A little background - I have diabetes, neuropathy, a heart condition (I had a coronary stent implant a couple of years ago), and to top it all off, I’m bipolar. Therefore, I have appointments with several doctors.
I don’t drive (due to my medical problems) so I have to rely on other people to get me to the various doctor’s offices. With the price of gas these days, it can get quite costly.
Last week, I had an appointment with my psychiatrist, whose office is 10 miles from my house. This appointment was made 2 months ago at my last visit. My neighbor picks me up, we drive to the office and find a sign on the door that the doctor is no longer at that location. No new address is given. I come back home and call the number I had for the doctor. It gives a new phone number, which I then call. This gets me another recording from the doctor, with the new office location and hours. I leave a message and ask him to call me back because a-I need to reschedule and b-I’m ticked off because I wasn’t notified of the move. He calls back 2 days later with a new appointment time, and tells me that he won’t charge me this time for the missed appointment.
Yesterday, it was time for my cardiology check-up. My doctor has 2 offices - one in Grand Prairie and one in Arlington. GP office is 2 miles away; Arlington office is 12. I get to the GP office 10 minutes early, ride drops me off and goes to do errands. I get to the door - and it’s locked. Ok, I think, maybe they’re not back from lunch yet. I sit outside and wait for a few minutes (keep in mind this is Texas and it’s 95° outside). No one shows up, so I walk next door to the dental office and they inform me that the cardiologist hasn’t been there for a few weeks. Again, this appointment was made months ago, back in December, so the closing of that office might not have been planned back then. However, I had spoken to the doctor’s assistant 3 weeks ago because they had to fax info to my dentist so I could get some dental work done. At the time, she reminded me about my appointment. I had to wait at the dental clinic for an hour before my ride came back. When I got home, I called the Arlington office number and asked about the mix-up. The receptionist told me they no longer used the GP office and that my appointment was in the Arlington office. I asked why I wasn’t notified of the change and she said she didn’t know. I then asked why I wasn’t told 3 weeks ago when I called about the dental work - and was REMINDED about my appointment. She didn’t have an answer for that either. And the kicker - I was told by them that I wouldn’t be charged for missing that appointment either!
Now, one I could blow off as a random incident. But two different ones in two weeks? If there were other doctors in my area that were on my insurance plan, I would think about switching. My neighbor is reluctant to give me any more rides to doctor’s appointments so I guess I have to look for different transportation.