Friday, August 13, 2010

Waiting Rooms

Please explain how a doctor's office has no problem making you wait for more than an hour without even an apology. I had to take Goose to the eye doctor yesterday for a recommended second opinion. I took him to TCH's ophthalmology department having skipped them as my first choice when his eye was initially screwed up in June due to the ER doctor on call at TCH giving him the WRONG does of medicine which resulted in him getting worse. My pediatrician and I weren't satisfied with our regular ophthalmologist's plans for the future so he thought I should see someone else. What a freaking waste of time. My appointment was at 7:50 am, and I was there on time. We were there for over two hours and saw the actual doctor for a total of six minutes. Six minutes during which he asked why I even wanted a second opinion. We also saw a tech for about eight minutes, which still didn't make the two hours worth my time. Goose's eyes were dilated even though they didn't need to be dilated because he was a first time patient. When I complained about this to the office manager, I was told it was standard procedure to dilate eyes on a first visit. I asked why that happen when it wasn't necessary, and of course, she had no response. The only thing I could do to show my frustration without looking like a total bitch was to take a REALLY LONG time getting out of her office as well as the entire office with Kobra screaming and crying. I did nothing to console him telling everyone who asked that he was only upset with being there for more than two hours. TCH's ophthalmology department sucks.

5 comments:

  1. Nicole-I went with my Cecily & my grandson to the orthopedic dept at TCH and we had to wait for 3 1/2 hours to even get back into a room. They told us they schedule everyone for same time & get to you when they get to you. Un-Freaking Believeable. Now she is supposed to take him down there to the ENT dept. Guess she needs to take sleeping bags. Ethan was a starving, screaming disaster when we got out of there. Of course it was 4:45 by that time, so total round trip time was 6 1/2 hours. Left at noon got home at 6:25. WTF is wrong with those people?!??! It was hard with one child, I can't even imagine how difficult it would be with other children. Sorry for your shitty visit. I hope his eyes are ok.

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  2. I've been to TCH before, other dept's, and spent a total of 1 1/2 hours before. This dept just sucked and then the doctor asking what we were doing there, just really pissed me off.

    We have a good ENT I can recommend if you want. Super busy too, in fact, I am getting ready to bitch them out for charging me for a missed appt after all the time I have spent in their waiting room. BUT...they are good.

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  3. You are insufferable.

    Waiting is never fun, but if you were the parent whos child needed the extra time you certainly would demand it. Not consoling your child to 'get back' at the office staff seems pretty harsh and sort of misses the point--mom.

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  4. I realize that waiting isn't fun for anyone, the point is that waiting for two hours is beyond excessive. Period. And dilating a child's eyes for no reason makes no sense at all. Since most appts are scheduled to last 15 minutes on a doctor's schedule I don't think it is too much to ask for that much time.

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  5. Nicole-I have worked in the Medical business for 20 plus years & I can tell you this is not the way a good practice does things. A certain amount of time is scheduled for each patient due to the severity of the medical issue. TCH does not schedule like this. The front office had no problem telling us that they schedule all of their afternoon patients at 1pm everyday & could care less if you wait for hours & really encourage you to leave. We had no other choice to take our grandson to the orthopedic dept there due to his age. I completely disagree with "Anonymous"

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