I was supposed to be going to see my podiatrist tomorrow morning. I even packed for my overnight trip that I was going to be taking tonight (since it is the right foot that the doctor has to look at / cut on, driving is a literal AND figurative pain, so my parents have continued their year plus long streak of "driving their son around" and putting a lot of otherwise unneeded miles on the truck). But now I'm not going to spend the night at the 'rents, and I am not going to the doctor tomorrow. Why? Because he needed to reschedule my appointment because of a surgery that is now scheduled for my time slot.
Since I work in billing, I know a few things that a lot of people don't. And for that reason I hold my doctor blameless for this one. He tells the front desk what he needs, they make it happen. THEY are the ones that decide who is going where, and in my case who is getting bumped for someone else. And as sad as it sounds, it is all about the money. Surgeries, even in clinic, are money makers. Follow ups with maintain status quo procedures are not. Ergo, surgeries get fast tracked and general appointments get the red headed stepchild treatment. I would lay money on the fact that my doctor has no idea what is going on, and when I do see him again (currently NEXT Friday, but we'll see if that one stands) he will ask why he didn't see me this week. It reminds me of an old saying, "Paramedics save lives. EMT's save paramedics". That is in no way a shot at paramedics, but it goes to the fact that paramedics will lose track of some of the basics of first responder care because they have a lot more info in their heads to deal with (for instance, they are authorized to dispense medications, something that no EMT or CRT could do back in my EMT days). Basically, it is a "forest / trees" kind of thing. The doctor knows what he needs to do, but the vast majority of them have no idea what is happening behind the desk. That is not in their wheelhouse. And it is a shame, because it causes things like this.
The front desk person called the house this morning to tell Wifey that they had to move me from 8am to 1:30 pm, mmm-kay? This front desk person was actively trying to avoid confrontation / possibly trying to get a cancellation / no show fee from me. Why do I say this? Because they know for a fact that I work, and they know to call my cell phone OR my work number, both of which they have and have used in the past. I made sure that it was in the chart to call those numbers during business hours. The automated "You have an appointment tomorrow" call still goes to the house, but that is it. But the hope is that they will either get to leave a voicemail telling me my appointment has been changed (which I won't get until after they close today since I am at work) or they leave a message w/someone in the house telling me my appointment has been changed. The sneaky thing is that if they leave a message w/a person and then I call tomorrow to tell them I can't do it, I am cancelling w/less than 24 hours notice. A shady office could then charge me a cancelled appointment fee (I am not saying that this particular office is dealing like that, just that it is a possibility and that I know offices where it has happened), which they could not do w/a voicemail message. Luckily for me, Wifey don't play dat (woo 90's references!), and she told them that she would call me and have me call THEM. Which she did, and which I did, and which led me to not having a podiatrist appointment tomorrow.
It all worked out (pretty much), but it is another annoyance in an otherwise already annoying day. I might even have to splurge on lunch and not eat my ham sammich (but I probably will eat the ham sammich. The only reason to get something out is to get away from the Henn Patrol, but I don't know if that is worth the grub I would get. We'll see).
