Emory Clinic Geriatrics

"It can be a real difficulty when going to the doctors office. Things are very busy now a days. Have you ever considered Home Health?"

"My father is now a patient of the Emory Geriatric Clinic and the DOCTOR is wonderful - 5 stars. The NURSING STAFF is wonderful - 5 stars. The SCHEDULING process sucks to high Heaven - ZERO STARS! Negative stars if ever it was possible. For anyone who has dealt with an ex-military Geriatric Alzheimer’s patient with dementia, you know how challenging a doctor’s appointment can be. So, getting the date and time of the appointment is absolutely essential to all the plans and accommodations that have to be made in order for the day to run smoothly. My father’s mid-January appointment was made in October. In December, he started exhibiting an extreme behavioral change, so we called the doctor’s office repeatedly to get an earlier appointment. In early January, a uniquely named receptionist called to TELL (not ask or work with, but TELL) my mother that the appointment had been moved to MARCH 30th!!! Ten whole weeks later than the original appointment! Why was the appointment moved? It was moved because when the appointment was scheduled back in October for his annual physical, the scheduler booked him in a 1/2 hour time slot instead of a full hour. All physicals require an hour… so… their mistake. When a patient books an appointment, the patient tells the scheduler what kind of appointment is needed, not how much time is needed with the doctor…. My elderly mother didn’t protest being told that my dad’s appointment had been moved, so I called. After waiting on hold for a little over an hour, I finally got to talk to A Scheduler who basically told me there was nothing she could do because the January appointment had already been taken. Remember - we had been calling the office trying to get an earlier appointment… I was then put back on hold to speak to a nurse in the doctor’s office. When she answered, she was able to schedule my dad for an appointment in February (better) and she gave me a number for the patient advocacy office. I left a message for an advocate and have yet to hear from someone. The next day, the doctor’s office called to tell me they could see my dad on January 10th. Great, right? Wrong. The time of the appointment changed twice before today, and when we arrived 15 minutes ahead of the most recent appointment time, we were told his appointment was actually 3 hours later in the day. THREE. HOURS. LATER… And while I am talking to the receptionist -the same uniquely named receptionist who called my mother to confirm THIS appointment time - another receptionist is explaining this same scheduling phenomenon to another elderly patient. Apparently, in the MyChart/Emory Scheduling System, the doctor can book multiple people for a single time slot, but then enter the “actual” time the patient will be seen into the doctor’s notes. So if you look in your “MyChart” you see one appointment time, but the REAL appointment time is buried in notes that are not visible in the patient record. So, I asked the receptionist how the patient is supposed to know when the appointment is actually scheduled, and she said the person who calls to confirm the appointment should tell us the real appointment time. LOL… really?!? Because the uniquely named receptionist to whom I was speaking was likely the same person who called my mother to confirm THE WRONG APPOINTMENT TIME! And our only option was to cancel the appointment or sit downstairs and wait THREE HOURS for the actual appointment. We are currently two hours into the waiting period. I left another message for the patient advocate’s office. I’ll update my review when I get a call back. This post has been exclusively about my father’s appointments, but the exact same thing is happening with my mother’s appointment which was also scheduled for early January. I just don’t have the energy to detail all the shenanigans happening with her reschedules. The short of her ongoing saga is that we learned TODAY that she doesn’t have an appointment TODAY, her appointment was moved to March 30th and… you know what? I truly just don’t have the energy."