I drove 30 miles, 7 of it thru freeway construction, to the appointment I had scheduled 4 months ago. I arrive very early, (good thing)to be told by the current occupants of the office that the doctor had moved. I got the new address and proceeded only a couple of miles to the new location. I check in at 9:15 for my 10:00 appointment. 15 minutes later, I'm told there is no record of my appointment and the doctor is already double booked at 10:00. I was offered an appointment at 3:45 "if I would like to wait." No way in hell I'm waiting 6 hours for an appointment. I said hell no. Then they politely offered to reschedule me for an appointment in September. I was good, I did not curse. I turned it down and am in search of another doctor with this specialty, or maybe not. I'm sick of these assholes. Same thing happened a couple of months ago.

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:

...I'm told there is no record of my appointment ...

I have not had a bad experience like that, but I always bring in either the card they gave me with the date/time or ensure I have the email/text they sent.

Most of my providers send an email or text asking me to confirm the appointment. I do that, and if necessary I can show them a copy.

I have never been told that there was no record of my appointment, but I have walked out of the waiting room more than once. I am on time for appointments, and I expect the provider to be on time. I understand that there are occasional legitimate reasons, but most of the extended wait times that I have encountered are due to overbooking.

different kind of frustration here. Wife had a stroke in April, we get to her 3pm appointment to get test results at 2:40 yesterday sit and wait until 4:00 before being called back, sit in the inner office until 4:27. Dr comes in and says " sorry I cant pull up the test results right now, and didn't get to look at them before. I will send them to you when I get to see them. Thats it you can check out I will get back to you"
This is the Neurologist to get results to see if she can begin doing things like drive, and clear her. I guess that is why Dr.s "practice" Medicine

Thats a pretty piss poor doctor’s office all the way around. The whole double book crap and not working you in is really bad. They screwed up and should have worked you in anyway. While I haven’t ever had to look for another doc I would be looking for better servicing.

Like V mentions both my docs send confirmation texts a week out from the appt.

My primary care doctor moved a few years ago and the expected move was mentioned with every contact I had with them before hand and for a long time after the move.

I just assume everyone is incompetent and I need to follow up before any appointments to make sure we are good. My MD and Dentist blow up my phone and email with appointment reminders days before. If that is not happening I am going to find out why

My provider has the MyChart application, you make an appointment, regardless of how, and it puts it in their calendar, and you can see it.

You get a text and/or email reminder to early check in, and reminders via text 15 min in advance to confirm arrival. All you have to do is show up and wait times are minimal to get to the scale and then room.

So far no dropped appointments in several years since this software was put in place..

Works great you can fill out the forms using it online and nothing to fill out when you come in.

I see people who still do it the old way sitting in the office waiting room with clip boards so you can go old school if you choose.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
My provider has the MyChart application, you make an appointment, regardless of how, and it puts it in their calendar, and you can see it.

You get a text and/or email reminder to early check in, and reminders via text 15 min in advance to confirm arrival. All you have to do is show up and wait times are minimal to get to the scale and then room.

So far no dropped appointments in several years since this software was put in place..

Works great you can fill out the forms using it online and nothing to fill out when you come in.

I see people who still do it the old way sitting in the office waiting room with clip boards so you can go old school if you choose.

Most of our docs use that here in NC and our experience has been very good, like yours.

Back when I was living in VA and working my ass off I went to a doctors appointment and waited exactly one hour past my appointment then promptly got up to leave. The receptionist tried to have me stay but I had other things to do. I sent the doctor an invoice for $275.00 for missing my appointment and wasting an hour of my time… about a week later he called me and apologized and said they would send the check out. He never jerked me around after that…

Yes, MyChart works great. Not all of my doctors are on it. I sometimes need specialists who are not. Oddly, my best luck is with the VA medical services. Sometimes they are very backlogged as well, so I go private. Recently, Catholic Health and Baptist granted each other access, so that's helpful.

Biggest issue for me in what med insurance they have on file. My wife and I moved to our current location almost 4 years ago. Our GP doctor retired about 6 months later, so we had to find a new one. Okay, did that. My med insurance with my employer was United Healthcare. About 2 years later, change in ownership of the company, and the new med insurance is Blue Cross / Blue Shield now.

We have been to the doctor twice since the med insurance change, given them our med insurance cards to copy, and still get bills a few weeks later where they have tried to charge our former med insurance. What makes it worse, is that the doctor's office wanted us to create online profiles on a "portal". Okay, we did that, and your personal information, including med insurance, can be edited. I have entered my med insurance as BC/BS several times, hit "save", gotten online and email confirmation of the change, and yet if I go to the "portal", my old med insurance will most likely be there again.

My wife recently got a text from a female doctor's office (OB/GYN) about an outstanding balance. Yep, same thing, they still had our old med insurance information when I called their office. I had them change it to the new med insurance over the phone. We'll see if if takes.

quote:

different kind of frustration here. Wife had a stroke in April, we get to her 3pm appointment to get test results at 2:40 yesterday sit and wait until 4:00 before being called back, sit in the inner office until 4:27. Dr comes in and says " sorry I cant pull up the test results right now, and didn't get to look at them before. I will send them to you when I get to see them. Thats it you can check out I will get back to you"

Hope you weren't charged for an office visit.

Yeah, MyChart is wonderful. My healthcare provider, UCSD, uses it. And has a huge number of specialists. In dozens of locations, most of which are within two miles of my home.

My wife had been in a bad wreck. She went to an Imaging Center and had an MRI . They gave her a CD before she left . She had an appointment with a Neurologist a few days later. When the Doctor came in she said that she didn't have the report from the Radiologist. My wife said No problem , here's the CD. Nope , I can't look at it. I asked her why not ? She said , You have an Attorney so we do things differently. I asked her to explain and she just repeated that she will not look at the CD until she has the report. We went back a week later but by then we had lost confidence in her and so my wife found a different Doctor.