and in a very nonchalant, "this is no big deal stop wasting my time" sort of manner, she responds,
"R is running a little late. She had a family emergency she had to deal with. She'll be here in 15 or 20 minutes."
I stared at her. "She's not even in the building?"
Again with the 'why are you bothering me with this' attitude, "No, she's not here yet."
I lost it. Again. I spun on my heel, ran out into the lobby, grabbed my (very stunned) husband, and shouted, "We're leaving!" The receptionists looked bewildered. I snarled my name at them and told them to check me out because I wasn't coming back, and literally ran from the building, bawling the entire way home.
When I got home, I had a voice mail on my cell phone. It was from a woman named L, who is the director of the clinic. She about fell over herself apologizing. She said she must have just missed me -- we may have even passed each other in the hall near the exit, or in the parking lot, since she arrived at the front desk about 60 seconds after I had run off, with the nurses and receptionists trying to figure out what had just happened. When L heard my name and that I had run out crying and that R was running late, she very quickly pieced together what had happened and called me and left a message, begging me to call her back.
About an hour after I got home, I had calmed down enough to return her call. She asked me what happened. I told her that A had left me to sit, naked (well, with a gown, but come on -- naked) in an exam room for half an hour with no notice that R was running late, then acted like I was bothering her when I asked her what was going on. L just about lost it. She kept saying how much the clinic has failed, the staff has failed, and she has failed. Lack of communication, unacceptable behavior, etc. She didn't try to sugar-coat any of it. She said she was embarrassed, appalled, and disgraced at the whole situation. She had heard all about my previous conversations with Y and H and had been planning on meeting with me during my exam that morning, but didn't realize it was right when the clinic opened, or else she would have been there waiting for me herself personally.
She said she wanted to make things right, if I could let her. I had told her that it was difficult for me to get to the clinic since we don't live very close and my husband works during their hours, and that it wasn't fair to him (let alone me) to make him sit there for so long, for something that should have taken less than 5 minutes, when he was supposed to be at work. So she offered to buy me a cab to bring me to the clinic and then to bring me home, and that we could still do the exam today to get it over and done with. Right now, she said, if you're available (this was at about 10am this morning.) I told her to give me a couple of hours to calm down, and she said she'd send a cab over at 1pm.
So the cab shows up at 1, I get to the clinic, and one of the other supervisors was waiting at the door for me. She brought me back and immediately introduced me to Y, who stayed with me during the whole time I was there (except when I was getting undressed/dressed before and after the exam.) I met R, who apologized profusely for being late. I told her I wasn't mad at her, and really, I wasn't; I understand stuff comes up, life happens, and sometimes you're late. If A had just TOLD me that at the beginning, or, you know, at some point during the half an hour she let me sit there, I would've been okay with it.
Anyway, we got the exam out of the way, Y called the cab back, I got home, and promptly ordered a large pizza for myself. So much for my diet, but fuck it, I needed something after that ordeal.
Oh yeah, and we did get the script resolved. It took a few phone calls back and forth between me, Y, and the pharmacy, but I finally got my script for my old birth control pills (the ones I've been on for about 5 years), with special instructions to take the active pills continually for 3 months, and then off for 1 week to get my period. And the pharmacy filled it for 4 packs this time!
Now just cross your fingers that someone doesn't drop the god damn vial that has my sample in it and smear it all over the floor.
You deserve it!
I don't care how much they kiss your ass over this, the bottom line is that you can't rely on them and this problem is way too big and too pervasive for a gratis cab ride to fix. 
what a complete catalogue of crap.
He is my Black Dragon (and yes, a good one) strong, protective, the guardian. I am his Silver Dragon, always by his side, shining for him, cherishing him.
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