Thursday, February 17, 2011

Nextcare fiasco

So like I said yesterday my kid Nicky is sick.  He was a whole lot of fun and then he spiked a high fever of 103.6F, so I decided I would take him to see the doctor.  Bummer was my doctor was booked and Nicky was very irritable.  So I decided I would take him to NextCare Urgent Care Clinic on Northern and 101 Freeway.  I have been there before and always forget to use their Wahoo service.  Wahoo is you sign in online and wait your turn at home or office.  Sounds great!  Hooray me, I actually remembered to do something that is productive, right?

First I signed in at 3:30 in the afternoon and waited.  I did not make dinner, in part because 2 out of 3 kids were sick and because I knew if I started dinner they would call and I would either ruin dinner or miss the appointment.  So at 5:15 we went to go get McDonald's, I took the time to forward all calls to the cell phone.  I even remembered to put the phone in my bag.  Just as we were about to pull in to the drive-thru, they called. Okay. Good.

We arrive at 5:30pm, we are supposed to sign in and go right to the doctor's office.  It did not turn out quite like that.  At 6:10pm we are still waiting.  My kids are now hungry, cranky and board, they don't like watching the news that is on in the lobby or not having any toys or company.  I get up and ask, "how much longer?"  "Oh just a few more minutes there is one person ahead of you."  I take a big angry breath in and go back to my seat.

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.  Oh, yeah we finally are taken to triage at 6:20pm.  The nurse is polite.  Only a few more minutes now.  Back in the same room I was in on Monday with my oldest AJ who is also sick.  No magazines, no toys, no eta on when the doctor will be in.  We watch Nick Toons for a half hour.  I peak my head out the door, "Could you tell me how much longer?"  The nurse asks the doctor, oh yeah you guys are next.  Back in I go.  So hungry, trying to keep 3 kids quiet and from completely distroying the room.

Danny climbs on the counter and starts taking out giant Q-tips and tounge depressors.  Nicky is now tearing up the paper liner on the cot.  AJ is spinning around in the doctor's stool.  Trying to be calm and remain in control.  We have now watched 2 episodes of The Last Air Bender and are starting something I can't pay attention to.

Now I am tired, hungry, fustrated, and suffering from low blood sugar.  Back out the door I go, demanding to know how much longer!  "I just need to start and finish this proceedure," the doctor tells the ever patient nurse.  Poor Nurse!  I admit to being frustrated, and complaining about the long ridiculous wait.  She is compassionate and apologizes.  She returns with orange juice and saltines for me and the kids after hearing we are all hungry.   She is the only person who apologizes.

We wait more.  Ah, now I know what is on it is Fairy God Parents and we are now about to start a second episode.  The doctor comes in finally!  She tells me the Quick Strep came back negative and then takes down all the same info that the triage nurse, not the nice one, took down.  Checks he lungs,  checks  his ears.  His ears have a build of disgusting wax.  She leaves the room and returns with an ear thingy to pull the wax chunk out.  Very Gross!  "It looks like he has a budding ear infection in his ear."  She writes this down in the computer.  Says she will be giving him a prescription for Amoxicillin.  All in all she was in the room less then 10 minutes.

Back to the waiting room.  Now we are waiting for the computerized records and prescription to print.  We wait.  The kids have lost their minds and are playing with the water fountain and pushing all the buttons on the soda machine, screaming and running circles around the waiting room.  Too tired to do anything about it, I wait.  I talk very loudly and obnoxiously to another mother that has been waiting just as long after also signing in with Wahoo.  A guy in the lobby is amused.  His wife asks the receptionist to turn off Doctor Oz.  Receptionist searches for the remote.  We are still waiting for our papers.  No idea what time it is when we finally leave, but we leave without our instructions because the receptionist can not get them to print.

No comments:

Post a Comment