Today’s post is a transcription of a hand-written letter that I mailed to my gastroenterologist this morning.
Dear Dr. B_____,
I had an appointment with you this morning in advance of scheduling an endoscopy. When I arrived at your office the receptionist collected my insurance cards and ID and asked me to take a seat in the waiting room. Since there were several other patients already there I told her I would prefer to wait outside. She replied, “Well, we don’t call people so I don’t know what to tell you.” I told her that in that case she could cancel my appointment and I would find another gastroenterologist. She handed me back my cards and I left.
Dr. B_____, I don’t want to find another gastroenterologist. I have been your patient for many years and have always felt I was in good hands. And I regret that I left your office so abruptly. If I had it to do over again I would ask to speak with a supervisor and request an exception, but I was angry, not just at the receptionist’s dismissive tone but the fact that she was apparently stating the policy of your practice that patients who wished to wait outside would not be allowed to do so.
I spend an hour or more every day with my mother, who turns 90 next week. I have thus resolved to do everything I can to ensure I don’t contract Covid-19 and risk giving it to her. Over the last few weeks I have been to LabCorp for a blood test, and to appointments with my ophthalmologist, dentist, and primary care physician. They all either required that I wait in my car or accommodated my request to do so. Yours is the first healthcare provider’s office that insisted I wait inside with other patients.
While the incidence of Covid-19 infection is much lower in New Jersey than it was in the spring, the pandemic is not over. There have been resurgences in some places where the contagion had seemed under control, likely the result of a loosening of the measures that reduced infections in the first place. I would like to reschedule my appointment with you and go ahead with the procedures I’m due for. I ask only that you allow me to wait outside between the time I check in and whenever you’re ready to see me. If you can accommodate this request, please have a scheduler call me at __________ or email me at ____________. I hope to hear from you.
Very truly yours,
Paul W. Knight
Three days after I sent the above letter, the office manager at Dr. B’s office called and said they very much wanted to address my concerns. She invited me to make a new appointment and said that when I arrive I will be taken immediately to an examination room rather than being asked to sit with other patients in the waiting room.
Interestingly, she said the reason Dr. B’s practice was no longer letting patients wait outside was that they had forgotten about people who were out there. I accepted that offer and made another appointment, but I didn’t have the presence of mind to point out that rather than abandoning the practice of letting patients wait outside they might have just come up with a more reliable system for keeping track of them. I plan to write another letter to Dr. B. to suggest that.