Epitome of a Bad Health Professional

Should I say Health "Professional" up there in the title? Not sure.....didn't feel so "professional" today. Here goes with my rant; hang on for the ride....yes, I'm whining a little, but I have to rant about this one.....and I'm only keepin' it real. We think healthcare is bad now, but I think we're really in for it if a certain someone in authority gets his way....(just my humble opinion).

A bad health professional ( I say health professional because I'm not even sure who she was today; was she a doctor? No....Was she a P.A.? Still not sure....Was she a nurse practitioner? Still not sure.....Hmmmmm......health professional it is). Anyway, a bad health professional is one who leaves you in the waiting room for an hour just waiting for a simple hearing test and with a toddler under 2, no less (hang on).

A bad health professional is one who brings you in for the 5 minute hearing test only to sit you in another smaller waiting room for yet another long hour.

A bad health professional is one who has to have the receptionist room you because their nurse just can't get to it (Yes, I know, I used to work in a doctor's office, so I know it gets tough, but believe me, it was not busy today; I do have eyes and ears, and I was there long enough to know).

A bad health professional is one who can't even keep you abreast of what is going on to make her so late.

A bad health professional is one who sticks yet another one of those stupid bead roller coasters in the room for your already bored to the gourd toddler to play with (as if....um, his attention span is like 5 seconds, and he'd already played to the max with several of those).

A bad health professional is one who can't even look up the records and gets mad that she has to look them up because the harried and harassed mama is trying to remember but just can't remember every single detail of the past year and a half. (And might I add that she should have looked these up before she even stepped into the room? She had no clue who we even were. Can we say "a few fries short of a happy meal"?).

A bad health professional is one who can't even explain her reasons of why she isn't going to recommend us for the procedure.....and pretty much sits there wasting time because she has nothing to say that is of any significance, other than that he's borderline (um, ok, now I see why you were three hours behind, and wasn't this supposed to be the actual consult for the procedure? Oh, you don't know, that's right....you don't have a clue why we're here).

A bad health professional is one who talks down to me as if I am just a simpleton, someone who doesn't even know her own child.....as if statistics really don't mean a lot to me because I am not a "health professional." (Um, yes, I am; I just wasn't going to broadcast it all over because I wanted to see how you'd treat me as "just me, just a person and not a nurse.")

A bad health professional is one who has no clue what she's even talking about, which was evident in the whole 10-15 minute appointment that I waited 2 1/2 hours for, not including the doctor time. She couldn't even tell me why I had to wait that long if nothing was going to be done.

Um, second opinion???? Anyone???? Or do I just wait for him to have yet another ear infection and lose hearing like Jacob did? Oh wait, according to statistics, he could lose his hearing by having tubes put in too (which "we as healthcare professionals take very seriously"). In other words, your son needs to be puking his guts up again and running those 103 degree fevers and be put on antibiotics yet again (only to make him even more resistant to them in the future)....because he needs to have "just" one more ear infection before I'll recommend tubes.

Um, ok, there was nothing professional about you; I didn't even know your name.....maybe I was just another number, but maybe you were Mrs. Nobody.

(Whew! I feel better.....I wanted to scream when I walked out of there today; we are calling our family docs to see what is up with all of this....and why half my day was wasted by this seemingly health "professional.")