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Mom's
I love this Farside cartoon. The guy has a small squashed dog stuck to the bottom of his foot. The caption reads: Helen paused. With an audible 'wumph' Muffy's familiar yipping had ended, and only the sounds of Ed's football game now emanated from the living room. Household Hints from A Medieval
Home Companion: If your wines are sick If the wine is moldy, in the winter, put the cask in the middle of a courtyard on two trestles so that the frost strikes it, and it will be cured. tomorrow: If the wine is too tart. I am a theatre critic OK...so it's a new "career", but if you're interested in reading my reviews, go here Updated 2/11/01 WHAT I'M READING... Christmas gift from my friend, Diane, who felt it was time I learn more about Australia also He, She and It Steve tells me I have to read this book. WHAT I WATCHED... It's my night to sleep through: West
Wing That's it for today!
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VOICE MAIL HELL 22 February 2001 One of the things that my therapist recommended yesterday was that I have a physical exam. I’m long overdue for one. I’ve belonged to Kaiser Permanente since it first began, back when I was 10 years old, 48 years ago. I grew up with long waits, lots of "hold" on the telephone, never sure who you were going to see, etc. (I never knew the physician who delivered any of our children--couldn’t tell you the name of a single one; I met them all in the delivery room!) I have no complaints about the medical care per se, but a lot of the niceties that went along with a private physician were just foreign to me. I remember when the kids were little when I just always planned on a 30 minute wait on "hold" on the phone trying to get an appointment. When I went to work for an ob/gyn office, the job came with a health plan. So while I remained a patient of Kaiser Permanente, I actually got my health care from the office where I worked. It was really great to discover how "the other half" lived. (Of course the office was eventually sold to Sutter Medical Foundation, and became an HMO and that all changed, but at least I had a couple of good years!) During the time I had supplemental medical insurance, my primary care physician at Kaiser decided that he was now an orthopedist and so he moved out of Davis and to the Kaiser office in Sacramento, so not only was I due for a physical exam, but I also didn’t have a primary care physician and knew nothing about any of the current providers there. (I had become spoiled in the non-Kaiser years--I had the notion that I could actually choose a physician!) Also, physical exams at Kaiser strike fear and terror into my heart. Oh, I don’t mind any of the procedures. Once I get into the examining room, I’m ok. It’s having to pass by... THE SCALE. In the office where I worked, there was a wonderful understanding that sometimes people are somewhat embarrassed about their weight and even if you’re going to discuss it at the appointment, you (1) have the option of being weighed or not, and (2) the scale is off in a corner where you can be weighed privately. At Kaiser the scale is in the middle of the busy reception area and your weigh is broadcast to everybody within earshot. I hate that. So it’s primarily because I don’t want to pass...THE SCALE...that I’ve put off having an exam. But I do realize I need to do that. So I agreed that yes, it’s time for an appointment. Kathy sympathized with my embarrassment about public weighing (cattle weighing at the State Fair comes to mind...). I decided the thing I would do would be to make an appointment with a nurse practitioner I know, who used to work for our office, and who has had her own set of tragedies in the years I’ve known her. Besides, I prefer seeing a nurse practitioner anyway. So yesterday, I decided to call and make an appointment. Gee...that sounds so simple, doesn’t it? First, when you check the phone book there is no telephone listing for "appointments." You’d think that would be a given, wouldn’t you? But no. So I tried a couple of numbers--Patient Assistance and something else I can’t remember now. Each phone number took me to voice mail which gave me many options. I’d choose which seemed the most logical, and go to yet another voice mail menu, and then another. Ultimately there was no human being anywhere, so I’d try another number. All I wanted was to find out (1) how I choose a primary care physician and (2) how I go about making an appointment with this specific nurse practitioner. I didn’t think that was asking too much. Finally I decided that I’d just call the Adult Medicine department. I knew from past experience that Kaiser preferred you to call a central number, but I was getting desperate. So I called Adult Medicine. First, of course "all of our operators are busy answering other calls; please stay on line." I wait and wait and wait. I loved it that after a long time, one of the recordings tells you what to do if you’re bleeding heavily or in active labor. You could die waiting for instructions. But finally I’m connected Hello? It’s the appontment number! Whoopee! Now we’re getting somewhere. But it’s not an operator, it’s Voice Mail. So first you enter your Kaiser medical number on your touch-tone phone. Then you listen to a bazillion options, none of which was what I wanted, but I chose the closest one, figuring that eventually I would reach "if you need further assistance, please stay on the line and an operator will answer" messages. But I just kept getting deeper and deeper into Voice Mail Hell, entering more and more information, with the ultimate being that I was making an appointment with an unknown medical professional, and not having the option to even find out who is on staff now. I finally gave up in frustration. I don’t have a clue how to reach a real person at Kaiser. I don’t think they even HAVE non-computers working the phones. I decided the only thing to do is call the nurse practitioner at home and ask her how I can possibly make an appointment with her. I’ll probably get her answering machine. |
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Some pictures from this journal |
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Created 2/21/01 by Bev Sykes |
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