Does your ped do this?

kellilea

I called this morning at 8:00 to get an appointment for my son (he's sick) and the next available appointment they had was at 10:20, which doesn't work for us since I have to pick my daughter up from preschool at 11:00 (and they are not close to each other), so I asked for one later in the afternoon and she refused to give me one because she "still had morning appointments available"...irritating...so I call back later and now they have NO appointments for  the rest of the day!  WTF? 

My question is (before I totally go apeass crazy on them) is this a common practice?  It's something they started recently and I HATE it.  I don't understand why I can't get an appointment for the same day I call in a time that works for everyone (even if *gasp* its in the afternoon). This is not the first time I've been shut out of a day because they refuse to schedule the afternoon in the morning.  I get they're trying to fill the day but really, if I'm calling to get an appointment, can't they work with me?  Ugh!

j-w

That is freaking ridiculous.  I would be livid.  What a stupid policy.

Rebekah1021

This doesn't happen at our office. Did you tell them you had to be somewhere at 11? I'd be super pissed.

summerbrideDC

That is incredibly assy of them.  I cannot figure out their logic.  I wouldn't stay w/ a pedi w/ that random rule.  Lame.  

hope your little one feels better soon! 

DaiLyght

I've never had any of my Dr's offices do this, and it would really bother me if they did.

JOEBunny

I think the theory is that if your kid is sick enough, you will find a way to get them there.  I would have kept DD home or had someone else pick her up.  My doctors office has limited sick appointments, so during busy sick season, this is often the case.  I could see if you were stuck at work and would get fired for leaving or something, but picking a child up from preschool is a pretty low priority.

LanaM

that's a stupid policy. I get whatever appointment time is available and convinient for me.

My kid may be sick enough, but I may also have to pick up my other child and my sick kid could most likely wait another hour in such a case (if the office would cooperate). Stupid rule. 

DandelionMom

That's annoying!  Mine doesn't do that and I'm not sure if I'd stay with a practice that does do that. 

A pedi's office of all places should understand that kids need to be picked up from school on time.

knmommy

I think that is the most ridiculious policy I have ever heard of.  I would be switching peds.  Hope your LO feels well soon and good luck!

lilpiglet

I'd be irked, you have a sick little one that needs to see the dr. shouldn't matter if you call in the morning and need an afternoon appt. or not, they should make you a freakin appt. 

If my dr. office did that, it wouldn't work, especially since I work 40 min. from home, so for me to be at work and need to go home and get DS and take him to the dr. It would be at least 2 hrs from the time i call them till I would be able to get him there. 

amiamish

no, that is ridiculous and I'd ask to talk to the nurse.

FWIW-- I work in the medical field, the staff downstairs is instructed to fill the slots in order-- HOWEVER, they should use their discretion (and sometimes they do) and allow you to come at the next available, or early afternoon. I get calls everyday "can I skip this slot, they have ___ going on at the time"... um yes. seriously, use your damn brain.

Yodajo

JOEBunny:

I think the theory is that if your kid is sick enough, you will find a way to get them there.  I would have kept DD home or had someone else pick her up.  My doctors office has limited sick appointments, so during busy sick season, this is often the case.  I could see if you were stuck at work and would get fired for leaving or something, but picking a child up from preschool is a pretty low priority.

As someone who has worked in an office setting for 15 years, this is the way a lot of offices think.  I have never worked in a ped's office though and I do think a little more flexibility should be present there.  Kids get sick a lot and parents just don't have the flexibility to take off from work at a moment's notice.  You had a valid reason for not being able to make it at that time.

I hope he's feeling better soon!

 

shouldbworkin

Not at all.  They try to get me in as soon as *I* can get in.  If it's not convenient for me for any reason, they would let me come in later if they had an appointment open. 

kellilea

Thanks for the replies.  No preschool tomorrow so if he's still feeling bad (and I really, really hope not) I'll take whatever they give me and ask the doctor about it directly.

If this is a policy and not a scheduler on a power trip, I will probably switch.

JoeBunny, those are good ideas but not options that were available to me today.

SLPgirl

My pedis office only does that on Saturdays. I would switch.

veloelle

Our pedi office gives us the choice of same day appt time. It's first come, first serve for appt time.

emilykristene2006

JOEBunny:

I think the theory is that if your kid is sick enough, you will find a way to get them there.  I would have kept DD home or had someone else pick her up.  My doctors office has limited sick appointments, so during busy sick season, this is often the case.  I could see if you were stuck at work and would get fired for leaving or something, but picking a child up from preschool is a pretty low priority.

So let's just say the OP is working. Her DD is in preschool and her sitter calls to say DS is sick. An appointment is available in 30 minutes. They refuse to give her an afternoon appointment because they have an appointment available in 30 minutes. With what you are saying, OP should leave work, fly over to get DS, pick up DD early from school and then make it to the appointment in 30 minutes. And this is okay?

eclaires

I think our old pedi only did sick appointments in the afternoon or in the morning [pretty sure it was afternoon though].  It was a way to keep from overscheduling, I think, so they didn't run behind.

I don't know; it wouldn't bother me, b/c if my kid is sick, we don't go to school, he goes to the doctor.   Or if I had no flexibility that day and it wasn't an emergency, I'd go the next day.

lsufan

That's ridiculous.  I'd switch to a new practice.  If there were appointments in the afternoon open, you shouldn't have had to choose between a bad time for you and not being seen at all.

isabella22

My dr just switched offices and now we can get same-day sick appts with her, they only have them at lunch time.

I was ESTATIC when I found this out.  I take whatever time they can give me, happily.

So I guess it depends on where you are coming from

I can see how you would be frustrated, but at the same time, if my son was sick enough that I needed to take him to the dr, I would have taken the 10:20 and picked my daughter up early from preschool and taken her with me.  I wouldn't have risked not getting an appt at all, especially if it has happened before.

MichelleWP

I think I have a different viewpoint - most offices only hold so many same-day appt slots, and I've always taken the first one offered, even if inconvenient and I would have to pick my child up from school early. I don't think same-day appts should be done on a basis of convenience only, and I understand why they schedule morning appts first. Say they have 2 appts avail in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, you call at 8am, it isn't "convenient" for you to get in at 10:30 so you take a 2pm. Meanwhile another child starts running a 105 fever at 11am, their mom calls and can't get in because of it and has to go to UC/ER.

A lot of offices don't do same-day appts at all, I think I would be happy I could get in. 

penguingrrl

DHs ped growing up did this.  They were trying to eliminate unnecessary sick visits.  They would get calls all the time that a kid needed to be seen today and was soooo sick, but could only come after school because they couldn't miss school.  The office got tired of explaining to parents  that if the child is well enough to attend school they clearly don't need a sick visit, so they instituted a rigid policy of accepting the next appointment and that's all you're offered period instead. 

It's an annoying policy and I would not want to go to an office that had it, but SIL actually worked as a receptionist there and exlained the reasoning well.  Before instituting that policy they were getting so many ridiculous "sick" visits that were wasting everyone's time and costing the doctors a lot of money.  Many patients had HMOs that gave $x per child per month, regardless of whether they had 0 or 10 visits and the parents had no copay. 10-15 of those every afternoon for a minor cold will cost an office a LOT of money.  Nothing else was cutting down on these visits and the doctors office was suffering financially as a result.  The next step after this policy was going to be to leave those insurance plans because the docs were out of options as they were trying to run a business (and weren't keeping up with overhead... they had had to lay off several nurses and support staff because of HMO underpayments and they did not have high salaries themselves).  So, while I would not go to a practice that had that rule, I can unfortunately see what causes it.

jlw2505

Never , they totally work with what I can do regardless of the time of day.

kellilea

MichelleWP:

I think I have a different viewpoint - most offices only hold so many same-day appt slots, and I've always taken the first one offered, even if inconvenient and I would have to pick my child up from school early. I don't think same-day appts should be done on a basis of convenience only, and I understand why they schedule morning appts first. Say they have 2 appts avail in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, you call at 8am, it isn't "convenient" for you to get in at 10:30 so you take a 2pm. Meanwhile another child starts running a 105 fever at 11am, their mom calls and can't get in because of it and has to go to UC/ER.

A lot of offices don't do same-day appts at all, I think I would be happy I could get in. 

Our office only offers same day appointments (unless its a check up).

 

docmay25

I am a receptionist at a pedi office and I think what your office did is terrible.  We ask our patient's parent if they can come in at such and such time, if they say they can't we offer another time as long as we have one (which we usually do).  We understand that everyone has busy schedules with work and children in school.  We do our best to fit them into a spot that works for them.  If we can't do that, then they have to take the appointment that we have open if they want to be seen that day.

I take my children to a different than the one I work for (because I work for family) and I have never had a problem getting a sick appointment at a time that works for me at  my dc's pedi. either. 

 

 

Halo79RN

I worked in a busy peds office where most peds had very few sick visits in their schedule each day, but one ped was on call for the day with an open office schedule for same day appointments.  they did try to fill mornings up first because, that md would get stuck sitting around allmorning then having a ton of people jammed into the afternoon.  spacing the appointments out gives the ped more time to spend with your dc.  while they did not have a policy on filling the am slots by a certain time, they did have a policy that sounds similar for the evening "sick clinic" hours.  Parents could not call at 1pm to schedule a 5:30 appt.  they had to call when the sick clinic officially opened to schedule the appt.  and in that case, it was fill up from earliest to latest... same went for the weekend am sick clinic. 

while it stinks and is inconvenient for you, they are looking at it in a business viewpoint, I think I would have asked when they start scheduling the afternoon appts so I could call at that very moment.