Visiting the Doctor

Last week I had a doctor appointment.  Now, a somewhat consistent annoyance of mine is going through the list… and my list is looooooong, unfortunately… of medications.  Do you take this/that/this/that, and on and on.  Yes/yes/yes/yes, and on and on.  It’s very tedious, and let’s just say that my patience is short for a patient.

I’m thinking, I’m going to beat this.  I start this long ambling monologue about how my sister does the same job, people always say there aren’t any changes, then admit there are, fess up that yes I did do that once, but that yes everything… and I mean everything… is still the same, except this one new prescription, which I produce from my pocket and show them.  I’m thinking I was pretty clever.  They would know that anyone who thought this through to that extent would obviously know what they’re talking about, and leave me alone.

*sigh*  No.  They still had to ask every single medication.  She thanked me several times for my patience, but I think she knew I was highly annoyed.  (I was annoyed enough that I was only half paying attention and said ‘yes’ to everything, which I’m sure didn’t help.)

Like I said, my sister has to do this, too.  She explained it to me once, and it did make sense.  I get it, people are forgetful.  Probably liability and health reasons, too, I’m sure.  Fast forward to today, and I have another appointment with a different doctor.

I’m thinking, I’m going to beat this.  I got online and went through their “eCheck-In” and confirmed all my personal information and medications.  The website said this would speed up the process because all the questions were already done.  And, just in case, I took a printed sheet of all my medications and doses with me.

It didn’t start well.  The receptionist started asking my personal info.  I interrupted and said I had already done the eCheck-In.  She looked on another screen, confirmed that I had, and stopped asking questions.

After I got called back to see the doctor the nurse starts her usual routine, including verifying medications.  😐  I politely… and I was very polite, I think… point out that I went through their eCheck-In and already verified everything.  She says she has no way to see that on her computer, so she has to ask anyway.

Double 😐

At this point I whip out my handy-dandy paper list and hand it to her.  She looks at it, and… proceeds to ask me about every single one as she is comparing my list to her computer.

*facepalm*

This is already bad enough.  I’m feeling minorly insulted and majorly annoyed.  But, now I had one more thing to complain about.  Why the #$%! do they promote their eCheck-In when they’re not going to use it, anyway?