I know that I have complained in the past about doctors who don’t call to remind me about appointments. (Ahem, Mental Health Center.) Well, last week, I got a phone call from the optometrist that I had seen a few times about 3 years ago. My old glasses were ordered through that optometrist, so I guess that they felt that I needed to come back in and get my eyes checked again. I guess that they felt they were doing me a favor.
There’s a problem with their “favor”, though. First of all, like I said, I was a patient there 3 years ago. I had an appointment 2 years ago when my eyes started having the Sjögren’s/dryness/pseudo-pink eye problem. I cancelled that appointment and started seeing the ophthalmologist, at the recommendation of some of the other doctors I was seeing at the time. Now I get my eyes checked by that doctor and that doctor alone. So, in essence, I have a doctor.
Secondly, I don’t like it when medical offices decide that they should schedule or re-schedule your appointment without even telling you. If they are going to make an appointment for you, then shouldn’t the appointment fit within your schedule? What good does it do to make an appointment for someone that they (a.) don’t know about and (b.) can’t make because of their own schedule?
Finally, if you were going to make an appointment for someone, then how about giving them more than 3 or 4 days notice. I might have wanted to see the doctor, if circumstances were different. If I had wanted to see the doctor, then I should have been given enough time to get it on the schedule. I should have been given enough time so that I didn’t feel like the appointment was just being forced upon me.
I would have cancelled it when they made the call last week, but the call was made when I was half-asleep and I didn’t register that the name for the doctor was not one I was currently seeing. I had to wait until after the weekend was over to call them back and leave a message (because they don’t pick up the phone–EVER) and tell them that I wouldn’t be making that appointment. I also told them to not bother making me another appointment, since I was someone else’s patient now.
I just hope that they really don’t decide to reschedule this appointment or, worse, charge me for an appointment that I didn’t make and didn’t want.



