Life in a medicaid meat processing plant 1   Recently updated!

I had a suspicious mole pop up, and needed to see a dermatologist. Unfortunately, since I’m on medicaid, there’s only one dermatologist in an hour and a half radius that takes my insurance…

So last week we headed down there for our appointment. The main entrance and side entrance are both all steps. We called to find out the accessible entrance, and it was around a tiny path in the back. No kidding it was a narrow sidewalk that went across something like a moat filled with nasty water. It was a good 2 ft drop to the water, and no telling how deep the water was! It was scary watching Brad maneuver that!

We got inside, and they didn’t have any exam rooms that would fit Brad’s wheelchair, and he probably wouldn’t have fit down the hallways either. So they stuck us in a closet for my appointment. The doctor seemed fine, and we were in and out quickly.

This morning, I had to go down for my mole removal. They told me my appointment was at 8:45 and to arrive 15 min early. So we arrived at 8:30 on the nose. The accessible entrance was locked, so I had to wait to talk with the receptionist to get them to open it up. She was in a TERRIBLE mood yelling at people checking in, yelling at people on the phones, and being super rude to everyone.

Finally we get the door opened, and we try to go to the waiting room. But there was no way Brad could get in there. They had a pocket door with a doorknob that prevented the door from opening all the way, and the doorway was already narrow as is. So Brad had to wait outside. I got a picture of the door below. Additionally, we would have had to move chairs to make a path wide enough for him to get through if he were able to go through the door.

Tam was kind enough to come inside and be with me while Brad waited outside. At first we amused ourselves taking pictures! I brought my axolotl Fred with me instead of Felix, since Felix has been a bit under the weather lately. Brad sent us a picture of him looking serious in a mustard suit outside. And Tam and I got a selfie and a picture of me with Fred. I am wearing a purple dress and Tam has on black.

When I signed in at 8:30, you had to put your name and appointment time on the sheet. I noticed that there were like 10 people signed in with an appointment time of 8:30, and I know there’s only one doctor working there! As the time ticked on, we realized the plan. They would tell massive amounts of people to all show up at the same time, and then that way the doctor didn’t have to wait on anyone being late or anything. We would all have to wait on her!

Based on when the waiting room filled up, and when it thinned out, we realized she told a ton of people to come at 8:30 and 8:45, and then the next batch started arriving at 9:30. She was running an assembly line of medicaid patients! And yes, we were all Medicaid patients. Medicaid was the only insurance they accepted.

And not to say that medicaid facilities are bad or anything, but this place was SO run down. The doors had grime all over them. The paint was peeling and chipped. The fixtures were old and half broken. There was dust and dirt and grime and yuck everywhere. The carpets looked like they hadn’t been vacuumed for 20 years.

And the people were just terrible! Tam and I sat in the waiting room for an hour, and the lady behind the desk hardly ever stopped yelling. She was yelling on the phone, to the patients, and to the other staff members! It was really upsetting!

When it was finally my turn, I couldn’t hear the lady well because I forgot my hearing aids. I thought she wanted me to follow her into an exam room so I started to follow her. But Tam had to ask what to do, and the lady said no, she didn’t want us to follow her. So I held back. Then another staff member told me I was supposed to follow the lady, so I went in, and the lady yelled at me for being in there, so I left. And then she proceeded to have an argument with the staff member that told me to go in. In the end, she yelled something at me, but I couldn’t understand it with my hearing so she just came up, grabbed my arm with no warning, and dragged me into the room.

It was at this point that I probably should have just left. But I am having surgery next week and I really wanted to get as many doctors appointments done before surgery as possible. So I felt like if I could just get through this, I’d never have to come back again.

So we sat down in the room and waited. And waited. And waited. I noticed a sign on the door that basically said they have no clue how long you’ll have to wait for appointments, it’s often an extended period of time, and if you’re not OK with that, you should just leave. Here’s the picture of the sign.

As we’re waiting, we’re hearing the doctor and other nurse in the hallway badmouthing patients and laughing at patients and just being super unprofessional.

We waited another 45 minutes in the exam room before the doctor came in. We had been there an hour and 45 minutes by that time, and the next wave of patients was streaming in according to Brad who was sitting outside. Here is a picture of how I felt about waiting an hour and 45 minutes. I do not look happy.

When the doctor came in, I tried to be light and happy and comment on how happy I was to see her and she must be having a very busy day. She said with a deadpan face that no, today was no busier than normal. I was shocked.

So she told me to get up on the table, and then she left the room. She came back and spent 30 seconds on the side of the room where I couldn’t see her. Then with absolutely no warning at all, without saying anything, she comes over to me abruptly and stabs me in the chest (where my mole was) with a needle! It was super painful and I screamed! She laughed when I screamed!

So then without saying a word, she turns around and leaves. On the way out I say “what was that?” and she said “that’s just the numbing agent”. So I sit there, against my better judgement, thinking I have just one more step to get through and then I can never come back here again.

Meanwhile the whole time this is going on, I’m having to use Fred to help me with my anxiety. It affected Tamara, too, because she said it felt like we were being treated like a piece of meat on an assembly line.

Eventually, the doctor comes back in and without a word just starts cutting out my mole and stitching it up! Blood was running everywhere. I had asked Tam to get some pictures for my blog, so she got out her phone to take a picture and asked if it was OK and the doctor starts pitching a fit and practically screaming at Tam “GO SIT DOWN, JUST GO SIT DOWN. THERE’S TOO MUCH SOCIAL MEDIA THESE DAYS”.

I mean I understand not wanting a photo taken of a medical procedure, but you can simply say no thank you. There is no need to go on the attack like that!

Luckily it was a very quick procedure and the doctor left again as quickly as she came in. She never told me I was done, I had to ask her!

They wanted me to come back in a week to get my stitch taken out, but I was thinking no thank you! I will take my own stitches out thank you very much instead of returning to this horrid place!

If I ever get any suspicious moles again, I’ll gladly drive 2, maybe even 3 hours to find a better doctor! This one was TERRIBLE!!!!!

We ended up leaving the parking lot a little over 2 hours after we had arrived. For an appointment that took five and a half minutes.

After that mess, we needed a pick me up, so we headed to the closest Cracker Barrel. I was still reeling from the appointment, and it was around 11 so the place started filling up and the noise was getting louder. I had to take a clonopin and ask Brad to go get my ear defenders from the car. I just put Fred on my chest, put my ear defenders on my ears, and counted. Leaning on Tam helped, too. Brad got a picture.

Luckily I was able to calm down enough to enjoy my food, but I kept the ear defenders on until we got outside. It was a very tasty meal, and we got some good candy to have on the way home, too.

Now that is an outing I never want to repeat! What a horrible horrible experience. I felt like I was a cow being herded through a medicaid meat processing plant. Just make everything in the doctor’s favor with no explanations or kindnesses to the patient. I will never go back there again!!!!