FYI, schedulers have bosses, too

At the encouragement of another Hershey patient who frequents the local "bump" message board, I put a call in to Hershey's Patient Care line this morning to vent my frustrations from Friday. I was encouraged to follow up with the office and request to speak with the scheduling supervisor or office manager, and if after that call I still felt my concerns went unanswered, I was referred to the Patient Relations line, where they take complaints and look into matters further.

But the first call assuaged my dissatisfaction, so I never did make the second call.

Nyes Rd. scheduling manager Beth explained and apologized repeatedly for the cancellations and found me an appointment at 8 a.m. this Wednesday morning. The new appointment isn't with a doc as my April 21 and 27 appointments were, but I'm a big fan of OB-CRNP Amy, anyway.

As for my April 30 appointment with CRNP Pat, Beth encouraged me to talk about cancelling the appointment with Amy. Apparently the 28-week check-in is a new program the office is starting, but I probably won't miss much by cancelling, especially since we're participating in childbirth classes at the Med Center.

So I'll get my check-up and glucose screening this week, after all. And I'm looking forward to the opportunity to ask a few more questions: when/how to find a pediatrician, whether or not my belly is as big as it should be at this stage of the game and whether my schedule of upcoming appointments is OK or should be modified.

With regard to the schedule, I've had one appointment with a doc so far (at 21 weeks), and if things stay as they are, I won't have another doctor's consult until I'm 37 weeks pregnant. I'll meet with Amy a few times between now and then, but I just want to make sure it's OK to not see a doc until late in the third trimester. Granted, I have appointments scheduled with docs at 37, 38 and 40 weeks, but my four appointments in the interim are all with Amy.

Like I said, I'm a big fan of Amy, I'm thankful for an easy pregnancy and I don't mind forgoing appointments with the doctors so that other women who need them more urgently can have them. That is, so long as I'm assured that I don't need to see the docs sooner.