Posted on 04/28/2024 8:09:05 AM PDT by 4Runner
Made an appointment to see a medical specialist affiliated with a large hospital and teaching institution located in Tampa, Florida.
The appointment was made two months in advance, the office was that far booked up and its services apparently that much in demand.
On the day of the appointment, I arrived twenty minutes early, produced my insurance and identity cards, and was given a portable tablet to complete some documentation.
Just about everything I had to electronically sign on the tablet was about disclosing my personal medical history to anyone who asked for it, and agreeing that anything done to me or said to me by anyone in that office was protected from any claims against it or them by me, the patient.
Then they wanted every piece of information on my smoking and alcohol usage habits, and finally I was asked if I had had my most recent Covid shot. Of course my answer was negative. Never have had one, and never will.
Fast forward three (3) hours later. I am still in the waiting room, when one of the facilitators finally calls out my first name.
(You see, they don't address you by your last name anymore. Just first names. To avoid having to call you Mister or Missus or even Ms. God forbid these SS troops should have to show any respect.)
So I go with her to a computer, where she turns to me and tells me I am the wrong person. There is someone else in the waiting room with the same first name as mine, and he is the person who is next to be seen by the physician, not me.
The time was 1:45pm. I tell her courteously I've been waiting since 10:45am to see the doctor. That's three hours. Can she tell me when I will be called? I then am escorted to an exam room, and the door is closed.
Fifteen minutes later the doctor comes in and begins speaking into a dictating machine. Details he is reading from my last visit to their office, which had been in 2014, ten years ago.
It reminded me of the one time I had needed to give a deposition in a law suit. The next thing he does, is tell me he is ordering an MRI for me. And when he gets the results of the scan, I will be called back in to discuss the findings with him.
I got three whole minutes with this man. AFTER HAVING WAITED THREE SOLID HOURS TO SEE HIM. And was given an order sheet for an MRI for my trouble.
I finally figured out this physician had taken a one-hour lunch break at the same time I had been waiting for my appointment with him, scheduled for 12:30pm.
This was why no one on the staff had offered any explanation or apology to me as to why I had been kept waiting for so long for so little.
My insurance company told me the co-pay for the test is $220.00.
Talk about a caste system.
You shouldn’t be so compliant with these people.
It is a monumental bureaucratic mess.
I’m seeing a specialist for an annual checkup... in August... got a call last week to make the appointment. So I do and he has no availability in August... or September... or July... But he has some availability in October!
My provider promises a 15 minute max wait time. They record time stamps and send a survey afterward to get patient feedback.
And let me guess… your doctor was some self-important Indian brought over here to help break the system with Obamacare.
I tried to get an appointment to see a podiatrist. Six months out. YAY obamacare. And I guarantee illegals go to the front of the line.
It is cheaper now, to just book a flight to India and see a private American trained doctor there. Pay cash
Here in PA, I’m in a semi-rural (imo) community where things are not much better. Got a flock of seniors who regularly need rides to doctors and clinics. The mega-hospital here is now owned by an even more mega corporation in...California? The doctors and nurses use first names without giving anyone theirs (I imagine even a ten-minute hooker might give you a name to call her), and most folks older than 50 aren’t happy about that.
And yes it’s a meat-packing facility full of personnel largely indifferent to patients.
Then back in town I take my elderly buddies to the local doctor who, in most cases, does not personally examine them or even show up. A physician assistant sees them. She raises her voice, as if all seniors are hard of hearing, though they’re not, and she knows these patients, some of them for many years, but she’s more interested in her notes — and she doesn’t apologize when you sit there twenty minutes in the examining room waiting for her to show.
The local doctors and staff don’t do more than cursory exams and sometimes not at all. They draw blood and then some lab tells them what’s what. Then the local doctor turns into a referral center, sending the patient to the mega-hospital specialist who tells the patient what’s wrong with him and what they are willing to do about it if anything.
It’s enough to make you bitter.
I have friends who are doctors and nurses. They might still want to heal the sick but they have all invested a great deal of time, effort and money in the credentials they possess and would do anything to protect their investment. Anything.
But preferably nothing.
The less interaction with patients, the better they like it.
So take care of yourself.
Does the medical system waste the time of patients? That depends on how one looks at the issue.
Some years ago, when an eye exam picked up some abnormalities, I had an MRI to identify the problem and was soon in one of the state's leading hospitals for a first rate neurosurgeon to dig out a pituitary tumor. The operation saved my vision and probably my life.
All told, from diagnosis to operation took less than a month. I do not begrudge the time I spent in waiting rooms for such an outcome.
Time to find another practice that actuslly treats you with a splinter of respect.
Where do you have such abysmal care? I can see any specialist within days. Got my cataracts done this year over a month. First eye scheduled two weeks after diagnosis. Never had a problem or delay scheduling an mri or other scan.
I can’t tell you one thing good about the medical system. If I had run my business like they do I would have failed and gone broke long long ago. No part of it is efficient or even the least bit respectful of persons. I well and truly despise most doctors. I believe they are the root cause of most of the problems in medicine, they lead it. They are trained in arrogance.
This is happening all over the place. I had a similar experience.
So I went to Google reviews and found the practice had a two star out of five rating.
Basically it was a good practice until the older doctors retired. Then they hired a bunch of liberal doctors (I know because they asked my gender identity and they were still wearing cloth masks).
The best review went something like this:
They’ll take your money, run a lot of unnecessary tests, tell you that you’re about to die and then don’t lift a finger to help.
I think it’s funny that the same actor (Justin Long) played the brainy nerd in “Galaxy Quest.”
We can get all the medical care we need from greedy lawyers.
Car insurance is comparatively a lot better. Let’s realign health insurance to a national model like car insurance. Buy what appeals to you.
But our elected representatives refuse to allow that option. Because government doesn’t work for us. It works for lobbyists.
On a related note, I have also been seen at a top teaching cancer hospital and pretty much go through the same drill but without delays. In fact, I'm amazed at all the tests which are tightly scheduled and which come together in a final report from a two-day period/sprint. In fact, their response is quite timely, even if everything is on an iPhone or tablet.
Even though it's all using technology now, the treatment options have certainly improved. While I agree with you, I can deal with it as long as the care is where it needs to be -- which for me it is.
If you can, it might be time to look for a new teaching hospital
Yes but there are cars that can’t be insured due to condition, danger, etc.
You will have to allow insurance companies to refuse people (or set very high premiums!) whose behavior has too damaged them to insure. Who makes that decision, what’s the parameters and are the conditions nation-wide, state-wide or local. It would be a very hard sell!
This is the old Obama Care insurance pools where the government tried to force high risk populations drug users, gays (high AIDS numbers and other STDs!) as well as the high health risk urban populations into “normal” populations. Not doing it and the screams of discrimination will drown out all actuarial table logic.
While cataracts are important to you, that surgery is not specialized. It is routine. Specialists, especially at top teaching hospitals/centers, treat life-threatening and often somewhat rare problems. They get the "big problem" cases. And generally, have a good track record treatment.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.