How long do you wait while on hold with the doc's office?

[ree-Xi]

Yesterday morning I called my doctor's office. I had to leave a message with the nurse practitioner with my symptoms. (I have chronic respiratory infections and we rotate antibiotics). He called me back later in the day and left a message (my phone's call waiting isn't working!), which I found around 3pm. He said he would have his nurse call in a prescription.

She calls back a few minutes after I got the message, and says that she called it in, and to call my pharmacy. Of course when I called the pharmacy it wasn't there. I called them again at 4:30 and they said they had the scripts and they would be ready at 5:30.

I show up and they aren't done til after 6. I pay and leave. I get home and it's the wrong meds - one that I am somewhat resistant to. Of course the doc on call was no help and I happened to have my doc's cell (he left the number for me) so I called him and told him what was going on. He said he would have her fill the new ones first thing in the morning. (She apparently had just called in my last script all over again, bc I am on it so much). Good thing I checked!

I left a message this morning for the nurse bc as of noon, the pharmacy didn't have anything new for me.

Of course the doc's office is closed for lunch til one. I called at 1:05 and was on hold (hadn't talked to anyone yet) for 17 minutes. I hung up and called back and it was another 8 minutes for someone to answer. They made me leave a message again with the nurse.

The thing that sucks is that the doctor is amazing; it's just his staff that leave a lot to be desired. I know it won't be called in until 5pm. When you really need something, 36 hours is a long time to wait.

Anyway thanks for letting me vent. But seriously, 25 minutes is a long time to be waiting for a live person to pick up. And the muzak - oh boy it's terrible!