WHEREIN I REFRAIN FROM WRITING "YOU SUCK!"

Dear Pediatric Group,

Thank you for scheduling in a "sick hour" every day. That is such a great idea and I have been able to take advantage of it on more than one occasion, a far cry from our old doctor who sent us to the ER every time one of the children was ill.

Recently I had a new baby. We saw Dr. R in the hospital and enjoyed chatting about his recent trip and cultural nutrition. He suggested bringing the new baby to the office in two days and we were very clear that we did not think it necessary but would schedule an appointment in the near future. He thought we were very capable of keeping an eye on her color and weight without the two day check.

Then one of the older children got sick and we utilized your "sick hour". While sitting in the waiting room we heard the secretary on the phone repeatedly saying, "Your child X has an appointment scheduled today for X o'clock. We are short staffed and need to reschedule him for X date."

We then saw Dr. D who refused to believe what I was telling her regarding what was happening with my child (I was later proven right!) and gave me a hard time for not scheduling regular check ups. She prescribed some medications and I asked the secretary to fax them to the pharmacy. She agreed, but didn't make any move to. I asked her if she would kindly do it NOW so we could head right over. She said that she would, but again didn't move, and while I put on jackets and scheduled appointments I never SAW her do it, but told myself she must have done it through the computer.

Remember earlier how the secretary had canceled all those appointments? Well it seemed she canceled too many because she offered me a slot for the new baby that very afternoon! At the appointed time we all trudged back to your office. I was a little unhappy because it seemed the prescriptions were NEVER faxed over and I put up with some abuse from the pharmacist assistant because of it, but that's another story.

We undressed the baby like we were told, and sat with our naked baby for 45 minutes before I alerted the nurse that we would need to leave in 15 more to get the older children. She assured me that the doctor would be right in. She wasn't and after 15 more minutes we left.

I was reluctant to schedule another appointment because it seemed incredibly difficult to get an appointment that wasn't at EXACTLY two day, two weeks, or four weeks of age. I waited a week and called, asking this time to schedule all five children for checkups. Doing so met my expectations because they don't all have birthdays in January. After much confusion (not on my part!) we scheduled 2 children for the 17th and 3 for the 22nd. Phew.

Then yesterday I get a phone call asking if we can reschedule one child from the 22nd to the 25th because Dr. T is "overwhelmed seeing three siblings back to back." Honestly, that makes NO SENSE to me, other than the threat of having a huge chunk of time if we don't show, but we don't want to overwhelm anyone so fine, we reschedule one child to the 25th.

Last night we came home to another phone call from your office. They noticed that the baby would be turning 2 months old on the 24th, so can we please move the two children from the 17th to the 24th, and since we have a child scheduled on the 25th wouldn't it be more convenient for me to have all three seen then?

What would be more convenient for me is to stop playing musical calendars, honestly.

Here is a little chart to show the progression:
11 111
that's overwhelming. Lets do this instead:
11 11 1
Much better. No wait, how about this:
11 111
Yes, that makes it sooo much less OVERWHELMING!

When I returned your call I was told that it didn't make any sense to have the baby seen on the 17th and then again on the 24th. I must say, I agree one hundred percent. That is why we won't be coming in on the 24th.

I understand that with such a large practice it is easier to keep every child on a prescribed schedule, but has anyone noticed that this is a 6 week old baby who you wanted to see on day two, who hasn't been seen AT ALL and now you want to move up her appointment?

We are unable to reschedule. The appointments that we have already work well for us, and by the way, thank you so much for the $235 bill from Dr. R that I opened shortly before hearing message number two. It was a nice touch!

Very Sincerely Your,

~me