Doctor Office Drama (part 1)

Have you ever had a bad visit to your doctor's office?

A few years ago, I was taking my children and myself to the on-post Family Practice. If you are military, chances are you can relate when I say how terrible it is to have to go to this place. Well first off, the appointment line is horrible. You call, stay on hold for about 45 minutes and when someone finally does answer, they tell you that they don't have any appointments, maybe till next month and almost NEVER with your assigned health care provider. I never knew who our doctor was because I NEVER GOT TO SEE HIM/HER!

The other option was to call back after 1 and maybe there was a cancellation. HA! FAT CHANCE!

The wait time there was horrible. The worse thing for a mother is to have to sit in a waiting room with a 4 year old, a two year old and a baby, JUST WAITING. I use to have to pack lunches and snacks or be prepare eat in the cafeteria every visit. The cafeteria staff knew me by name and always came to help me with my load, by the way.

My final straw with this hospital was when a I was getting Boy 2's (Sir-Talks-A-Lot) 4 year old wellness check up done and the day had already gone far too long. The doctor checked him out and sent us to immunizations for those dreaded 4 year old shots. By this time, it was lunch time (we'd been there since 9) and most of the staff had gone to lunch. The wait was sooooo slow, the kids were irritable because they hadn't hadn't had lunch and well Miss Missy was 2. NUFF SAID! The "NEXT" numbers seemed to move so freakin' slow.

So finally after one heck of a long wait, we were called into the room for shots. The nurse looks at us and say, "Are you getting shots? Because I don't do shots on 4 year olds."

WHAT THE HECK DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T DO SHOTS ON FOUR YEAR OLDS? IS IT NOT YOUR JOB TO GIVE SHOTS? AREN'T YOU THE IMMUNIZATIONS NURSE? WHY DID I JUST SIT HERE IN THIS WAITING ROOM FOR OVER AN HOUR IF YOU DON'T GIVE SHOTS TO 4 YEAR OLD?

She must have saw the look on my face, but she didn't care. She continued with, "You're going to have to make an appointment with his doctor to get the shots done."

"The doctor sent me to immunization," is all I could muster up without yelling, crying or cussing this crazy chick out.

IF YOU CAN'T DEAL WITH FOUR YEAR OLDS, YOU NEED TO FIND A NEW JOB!

"Sorry, you're going to have to get an appointment with your doctor."

My eyeballs must have been FIRE RED as I stormed out of that office and went straight to Tricare to change my doctor. I wanted an off-post doctor and never have to go through the mess I dealt with with the military doctors again!

After signing the papers for a change, I immediately went to patient care and filed a complaint. The rep was shocked with the immunization nurse's "policy", called back down there and demanded I be taken care of ASAP and NOBODY had the right to decide which patients they wouldn't see.

Guess I showed her!

Got the boy's shots done by another nurse and have since been happy with our new OFF-POST physician.

Until Yesterday............