I was scheduled for my TEE (Transesophageal Echocardiography) appointment 7/17/2023 with Dr. Alexandra Wood. I received a text reminder on Saturday 7/15/2023 of the appointment with instructions.
My appointment was scheduled for 12:30 pm with an arrival time of 10:30. A very late time for a fasting appointment but it is what it is.
I had to take time off from work, my dad had to reschedule an appointment he had and the hospital is 40 minutes from my home. My dad and I arrived at 10:20 and went to check in for the appointment. I was told by the girl at the check in desk that my appointment had been cancelled. I was very confused as I had received all of the confirmation calls/emails/texts. She looked and noticed that all of the Doctor’s procedures for the day had been cancelled. She called the office to confirm and was told that the office tried to call me. I looked at my phone and I had 0 missed calls and 0 voicemails from the office.
My dad and I left the hospital and I call the office myself to figure out what was going on. The nurse I spoke with insisted that she called me and gave me the exact time of 7:46 am that morning and stated she left a voicemail. I told her that I did not have a missed call, nor did I have a voicemail. She then said the call went straight to voicemail, which is weird in general. I asked why she didn’t call back or call one of my emergency contacts because this isn’t just a office appointment, this is a procedure with anesthesia and a lot had to go into preparation of the appointment. She could not provide me a reason as to why she didn’t call back or call an emergency contact. I was very angry because I have been anxiously awaiting the appointment. I had to stop taking certain medications, make arrangements, etc. I get emergencies happen but as a office, they needed to reach out more than once with the call just going to voicemail to let someone know their procedure had been cancelled. They have a text system, they have mychart where they could have emailed, they have emergency contacts and could have called me again.
The next available appointment the Doctor had for the procedure isn’t until 8/3 and the times are 1:00, 2:00 and 3:00 pm. Pretty ridiculous for a procedure you need to fast for. I opted for the 1:00 appointment because it was the earliest. I asked why myself and the other patients that had their procedures cancelled where not given priority and had to wait so long to have the procedure rescheduled and so late in the day at that. I also mentioned that had I called and cancelled the procedure, I would have been charged a late cancellation fee and asked if they were going to compensate me for my missed time from work, gas, etc. Yes, that may have been unnecessary but I feel is a fair question given the situation. The nurse was getting nasty with me at this point. It doesn’t affect her any because she isn’t the one with the heart issues. Since she was so angry and I clearly was not happy, she told me she would have her manager call me. Well, this was on 7/17 and it is now 7/20 and I have yet to hear from her manager.
I was told I would really like this doctor but so far, I have had a terrible experience and all I can hope for is that the Doctor just hires any staff they can find and she is nice and professional because her office staff have not made my experience a pleasant one. Here’s to hoping that I am able to have my procedure on 8/3.
Nic of Time - Travel 