RADAR CAN YOU FIND HAWKEYE OR TRAPPER JOHN
Is There A Doctor In The House
Does anyone have a doctor that is on time?
Since relocating my eighty-four-year-old mother to the city I now reside in three years ago her calendar has become my calendar. I’m her oldest son and we had the talk beginning about five years ago. Many of you reading this know what I’m talking about when I say the talk. I have always resided a five to eight-hour drive or two-hour or more plane ride from her. As a result of her relocation, I stopped teaching my Ethics Courses at the college to be available for her.
The medical complex that I drive her to houses her primary care physician, cardiologist, orthopedic surgeon, and ophthalmologist. I take her fifty-eight miles one way to her audiologist. Why so far? It's the hearing plan, not my plan.
On a recent visit to her ophthalmologist, we arrived as always fifteen minutes early. Thirty minutes later the nurse took moms blood pressure and parked us in room number #4. One hour and fifteen minutes later in walks the bouncy opthalmologist apologizing for her tardiness. For the record, she is always apologizing for her tardiness. Mom says to her you are ruining my son's afternoon because he allocates two hours for my appointments. The doctor states it can’t be helped because she has a full schedule of appointments. Mom frowns and tells her that it can be helped if she did not try to see so many patients and schedule them so close together.
On the way out mom asks the nurse if the doctor is always late. The nurse says in the five years that she has been working for the doctor that she has always been running behind schedule.
The same week we head to my mother's primary care physician's office in the senior care clinic. After fifteen minutes the nurse calls moms name and we head through the door for her to take mom's weight, pulse, and blood pressure and check for prescription refills. One hour and five minutes later the nurse practitioner comes into room #2 apologizing for the long delay and states that she hasn’t been goofing off but seeing patients.
My mother puts those laser beam eyes to work on the nurse practitioner and I’m just hoping that the lady doesn’t disintegrate into a puddle of dust. My mother's eyes are lethal weapons just as deadly as any heat-seeking missile. The nurse practitioner feels the heat and again apologizes.
On the way out mom asks to see the administrator of the practice. Mom asks her if the clinic still automatically cancels anyone who is fifteen minutes late and bills the person for an appointment that the clinic cancels because of tardiness. The administrator says yes that this is company policy. I know where this is heading and I’m just waiting on mom to lower the boom on this unsuspecting lady.
The boom comes swiftly but unmercifully in the form of questions from mom. What is the penalty for doctors who are more than fifteen minutes late? More importantly what is the penalty for doctors that are habitually late? What if patients dedicated a page on social media to stories about the tardiness of the doctors in the practice and called the biggest offenders by name?
A year ago my mom told me to sign her up for Facebook so she could keep up with her friends, nieces, nephews, former and current church members, grandkids, and great-grandkids. I am impressed with Mom's last statement about social media. And I shouldn’t be surprised because she talks to Alexa, loves her Kindle, and the toys in her little Honda SUV. She started college at the age of 62 and her favorite course was Intro to Computer.
Now the priceless question is will the clinic improve its wait times or just think that they are too big to fail? Tone deafness cost the financial industry and more recently silicon valley. I would be interested readers to know if any of you have a doctor that is on time or if this is a reality everywhere.
A shoutout to Amy Sea and my Contemplate Family for editing and advice.
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