What is an ultrasound appointment supposed to be like?

sbonnevi · December 2013

Hi - I'm currently 19.5 weeks pregnant and I've been going to a Dr. in Reston VA since I found out about my pregnancy, she had good reviews and is very close to work so I thought it was perfect but I've been very disappointed with my experience with her practice (and with her) so I may be expecting too much from an ultrasound appointment, so I wanted to get feedback as to what I should expect. The things that are bothering me:

1. I've only seen the Dr. once, when I had my first appointment to confirm I was pregnant, I've never been seen by her since, only be her front desk technicians, should I see her at each appointment or only when I get closer to my due date? I have a ton of questions for her at each visit, but I end up having to Google my questions because she's never comes to see me during my appointment.

2. Their technology is very out of date - so out of date that they keep having light leakage problems which make it hard to see the baby on the screen. Because of this, they're sending me to a specialist who has high tech equipment to actually monitor the baby's development, and to provide me with pictures. If I'm being sent to this specialist, should I just be going to them instead instead of wasting my time at my gyno's or is it common to have a gyno and a women's care specialist?

3. They never provide me with ultrasound pictures. The only picture I have received was from the specialist. My gyno keeps telling me she will send me copies of the pictures, but never does (her excuse after the first visit was that she forgot to save the image they saved on the machine, the second excuse was that she didn't know I wanted a picture). Do you not usually receive ultrasound pictures? I've been taking pictures of the image they "save" on the machine on my iPhone after they leave the room so I have some sort of picture of my growing baby.

4. Every time I go, I have to provide a urine sample, but they never have the urine cups ready to go in the bathroom, I always have to go ask for one because they don't provide me with one... shouldn't they provide me with one before I go into the bathroom if they don't have a stash in the bathroom?

5. Every time they have to do blood work, they end up having to poke me in 3-5 places because the have a trainee every time I'm there. This last time, they forgot I was waiting to give my blood so I just sat there for about 20 minutes until someone (who was on a personal call) got off her call and realized I was still in my waiting room....I was trying to be polite and patient, but I feel like I should be a little more aggressive now.

6. They keep sending me bills, even though I pay for the visits when I'm there at the office - I then have to go back and provide receipts for their records... if they want me to pay at the clinic, don't send a bill, right? I don't need to go out of my way to provide them with documentation that I've already paid my bill, right?

Are these normal things, or should I be looking for a new Dr.? Thank you for your feedback!