We went in to see the doc yesterday with Tabby. She was scheduled for a consult with the pediatric urologist. No biggie. So we got there at 2:50 and checked in for our 3:00 appointment and went upstairs and sat in the waiting room and played with toys and such. We met another mom all set to see the same doc as us with a 3:15 appointment. By 3:25 we were all getting a bit antsy. Then they called the other mom and her kids. And we got confused. I said to Matt that maybe we had our appointment time wrong. He decided we had better check and make sure. We've waited (in the pharmacy in paticular) for over 45 minutes and when we finally went to ask, we'd been forgotten or whatever. So he went up to ask. He made an inquiry with the receptionist who then went to get the nurse.
All the way across the large waiting room, I heard the nurse's rather rude answer. Basically the jist was that we may have gotten there at 2:50 but our appointment wasn't until 3:30 and how dare we even THINK to question this. When Matt came back I commented to him about how rude she had been. And I didn't bother to lower my voice because I didn't paticularly care if she heard me or not.
A couple of minutes later, she came out and called us. I walked over and she started in on us again. Just because we arrived early didn't mean that we could get into see the doctor any earlier. Very rude again. I told her in the politest way I could that we had simply had a misunderstanding about our appointment time and we were just trying to make certain we'd not been forgotten as we had been before and cited the incident at the pharmacy. “We've learned to ask rather than assume.” She curtly informed me that they were not the pharmacy that they were a surgical department who ran on schedule, blah blah blah, which was still clearly untrue because they were still 10 minutes late for OUR appointment (not that I care, but don't lecture me about your precise time tables when you're 10 minutes late, lady). I didn't bother to argue with her.
I didn't bring it up, but the doc did end up apologizing for her behavior, which I appreciate. It would have meant more if she had apologized, but whatever. This paticular appointment, it didn't really matter, but I think back to my first perinatologist appointment last October when the slightest anything would have sent me into hysterics because I was so upset already at having to be there and you just wonder if she shouldn't think about a new career. Possibly one with less people interaction.
What a grade A BIATCH! Hopefully the doctor will keep notes on this person, cause I am sure she has been rude before and get rid of her.
No kidding. She should not work around people, especially children. She should go do some research in the arctic or something.
It's sad when a doctor has to apologize for his staff. The way the staff treats you counts for a lot.
Wow. I'da been all over her in return. How rude.
I effing hate that. I swear. I ran into that a lot with one of our fertility clinics. Like, if you lack compassion, maybe you should be a postal worker. I hope the doctor said something to her.
I hope Miss Tabby is ok.
Sorry to hear you guys had such a horrible experience. The office I work at just recently got rid of one of our nurses for the same type of behavior towards our patients and she threatened my boss. I'd almost say give it time and she may or may not be there the next time around if the doctor keeps having to apologize for that sort of behavior.