Today we were supposed to have Grace's appointment with the Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist. So we drove across the bay to Mobile (roughly 1/2 an hour) to the office. Once we arrived I signed Grace in and told the receptionist that we were new patients and asked if there was any paperwork we needed fill out. She told me that they were running behind and she would call me up when she had the paperwork ready.
So Grace and I sat in the lobby and waited. And waited. And waited. Keep in mind that I have a tired and quickly growing cranky two year old with me, so each minute seemed like 10. Well, after waiting for 45 minutes, the receptionist called us up to her desk and told me that there was no appointment for Grace. Are you kidding me? She double checked the spelling of our last name and still nothing. I told her that our pediatrician's nurse called and made the appointment on Friday. The receptionist checked again and said that there was no record of anyone from our pediatrician's office calling in to schedule an appointment for anyone. And they were so backed up that they couldn't work us in. Great.
So we left. And drove another 1/2 hour home. Instead of going straight home, I decided to take Grace back to the Urgent Care walk-in clinic that we have been so pleased with in the past to get Grace's ears checked out and a second opinion regarding the tubes. We were taken back immediately and saw two different doctors. Both doctors agreed that both of Grace's ears are still red and they have a lot of thick fluid behind them so she's most likely going to need tubes to drain the fluid. They gave her another antibiotic (the third one in 7 weeks - all for the same infection) and then referred me back to the ENT.
This time, however, I made the appointment myself. Fortunately, the ENT receptionist remembered me and was able to work me in Friday morning for a consultation. In the meantime, I'm looking for a new pediatrician... Two down that we've tried so far and each has been worse that the last.
The first pediatrician was completely clueless and couldn't answer basic questions that I had about some optional immunizations for Grace. His response was to ask his nurse because he didn't know. Those type of responses don't instill a lot of confidence in one's abilities...so I decided to try a different pediatrician.
This second pediatrician we used for the first time last week has a horrible staff. The nurse was supposed to schedule Grace for the ENT while we were in the office. We waited for 20 minutes after the appointment was over before she finally told me that she would call me the next day after she got it scheduled. Thursday rolled around and I never received a phone call. So Friday morning I called first thing and asked if the appointment had been made and it wasn't. So this same nurse said she would make it and then call me back before lunchtime. Guess what? No phone call by lunchtime. So I called back at 4:00 and the nurse said she made the appointment but couldn't remember when it was or with what doctor. Seriously? Then she offered to call back with that information but I insisted on holding while she looked it up. I also asked her what antibiotic they gave Grace at her appointment and her response was, "It was probably xxx." I politely asked her to confirm that was what was written in Grace's chart. Sure enough it was something different. Unbelievable! When she finally found the information about when the ENT appointment was scheduled I had to remind her again that I didn't know which doctor or where the office was located. Incredible. Then to top it all off, she apparently never made the ENT appointment in the first place...
Needless to say, we won't be using that office again although I do plan to write a formal letter of complaint to the pediatrician informing her why we are leaving...
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