What a frustrating day! So I work for the "world famous" Mayo Clinic. Every day I take care of patients in a clinic and the cast room. Every day I go out of my way to make sure appointments and tests and every thing is scheduled to both expedite my patient's treatment and to make it as easy as possible for them to make their appointments with the help of my appointment secretary. Today, it was my turn to experience the "Mayo way". What a mess! Way back in November I called to schedule my yearly physical. Now, girls, I know it isn't something we look forward to but we do it. We take responsibility for our own health and schedule the exam. I did that. The week or two prior to Thanksgiving. If anyone is counting, that was two months ago. I needed a new patient exam (45 minute appt) with the doc. Fine. I asked to have it scheduled as late in the office day as possible so I could insure that I had seen the majority of my patients before having to have someone cover for me. Fine...3:15 on January 26th. Yes, that is the first slot they could get me in to. Fine. So two weeks ago I email my colleague to see if he could cover for me from 2 in the afternoon today on if I had not seen all of our cast room patients. Fine, no problem, the boss is on trauma call so he would be available. Great! This morning I deprive myself of my breakfast in the car so that I can have my pre-scheduled lab work (gotta make sure my cholesterol medicine is a. lowering my cholesterol and b. not killing my liver)
I get to work, check in with the lab as soon as I get there (7:20). The lab tech pokes the needle in, takes a vial of my blood, all set. I got about my day. After finishing my morning clinic, I call the cast room to let them know that I am available and if there are any patients checked in to please bring them back so I can start seeing them as I will be leaving at 2 pm and would like to get as many seen as possible before than so that my colleague doesn't have to do too much. Fine. They line up all 9 patients, I have my chief available and at 1:50 the last one got taken care of. Great! Get on the bus, get to my car, eat lunch in the car, get to my appt 30 minutes prior as instructed on my itinery. I stop by the pharmacy to renew my birth control pills. Fine. They will be ready when you are done. Fine. I wait in line at the reception desk to check in. Hi, Nicolle Hendrix, clinic number blah blah blah...I have a 3:15 with Dr. D. I'm sorry, you aren't in the system. What is your number again?
Now for all those unfamiliar with the Mayo way patients have a number. if your number starts with a 0 it means you are really really old. M 7 digit number starts with a 6. I'm new to the clinic. They reenter it and sure enough, no 45 minute appt. Nothing! I take a deep breath and dare ask "why?". She does some searching and says "Oh, it was canceled". Canceled, canceled when. Let me do some checking she says. From my cushing, luxury chair in the waiting room (I'm not kidding, they just built this brand new shiny outpatient clinic for us), I watch her call over an appt secretary. Eyebrows are wrinkled, whispers...you know the scene. They disappear behind the HIPPA approved privacy screen. 15 minutes later one emerges. The doctor can not see you today. Wait...you mean she is here? So why again was it canceled? Here comes the stuttering, I'm sorries! It got "erased" by mistake. When? Two weeks after I had already gotten my schedule in my mailbox. Why wasn't I notified? We didn't know it had been canceled.
I just stand there, breathing. There are patients behind me. I have my employee photo id and name badge and pager in clear view...I clearly work here. Can't lose my temper. So, I breath some more. Okay, so what are you going to do about this? I arranged cross coverage for my patients, now you tell me I have to try to get coverage again? I call to find out when above mentioned colleague could cover again. Anytime next Tues, Wed, or Thurs? Great. Can you see me then, and please it has to be as last as possible in the day. So.....long story short, no stirrups for me today (that isn't a bad thing), I kept my cool (i'm so proud of myself) and Dr. D will see me at 3 pm next friday and I have coverage. Oh it means so much to work as an employee for the esteemed Mayo Clinic!
Other than that the day was okay. I'm on my way to check on my boyfriend you got in an accident on the way home. He says he is fine, I'll believe him tomorrow when he hurts all over. Remember, I take care of this sort of thing for a living. Fender bender victims are always fine the day of. Hurt like hell two days later. Yippee....
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