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My day at the Doctor

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YZ:
Ok, I had this appointment with an endocrinologist - gotta lose some acquired mass and don't want to do it without a Doc - and in my printed appt sheet it said: "appointment at 11:30, please come in by 11:00".

So there I was at 11:05 at the clinic and there were a bunch of people waiting; the receptionist was  s l o w  so by the time she had my papers in order to hand them to the Doc it was already 11:25 and I was a bit concerned with delays, which only got worse when I peeked over the counter and saw that she had clipped a little card to my folder saying "11:35"...

By 11:30 I was upstairs in her waiting room (better said waiting hallway) and was in by 11:42.

We chatted a bit about what happened since my last visit about 45 days ago, how I was feeling with the medication, etc; she filled new prescriptions for my meds and as she did that I asked about a new appointment with the orthopedist, because the appt I had last week was with a 'stand-in' Doc in place of my regular guy who was in vacations and I didn't like the new guy at all... besides, I needed him to 'renew' the physical therapy and acupuncture sessions, I had already used them all up; when I said that she handed me a folder about some alternative medicine (chinese traditional, etc) that were available.

She gave me two forms to be presented at the front desk of the clinic, one for the new appt with the ortho and one for my return with her in 60 days, along with the prescriptions.

I told her that the ortho had asked me for an MRI of my lower back, and the exam showed something in my kidneys; I know that an MRI is not the best thing for kidney stuff so she gave me another form, a request for an ultrasound exam.

I thanked her, said goodbye and went upstairs to the exam scheduling room to pick a number...  mine was 142, the queue was on 131 so I figured I had time to go down and back to the pharmacy to pick a number for the meds line; on my way back I stopped by the front desk to pick a number for the new appointments and went back two floors up to the exam scheduling.

Man, that line was going slow...  at least we were seated. After a while I went downstairs to check the med line, I was one number behind so in a couple of minutes I had my meds, went around front and was 3 numbers behind so I sat there and got my new appointments in some 15 minutes, went back up and the line was at # 139.

I finally got everything sorted out by 1 PM and was on my way back home.

Of course, I could only get the appt with the ortho for 5 weeks later since I insisted on the same good Doc and he was vacationing, besides mine wasn't an urgent case.

All of the above for free: meds, MRI, appointments, ultrasound, acupuncture, phys therapy, yoga, meditation etc and I even grabbed some free condoms on the way out of the state clinic here in S

Berolzheimer:
YZ wrote on Tue, 18 January 2011 14:56


All of the above for free: meds, MRI, appointments, ultrasound, acupuncture, phys therapy, yoga, meditation etc and I even grabbed some free condoms on the way out of the state clinic here in S

Gio:
It's not really free. Someone is paying for it, no?

YZ:
Gio wrote on Tue, 18 January 2011 22:40
It's not really free. Someone is paying for it, no?


Oh yes. When I was someone else's employee, part of my salary was discounted towards the state medical and welfare systems, and my employers also had to pay their part on top of that.

Now I am self-employed and I do, by my own choice, pay a monthly contribution towards our social security system (which includes health care).

Any deficits at the health care side are covered in the federal, state and municipal budgets; health care is considered here as one of the basic services that the government has to provide.
Now, before anyone thinks that we achieved perfection...  no, the system is far from perfect and in several locations of the country it is actually a very poor service.

But here where I live it works, so I use it.

PS: in several locations in my city, the state provides free and open yoga, meditation, liam-gong classes/sessions (and other similar alternative medicine stuff) because those have been proved to reduce stress and prevent other ailments that cost much more to treat later on.

MagnetoSound:
YZ wrote on Wed, 19 January 2011 01:06
PS: in several locations in my city, the state provides free and open yoga, meditation, liam-gong classes/sessions (and other similar alternative medicine stuff) because those have been proved to reduce stress and prevent other ailments that cost much more to treat later on.




It is possible to be both progressive and economical.

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