How to get past the scheduling barracuda at your doctor’s office

This scenario is played out everyday in America. You get sick and want to see your doctor within a reasonable time period. Typically you are faced with the scheduler telling you “the next appointment the doctor has free is 4 months from now.” You say “I am sick now; so what should I do?” The scheduler will typically say “well if your symptoms worsen go to the ER.”
There it is the blow off answer.
Most folks will be angry with the scheduler. This is the wrong person to be angry with. The scheduler gets his/her instructions from the DOCTOR.

So here you are with an illness, which you know needs some medical attention. You can’t get in to see your own doctor. If you go to the ER you will wait for many, many, many hours because the ER staff does not consider your illness as an emergency. You are placed at the end of the pile of patients and when the true emergency patients are gone you will be seen. The ER doctors will place a bandaid on your illness and tell you to follow-up with your own doctor.
This will give you power with your doctor’s scheduler. Call your doctor’s scheduler and say “I have just been to the ER and the ER doctors want me to follow up with my doctor within 5 days.” The scheduler will have to make space for you at this point. If the scheduler does not accommodate you CHANGE DOCTORS!

Another place you can get medical care is from the urgent care centers. I call them “doc-in-a-box.” If you have no insurance you will have to pre-pay for your care. If you have insurance you will certainly have a co-payment. The doc-in-a-box will also give you a bandaid for your illness and tell you the same thing at discharge “follow up with your primary doctor within 1-2 days.” The follow up time period is arbitrary. It depends what is wrong with you. Again, you call your doctor’s scheduler and state what your discharge instructions say. He/she must fit you in for follow up care.

Yet another way to get an appointment with your primary doctor is to ask to be placed on a waiting list in case other patients cancel their appointments. Call every morning to see if anybody has cancelled. Remember the squeaky wheel gets the oil!

If you think your illness is not an emergency, but you know you need medical care and the scheduler says there are no appointments, just go sit in the doctor’s office. Tell the receptionist who you are and what you need and let him/her know you will not leave until you are seen. Use this method as a last resort. Typically you will wait a long time, but you will be seen. Don’t make a big fuss, because they can call the police to have you escorted out. Just sit there quietly until the doctor can squeeze you in.

Doctors are in business because of “us” the patient. If you are not receiving the care you think you deserve then change doctors. If enough people do this the doctor will hopefully get the message and may restructure time for office visits.

Times are changing rapidly. Doctors are refusing to see patients because of no insurance. I think that speaks volumes of any doctor who has refuses care to anyone. This is the America we live in today. We must adapt to the changing values, rules, and ethics. Medical care is considered a business. The art of doctoring is gone.

Try the suggestions in this article. Hopefully you will able to use the appropriate medical person for your care.

I do have to make a disclaimer on this article. Not all doctors behave like this. Thoses are the doctors you need to find for your care. The doctors who actually care about the gestalt of you.

Tags: doctor office, ER, urgent care