Hello....you work for ME!!!!

This year I plan to start taking more control over my life! I have a tendency to let people walk all over me. So, this year I will work on that! Today I think I have made great strides in that endeavor.
Last night, just as the doctor's offices close for the day Kailee started getting sick. Amazingly it was a Monday not a Friday! So right at 8:15 this morning, when the doctor's office is opening, I called. None to surprisingly I waited 10 minutes for my call to be answered. This office NEVER turns the phone on, on-time! Once getting someone to answer I am told that the receptionist no longer makes appointments!?!?!? (Then why does she still have a job???) She will let the nurse know I would like an appointment and she will give me a call back.......fast forward 30 minutes to when the nurse calls. She wants to know all over again what is wrong with Kailee. I already told this to the phone answering lady, she put it in the "note." However, I explain again that I think she has an ear infection in her right ear. She has a fever and is miserable. I am then told that she will take this info to the doctor as soon as she is available, and they will decide if she wants to see her today. At 10:30 the phone answering lady calls me back let me know a doctor, who is not my child's doctor, would like to set up an appointment!?!?!?!?!? At this time I politely inform her that we will no longer be seen in this office! She replies with the, "On we are so sorry to hear that, may I put into the file why you have decided to switch???" WHY YES, YOU CERTAINLY MAY!!!!!!
1. I am the mother of 3. We have has literally HUNDREDS of ear infections in this household!!! I have NEVER taken one of my children or myself to the doctor for an ear infection and been wrong. Check the file if you would like!!! If I call for an ear infection get your lousy e-script ready cause we will need an antibiotic!
2. I live an hour away from the doctors office. If you are just setting the appointment up at 10:30 in the morning we are never going to make it to the appointment where we sit for over an hour every time. To the Pharmacy where we wait at least 20 minutes for your lousy e-script to get there, and then wait another 40 minutes for the medicine to be ready. Feed children who are miserable and back to Carrabassett Valley by 2:45 where I pick my son from the bus! Your new system is terrible for sick children!
3. I do NOT want to see a different doctor whom I do not like! My children's doctor is obviously over-paid for this area. She is ALWAYS on vacation when my children are sick, and I help pay that salary, So will NOT continue to use her services!

Doctors work for their patients....without us you have no job! Period! So if I decide as a parent that I would like to make an appointment than I should be able to do so without 3 peoples consent first. I do understand that with the H1N1 virus that people are flooding offices. So if you have a patient that is always being seen and never has anything wrong, say that you can no longer see that patient. Don't punish the rest of us who know what we are doing!!!!!

I got off the phone and called my insurance, switched the children's PCP over to the same one my husband and I have, called that office and made an appointment for Kailee. All in less time than what I spent on hold waiting for the "phone answering lady!"

The other positive is the office is closer to home and has later evening hours, so when Noah starts allergy shots he will be able to have them done right there, and not miss any school for it!

Just because I am a young mother DOES NOT mean I am an idiot! I have seen hundreds of different doctors and been through a few surgeries for my child. I know what is going on and I take great pride in being a parent don't insult me by trying to make me think that you control the shots here.

This "Health Network" considered my opinion to be important enough to make a patient ad about the Doctor and Hospital that I speak so highly about, so lets see what they will think of my letter of disapproval. Because they WILL be getting a letter!!