find another practice. Complications do arise, but it seems like no one is at the helm here. Don't worry about insulting them if you choose to go elsewhere. It is about you, not them.

Hope you feel better soon.

Jo

If you really want to stick with this doctor, find a way to talk to her personally. Can you email her directly? Or call the office and reqeust that the doctor call you back at her convenience.

Then tell the doctor everything you told us. I have found that doctors seldom know what their staff is doing. They don't know how their patients are being treated or scheduled. They need to be aprised of the situation.

OTOH, if she's so busy you can't be scheduled in till Sep, she may not care. So it depends on how much you really want THIS doctor to do the procedure as to whether it's worth your trouble to do this.

Other choice is to ditch her and see another doctor. Major bummer either way! Good luck.

I'd have been steamed too! The benefit of the doubt would be to tell the doctor about the situation and hope that she'd be mortified to learn that her practice was being run with so little respect to her patients.
But if you can't get her to call you back personally, I think you should start doctor shopping!
It really is too bad that doctors overschedule their days.

Grace

I agree, I'd have been upset too. Especially when they call you to come in early and then make you wait over an hour!

First off, I would try to talk to the doctor and let her know what is going on. If she blows it off, I would definitely find another doc.

I switched rheumies partly for this same kind of thing. She wanted to see me every three months, but could not get me in but every 6 months!

Just so happens I work at this medical facility and was talking with one of the front desk people from that clinic. Turns out she keeps X amount of spots "open" for new patients. Heck, she can't even handle her load of current patients! Made no sense to me.

Good luck, I hope you get relief soon!

Linda

I appreciate your support. (More than you know.) I switched to another GP a little over a year ago for exactly the same reason. I didn't have a problem with the doctor, but her staff. For some reason, her staff thinks I am the problem, because I dare to complain. It seems to happen in offices where there are lots of 30-somethings, who act like it's MY job to make THEIR JOB easier. With my apology via voice mail from them yesterday, was also the admonishment that they had a patient they needed to spend extra time with, and would do the same for Me. I don't know that...I can't even get seen!

It's time to cut my losses and go elsewhere. Now I get to tell my doctor her referral SUCKS. Back to square one.

I let my dh call the office to get our co-pay back. They were again, ''oh so sorry'' and ''took XXX to task'' for telling me there were Complications. Again, they could not possibly bump anyone's appointment to fit me in before SEPTEMBER. Apparently it was perfectly fine to bump mine! I didn't ask them to bump anyone, nor would I expect them to do anything but fit me in. I don't want to think this was personal, only very unprofessional. (It feels Very Personal however.) Six months to get this scheduled/done is completely unacceptable; they don't want or need my business. (Tell me again why this isn't personal?) I did everything I was supposed to do, and resent having to jump through so many hoops to have this not happen, through NO FAULT OF MINE.

I'll have my regular doctor get the imaging results so I don't have to do that again. This is happening to me in doctor's offices more than I would ever expect. There is no training dealing with patients any more, and office managers can do whatever they want. The doctors really don't care, they don't want to manage the office. My former/current experience with this is the physicians don't want to deal with problems. What is going on?

I left a yellow pages review of the business. I know what usually happens in this case is the business makes up good reviews to offset the bad one. The best thing about it is there were no reviews yet, so mine is FIRST; it will always be the first one read. Bite me.

Oh! That's right. The already did.

OMG what a frustrating experience! I think I would be switching doctors too. Sorry about this. What a horrible experience!

I am very sorry to hear this. We spend a lot of time in doctors' offices and by-and-large our experiences with staff have been positive.

Our worst complaint was not with staff but with the oral surgeon scheduled to do work on an implant/bone graft in my DH's jaw. The only thing that surgeon seemed to care about was his dachshunds, his wife's trip to Westminster and his new helicopter. The stitches broke before we'd even gotten home. A call yielded "Don't worry about it." Two days later we knew my DH was really in trouble. The pain was so bad he could hardly bear it. The surgeon was indifferent, but thankfully our regular dentist opened his office, cleaned out the dry socket and prescribed antibiotics. Otherwise we were headed for emergency.

Talk about a referral gone wrong. After that we got the name of a different surgeon and practice. Results there have been excellent.

I understand that doctors sometimes have emergencies and need to shift appointments, but it's unconscionable that after such a long wait already, they couldn't find a way (exert a little effort) to expedite your treatment.

Carol

Wow. I'm glad you left a review, and I would definitely be looking for another practice.

Alexa

claire, ask your doctor/office to make your new appointment for you! My sister developed complications after surgery and her neurosurgeon wanted her to see an eye specialist. He said his office would make the appointment for her and get her seen much sooner than if she had made the appointment herself.

Good luck, and yes probably time for a new referral.

Di

Di, that's a good idea. I see I have my regular appointment in a couple of weeks; will do.

I can sure see why you're frustrated.

Consider writing a letter -- a paper letter -- to your doctor about your experience. She should want to know what's going on in her practice. Letters get attention.

Good luck and good health to you.

Gellchom, thanks for your advice about writing a letter. Sadly, I left my regular doctor for another practice because of the same kind of issues I'm having with this one. It wasn't my experience that the doctor really cared, as I had tried to bring up the issues I was having several times. She only referred me to her office manager. My impression is they want to deal with being the doctor, not staff issues. Since the office manager is part of the problem (in both instances), I don't see any more attempts on my part at trying to ''illuminate'' the problem in her office as being any more than a wasted effort. Just because I care, doesn't mean the doctor does!

I don't want to pursue any more time in this office. I would have a total of at least 7 more appointments (including surgeries and follow-ups) and I'm not willing to put up with the passive-aggressive, mean-girl, entitlement attitudes. Nothing will change. My husband noticed it quite clearly, within 10 minutes of walking in, and the general atmosphere was the same with at least three of those on staff. I gave it over an hour, and things just escalated from bad to worse.

I have an appointment with my regular doctor next week. I've been trying to figure out how much to tell her. I'm sure she doesn't want all the gory details, but I do need a better referral! I'd rather work on it from that end, because I do have a regular relationship with my doctor, who has been very professional.

Tell your regular Dr. the story in brief... then tell her more if she wants to know.
She should know where NOT to refer her patients.
Linda C