Love The Doctor, Hate The Staff!

I love our Doctor, but I just cannot stand the office staff at the location where we see him. So far, my son's new ADHD doctor's office has managed to get us started into their program pretty quickly (or so I had thought at first.)

But the office staff has managed to actually "Lose" two of our appointments and has detrimentally rescheduled a key appointment that my son really truly needed to keep at the time, delaying our official entry into the program itself.

I really do not know what to think about the whole thing. I have tried to keep a positive attitude about everything for my son's sake, but he has even noticed the many problems that they are having about getting him scheduled and actually seen by his doctor.

Today, we had an appointment scheduled for 3:15. I had to argue with the receptionist at the end of our last appointment because she keeps wanting to schedule us at about lunch-time during a school day every time.

She does offer to write us excuses saying that it will make everything alright, which I do appreciate the offer.

Each time she does this, I nicely try and explain to her that my son attends a school that places an emphasis on attendance as part of the criteria for continuation in their program. I know that we will be seeing the doctor at least once a month which will count as an absense each time, which will amount to too many absenses to stay in that school.

Each time I have the feeling that I am "Pulling teeth" just to get an after-school appointment at a time that I know that I can actually get us there, punctually.

I should have become suspicious when I didn't receive a reminder call from the office reminding me of the appointment today. I usually get these calls on the business day prior to the actual appointment.

That reminder call never came. I just shrugged it off and planned to make our appointment as our little business card reminder stated.

My son even made a point to write his reminder on his arm where he couldn't help but read it as he grabbed his books at the end of his school day.

My husband surprised me today and came home early from work so that he could watch our babies while I took Bregon to his appointment (a rare but special treat.)

I picked him up at school with very little fan-fare and we headed over the office. Traffic even went in our favor for once and we arrived about five minutes early for the appointment.

Things were going really well, or so I had thought. I had my copies of progress reports and standardized test scores that would give the doctor an idea of how Bregon js doing in school. I even had my little notebook with a page devoted to notes about his progress on the new medication.

When we checked in with the receptionist, the counselor was very happy to see us and immediately struck up a conversation with us. The receptionist, however, appeared very surprised to see us.

She disappeared into the backroom (seemingly to pull our file) while the counselor and I discussed the lack of availability of diet grape soda in grocery stores today, newspaper routes as good jobs for youths today, and the ironies of philanthropic Americans who gladly fund the rebuilding of bridges destroyed as acts of war in other countries yet will not pay to maintain our rather delapidated bridges here at home.

When she came back she seemed even more confused. At first, I had thought that she might just be confused over the topics of conversation that she had walked in on, but I was soon to find that was NOT the case.

She outright asked me why we were here. I showed her our appointment card for her inspection while she asked us who made the appointment for today and why.

As it turns out, the handwriting on the card was HERS. She then told us that we shouldn't be seeing the doctor yet because there is a PROCESS.

I told her as nicely as I could muster that we had been coming here since early July and I had thought that we were going THROUGH and complying with some sort of process.

The counselor had to intervene and begin translating for me because the receptionist seemed very VERY confused. She finally said that she had called someone and that they had verified that we were not "In-service" whatever that meant.

I asked her nicely to explain to me what that meant and please let me know what we needed to do to get classified as "In-service."

This really confused her even more. She told me that we appeared to already have done everything as she had just glanced down at our file and were just waiting for classification which could take months. Until then, we were not "Authorized" to see the doctor.

She then asked me who had told me to come in for this appointment. I tried to suppress a case of the giggles that kept trying to slip out because at this point, the counselor was still trying to simplify whatever I was telling her so that she could understand everything. (As it turned out, it was HER handwriting on that card!)

Keep in mind, we do NOT have a language barrier here, either! I tried to keep my poker face on as best as I could, telling her that the Doctor had told us to come back in 4 weeks so that he could monitor my son's NEW medication.

Her eyes got HUGE over this as she told me that we shouldn't have even seen that doctor yet (something that I had thought we had already covered under the "Process" heading!)

Apparently, classification doesn't really matter if the DOCTOR says that he wants to see you. She managed to get us in on the list for the day, though she remained confused.

I was so very glad that I didn't have the babies with us. They would have really made it a three-ringed circus in there! Thank goodness for sweet and caring and thoughtful husband!

Almost immediately, the Doctor called us back to his office as he had the receptionist take Bregon's height and weight. Poor Bregon had been taking the whole conversation in, as it turns out.

Once in our doctor's office, we started discussing Bregon things like grades, progress reports, and the effects of the new medication and its dosage. The doctor went over the print-outs that I had made for him and asked Bregon some questions.

Bregon was very sceptical at this point after what had happened in the office waiting room with the receptionist and yet another lost appointment and he answered the doctor's questions very half-heartedly.

I think the doctor must have understood and had seen some of what had gone on because he was very helpful and tolerant of him in spite of his lack of enthusiasm.

All in all, the actual appointment went well (or anti-appointment!) We were advised to come back in month to re-assess everything and Bregon's progress. I groaned because I would have to talk to the receptionist AGAIN.

This time, the counselor was NOT there to translate as he was with a patient. I let her know that we needed to come back in a month in an after school appointment, please!

She nodded and turned around from the computer to hand me an appointment card. The date really doesn't matter, but the time she put down was for 1p.m. in the afternoon. She smiled and offered to write us an excuse for it.

I apologized, and asked for something after 3p.m. AGAIN, and remembered to say "Please!" I was really feeling the need for my translator...the giggles had gone away for good this time, too~.

She very reluctantly moved the appointment to 3:30 after I making me go through the whole school-attendance-being-very-important-for-my-son-getting-to-STAY-at-that-particular-school spiel.

We left with an increase in dosage for the new medication and our appointment slated for AFTER school. I also left with a huge sense of dread that the appointment will again be "Lost" and struck from the books for whatever reason AGAIN.

Don't get me wrong, Bregon and I adore this Doctor and the Counselor is really cute, too. I just cannot develop any affection for the office staff.

I had thought that we had something going there after our last appointment, but I was so very wrong about that!

It was really funny to watch the look on the receptionist's face when the Counselor told me how the state hires the staff for this particular office and how they didn't have any say over any of it (implying competency issues.)

My biggest worry, though, is that this time, my son really noticed and felt the whole "Lost appointment" issue. It was reflected in his rapore with the Doctor and his session.

The only thing that helps remind Bregon that the Doctor is an okay kind of guy is the fact that he is a classmate's father and volunteers at the school festivals with me. It really did help a little that he told him that he would see him on Friday at the 7th grade festival.

As a Mum, I am torn on this issue. What do you do when you love the Doctor, hate the staff?