Can't get a doctors appointment at all

[Anonymous]

DS bumped his head on Monday. Some disorientation, headaches, vomiting, a trip to urgent care followed by the ER, and a clear CT later we were left to go home and told, among other things, to keep him home from school and follow up with his Pediatrician in a day or two.

This is where it gets infuriating. DW lost her job about three months ago and with it our health insurance. In order to have access to health care for DS we started to enroll him in a clinic in our town which specializes in offering assistance to those without insurance. It's not a free clinic associated with a medical center or anything like that. It's a regular doctor's office who is well known for being the best at finding a way to get people access to healthcare. We started the enrollment process with them because that was their advice, filled out some paperwork etc, to see what could be done. Partway through they told us we were eligible for a free insurance program through the state that his old doctor accepts. We called the old doctors office and verified with them that they accept it an he could stay as a patient with the new insurance and never finished the enrollment at the new place. I just called up the office to schedule the followup and was informed me that they listed him as having transferred to the new doctor and they aren't accepting new patients so we cannot be seen there, period. I called the place we started to fill out the paperwork, but they don't have his records and won't see him as a new patient until he has a well visit first, which of course we cannot do because he isn't well.

I called all the other pediatric offices in town and nobody will see a kid without a well check and the place that has those things said we quit and they won't take us back.

So, we have no doctor to follow up with and I’m pissed about the whole situation. I'm going to keep calling pediatric offices until someone takes pity on me or, barring that go back to urgent care on Tuesday. If anyone has a better suggestion I could really use it right now.

[Anonymous]

This sucks.

It sounds like he's doing OK? If so, your plan sounds good.

If not, please, return to urgent care as soon as possible.

[Anonymous]

Who at the old doctor's office told you that they couldn't see him? I would escalate that -- even if they aren't accepting new patients, a decent practice would have flexibility given that you aren't actually a new patient.

In my experience, solo practitioners tend to have more flexibility than big group practices.

I'm sorry you're dealing wit this.

[Anonymous]

The most important thing is that your child gets follow up care. I would make a well child visit appointment and mention the head bump and request care for that. If it takes too long for a well visit take him back to the urgent care for the follow up, but keep the well visit so you don't have to deal with this craziness again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who at the old doctor's office told you that they couldn't see him? I would escalate that -- even if they aren't accepting new patients, a decent practice would have flexibility given that you aren't actually a new patient.

In my experience, solo practitioners tend to have more flexibility than big group practices.

I'm sorry you're dealing wit this.

Try Washington International Pediatrics in Bethesda, excellent solo practitioner.

[Anonymous]

Can you call the patient advocate office or the social worker office at the hospital where you were seen in the ER and ask for help finding a pediatric practice for ER follow up? Sorry you are going through this.

Also could try family practice offices.

[Anonymous]

Go to Mary's Center and make a donation when you can.

[Anonymous]

School social worker may also be able to help.

[Anonymous]

Can you ask if they really need a well visit or if you can simply do a "consent to treat" form (perhaps it's 1 of the forms you've already filled out)?

[Anonymous]

I would call your original pediatrician again and try to get someone else on the phone. Maybe if you speak to a nurse instead of the front desk they can get you in.

Keep following the concussion protocols they gave you at the ER. If your child is in public school, they should have a concussion protocol and make accommodations while your son recovers. I would call your school or district nurse and talk to them about a plan to return to school. They may have some good information to share—when my son had a concussion a few years ago I was really impressed with how our district handled it.

[Anonymous]

Have you tried a pediatric urgent care like PM pediatrics? Sometimes they see children regularly.

[Anonymous]

Why didn’t you get free COBRA through 9/30 as part of the American rescue plan act?

[Anonymous]

Next time, use cobra to keep your insurance for 6 months.

[Anonymous]

The issue is that once the original pediatrician took you off of their patient list they probably accepted another new patient to fill the slot. Now if you expect to come back they would then have two patients for one slot unless you expect them to fire the other patient that took your place. It is clear from your description that the local docs are all at capacity so there is clearly an availability crunch that makes it hard to just bring you back into an overloaded practice.