Hey all, is it cool if I rant a little?
I have relied on VA Health for all my mental health services since separating. I moved states, so I have to get established in my new system as a new patient. This process has been so painful already (I don’t have reliable transportation) but the past few days have made me feel like I’m on the Truman Show.
I’ve been trying to get this appointment scheduled for a month. First, the actual VA clinics weren’t taking new patients so I needed to have the outpatient care coordinator call me. They never did. I called again, waited again, finally someone called me but transferred me to a dead line (or they hung up?) and I couldn’t get back to the same person. Finally, I called and now they’re accepting new patients! Yay! Scheduled my appointment and blood work. Labs went fine, but on the morning of my appointment (as I’m driving back from dropping my partner off at work so I can use the car) they call and tell me the appointment is cancelled and someone will call and reschedule. Cool. Someone calls, but says that if I don’t take the appointment on Thursday at 1 (I have a meeting) then I’ll have to wait at least another month. Fine, I take the appointment and move the meeting. Then, I get a confirmation call reminding me about my appointment at 11:30 (???). I call the clinic and they confirm my appointment is at 11:30, not 1. So I rearrange with my job and partner (for car coordination) and plan for 11:30.
I get a call from the clinic this afternoon (apt tomorrow) that they have to reschedule my appointment for 1. When I call them back to confirm and ask what’s going on, they leave me on hold for 20+ minutes. Finally I hang up to call them back but they’ve closed !!! When I called they were open 😭
Do they not get that the vast majority of us have jobs? I’m terrified to tell my boss that my appointment has changed for the third time this week, it’s already awkward enough.
Does anyone else relate? I don’t remember appointment scheduling being this difficult in my last region, but that was much smaller and I do most of my appointments online due to the car sharing issues.