Sick and Tired
I haven’t posted anything since my tribute to Shel Silverstein on Wednesday and I wanted to explain by way of letting you into our little family drama. Unbeknownst to me, a bad cough in my toddler can turn into something much more serious very quickly due in large part to a history of cold and allergy-induced asthma my husband had as a child. So, a normal cough on Monday turned into pneumonia by Wednesday and led to a very scary couple of days for myself and my husband. We are all fine and despite the threat of a hospital visit, we made it through without that added hassle (thankfully).
Where Are All the Doctors?
Before I go further, I want to preface my next few statements. Because I created this site for the benefit of other parents in the area, I made a vow to myself to always be as honest as I can be and not hold anything back for fear of hurting someone’s feelings or upsetting potential friends, acquaintances, or advertisers (one day). So, here goes. We are patients at Huntsville Pediatric Associates. When we moved here in the summer of 2009, our daughter was 18-months-old and we felt lucky to get in to a practice that many in the area told us was the best. We originally had trouble finding anyone that was taking new patients that weren’t newborns and we feared we might be stuck with a brand new doctor as our only option. Who knew there was such a shortage of doctors in the area?
We had been very spoiled in North Carolina where our pediatrician was the Head of Pediatrics at East Carolina University and only took on a few private patients but was a friend of a friend and agreed to see our daughter. When we first met with her, she gave us several phone numbers (home, office, her cell, her husband’s cell) and told us to call anytime day or night. I realized at the time how incredibly rare that was. In fact, she was one of the major reasons I hated to leave North Carolina. I cried more about losing that doctor than I did about some of our friends.
Good Help Is Hard To Find
Now, we really like our doctor here and even though we have moved across town and the office is no longer convenient, we haven’t switched doctors largely because of how much we like him. However, after this latest illness, we are seriously considering it. I’m not going to go into great detail because it’s really unnecessary but we are extremely unhappy with the office staff. Getting an appointment, getting a live person on the phone, getting anyone to call you back is near to impossible – even when you are dealing with emergency situations. I’ve been looking at options but most people I talk to say the same thing. Love the doctor, hate the staff. There must be a reason why this occurs so frequently and in almost all types of medical offices. Getting stellar customer service is a rarity rather than the standard. What are they doing to upset these men and women so much? That’s what I think it must be. The doctors are nice to us and then really mean to their staff when no one is looking. What else would explain the downright rudeness to patients that we experience from staff and even sometimes nurses?
If you have a pediatrician you absolutely love and you can get their staff to answer the phone or call you back, send me a note at [email protected]. I’m looking.
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