Just Can't Catch A Break

I go to my family doctor every six months for a simple checkup. Yesterday my appointment was for 10 am. We arrived ten minutes before that. After I signed in, I gave them my new insurance card as I haven’t been there yet this year and it’s a different plan than last year. They would have asked me for it anyway as they are incorporating them into their computer system for everyone’s account, which is something new for them. That should have been my first clue. I sat down and waited...and waited...and waited. Finally after about 45 minutes of watching new people come in and then being called before me, I went to the window and asked if the doctor was running late. She asked me my name...duh, what a stupid question when I am a patient with an appointment. They should know who I was, right? Because I signed in and they crossed my name off as they put me in rotation plus they scanned my card and put it in my file. I wanted to reach in the window and grab her by the throat, just for being so stupid. One person looked for my file along the wall and couldn't find it there. One person looked through a stack of slips as they called it, and didn’t find me there. Another person looked through another stack of slips and I wasn’t in that one either. Now I am lost. WTF?

Eventually they found me and after I was there an hour and ten minutes I was finally called into one of the examining rooms. When the doctor came in of course I complained to him about it. He said he heard them saying they couldn’t find something when he passed by but had no idea it was me. He also said he couldn’t understand why I had missed my 10 am appointment and yet when he came into the office around 10:30 he looked out the window right at me and my husband while we were in the waiting room. Again, WTF? The nurse that took me into the room and did my blood pressure was apologizing all over the place. She said she wouldn’t be surprised if my blood pressure was higher than normal. It was, and I knew it would be.

The doctor apologized, too. A fat lot of good that did for me. I told him this visit should be a freebie. He ignored me. I had also told the nurse and she ignored me too. When I was finally finished and had to pay my co-pay I said the same thing to that person, that my visit should be free. Guess I don't have to tell you, she ignored me, too. And then to top it all off she wanted to charge me last year’s co-pay which was $10 higher than this year. And she had the new scan of this year’s card with the co-pay amounts right in front of her face. Right there on the inside cover of my folder big as you please. And so I say once again, WTF?

Thank the Lord it will be another six months before I go back because I don't know what they were drinking and I wanted no part of whatever it was.