Urgent Care should be called Eventual Care

Wasted another day at the Dr.

Published on May 27, 2005 By JillUser In Misc

This morning my 8yr old complained that his leg hurt so badly he didn't want to walk on it. He had been complaining about leg pain for the last couple of weeks but I thought it was just growing pains. I looked into leg pain in kids and found out that complaint about pain in a localized position is reason for concern. Growing pains tend to be in joints and tend to move around.

So I helped him and his brother to the car after attempting to make an appt with the pediatrician. Her office was only open from 9-3 and it is the day before Memorial weekend so she was totally booked. I decided to take him to Urgent Care since it is only about a mile away.

Things looked encouraging since there were only two people in the waiting room when we signed in. Lots of people kept flowing in and out but they were mostly lab patients gettine blood workd done. An hour of waiting and they had only taken one person in to see the doctor! 15 mins later they took the other person ahead of us. I then asked one of the many nurses standing around chatting if they had any idea of how long we would be waiting. They said we should be next and that was all they knew. I asked if seeing 2 people an hour seemed reasonable to them. They said they usually see up to 4/hr. I don't think they should be bragging about that!

After 1.5hrs waiting we were taken in to a new room to wait. At about 2.25 hrs into our adventure we were finally blessed by the presence of the doctor. Did he or any of the nurses apologize for the wait? No. Did this piss me off...you bet ya!

I felt taken for granted because they know that you will due anything you have to to find out what is wrong with your child. So you will just take whatever service they throw your way and you should just be happy you got it. They didn't even give me any idea of what was going on!

Nothing showed up on the xray but the dr said we should follow up with an orthopedic specialist and get an MRI because there might be vascular problems with his hip and/or thigh. We also should keep weight off that leg and make him use crutches.

Over 3hrs to find out we should go to another doctor. Argh!

Comments (Page 3)

Daiwa

on May 31, 2005

They each passed all the requirements appropriate to their specialties so both are as qualified as their personal motivation and inteligence allows. Each specialty has its own benefits, drawbacks, stressors and rewards. The only difference between the competence of the two (or any other specialty) is the motivation and temperment of the doctor. But as you say, that is only a perception based on one former paramedic's perception.

I'd say your perception is spot on, PT2k.

Cheers,
Daiwa

UCDoc

on Jan 21, 2006

Your experience is certainly disappointing. Please make sure that you write and let the urgent care center know about your experience. It is possible that the administration at the urgent care center is not aware of your delays. Administrators of urgent care centers, often find out about service problems in their centers when a patient takes the time to write a note. Having an urgent care center within a convenient distance from your home can offer significant benefits, but only if the center offers efficient and excellent service. You can learn more about the urgent care industry by visiting the website of the Urgent Care Association of America. Link

Also, folks may want to give direct feedback to the urgent care industry about their experiences in urgent care centers. You may post your experiences, frustrations and comments about urgent care at: Link Urgent care administrators and physicians will benefit from your feedback.

JillUser

on Jan 21, 2006

Thanks UCDoc. I have corresponded with this particular urgent care on quite a few occasions. There is an excellent urgent care a bit further away so we will probably just start going there from now on.

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