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Your Tips on How to Get Off to the Best Start with a New Specialist
Visiting Mayo Clinic | Last Active: Nov 10, 2021 | Replies (231)Comment receiving replies
Hello feisty76, I am sorry this happened to you. I completely understand.
Patients, including myself, can be very intimidated by doctors. We must remember that essentially we employ them. At the same time, they essentially hold our lives in their hands!
Except for unexpected urgent patients that need to be worked in to their schedule as a double or triple book, or an unexpected significant finding during a scheduled appointment, doctors (and often their nurses) own/control their schedules.
When you schedule your appointments, you could try saying that you have several important things that you need to be addressed at the appointment and from experience, you will need a longer appointment time so the doctor can stay on schedule. You could add that you are elderly, in pain and that it is a hardship for you to get there. It's worth a try.
You could also talk to the doctor about that and they can flag you in the system to schedule you for a longer appointment time when you need an appointment.
Those are things that have worked for me.
I wish you all the best! Warmest regards, Sunnyflower 😊
Replies to "Hello feisty76, I am sorry this happened to you. I completely understand. Patients, including myself, can..."
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@sunnyflower My husband has had a rude awakening recently. For the last 30 years, his insurance was through Kaiser Permanente. He enjoyed having drs under one location, for the most part, and dedicated hospitals. Everyone took their time with him, and he received excellent care before, during, and post-kidney transplant. Now we have moved where he doesn't have access, and had to source out [basically I did the research and let him make final decision] new providers. His new nephrologist also runs a dialysis unit. My husband had to find out the hard way that to this Dr, the more patients seen in a day, the more he can bill, so appts are very brief. Fortunately he is very healthy and has no problems.
Ginger