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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Crap For Service From A So-Called Professional

This is going to be more of a "rant" than a blog. So, sorry, but here goes...

My daughter went to her dermatologist this morning. She has some sort of allergic/unknown skin problem which she's been seeing him about. Skin testing was done, and this was a recheck of the test results.

Well, she called me while I was at lunch to tell me about the "appointment." Her appointment time was 10:30, and she was finally called in by the nurse at noon. The nurse made small talk by asking, "How are you doing today?" My daughter informed her that she was going to be late for work due to having to wait so long for the doctor. The nurse told her to tell the doctor about this, because he should be aware of her frustration.

The doctor came in, informed her that she was allergic to rubber, told her to avoid rubber, and said, "Is there anything else?" To which my daughter replied by informing him of her hour-and-a-half wait. Without so much as looking at her, he said,"Well then, I better get my ass in gear," and walked out of the room.

So after two months of suffering with a miserable skin condition, multiple visits to this "specialist," and $120 in co-pays, she is kept waiting for an hour and a half to be told to stay away from rubber. No recheck, no follow-up, no apology or explanation.

Probably the number-one complaint we get from our clients at Horseshoe Lake Animal Hospital is how long they sometimes have to wait to see the vet. It's not unusual for someone to be kept waiting 10-20 minutes. On rare occasions, we have had clients wait for up to an hour to be seen. This is usually because of one or more emergency visits coming in to our hospital. No matter what the reason, we HATE to keep people waiting. We spend a lot of time problem-solving it. Two years ago, we lengthened our scheduled appointment times, so we would be less likely to fall behind (it worked!) We have trained our staff to offer something to clients who are kept waiting (soda, nail trim, even gift certificates if they've had to wait a really long time.) And the first thing I always do when I know someone has had to wait to see me is apologize. Then I make sure they get my full attention for the visit.

Now I doubt there are a lot of dermatological emergencies to make this guy run 1 1/2 hours behind, so I don't know what his excuse is, but to act like wasting anyone's time is a trivial matter is inexcusable to me. Likewise, I consider it shoddy medicine to make a diagnosis with no accompanying explanation or follow-up plan. An animal doctor who behaved this way at my practice would find himself looking elsewhere for employment.

Okay, I'm done. Thanks for reading. Your comments would be welcome.

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