Pediatric doctors who are not available when children are available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you are in the wrong here. If working evenings and weekends was prerequisite to being a pediatric healthcare provider, few would choose to go into that profession. Certainly no one who ever envisioned having kids would do this. Would you choose to work evening and weekends yourself? How many of your providers have children themselves?

You are obviously stressed out and I empathize, but turning your frustration into irrational anger will not help the situation any.

Well, the dentist is the one who started the whole thing, b/c I had planned ahead, and then she decided to go on a vacation and cancel her whole week. I view that as unprofessional.

I can understand your frustration, OP. But honestly, this isn't the fault of the providers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um, yes, you take them out of school to go to the dentist and doctor. That's how it works.

Then when do your kids GO TO SCHOOL? My kids see pediatrician, dentist, orthodontist, ENT, and speech therapist (weekly). A kid can NOT miss this much school.

The speech therapist is the only weekly appt, no?

Two kids, two speech appointments per week.

Are those during school hours or are they after school/weekends?

Are you a single parent?

I am not a single parents but my husband has a 1.5 hour commute, so once he has left early in the morning, I am the only one within distance to handle these things.

Speech is only during school hours or after school. They are not weekends. That would be nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um, yes, you take them out of school to go to the dentist and doctor. That's how it works.

Also, I have 10 days for the year. The year. Even if I used every single one of those 10 days for doctors' appts., and not vacation, I'd still run out of days before I had all the doctors' appts. covered.

Does an appointment take the entire day?

I'd be aggravated about the speech because it's every week.

I'd be aggravated (and wouldn't stay) if I can't schedule my kids together.

but the rest of it is just life. Also, our dentist does have sat hours twice a month and so does the pedi. Maybe you need to find one with more hours. Seems like groups are better at this than solo practictioners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um, yes, you take them out of school to go to the dentist and doctor. That's how it works.

Then when do your kids GO TO SCHOOL? My kids see pediatrician, dentist, orthodontist, ENT, and speech therapist (weekly). A kid can NOT miss this much school.

The speech therapist is the only weekly appt, no?

Two kids, two speech appointments per week.

Are those during school hours or are they after school/weekends?

Are you a single parent?

I am not a single parents but my husband has a 1.5 hour commute, so once he has left early in the morning, I am the only one within distance to handle these things.

Speech is only during school hours or after school. They are not weekends. That would be nice.

I'm confused. Doesn't this solve the problem?

[Anonymous]

My kid did speech for years. Once he became school age we pulled him from school a bit early to make his appointments and waited/agitated for an after school appointment.

We eventually got one. In my kid's case his speech issues were severe enough that it was more important to us that he do speech than the last hour of the school day once a week. I had an understanding boss and worked from the waiting room/late at night to make up for the time.

Spouse also covered half the appointments.

We scheduled all other appointments during christmas/spring/summer breaks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um, yes, you take them out of school to go to the dentist and doctor. That's how it works.

Also, I have 10 days for the year. The year. Even if I used every single one of those 10 days for doctors' appts., and not vacation, I'd still run out of days before I had all the doctors' appts. covered.

Does an appointment take the entire day?

I'd be aggravated about the speech because it's every week.

I'd be aggravated (and wouldn't stay) if I can't schedule my kids together.

but the rest of it is just life. Also, our dentist does have sat hours twice a month and so does the pedi. Maybe you need to find one with more hours. Seems like groups are better at this than solo practictioners[u].

This does sound appealing. Our ped. used to have this but then changed their policy to only see sick children on weekends. No well child visits. Maybe I should consider one that sees well children on weekends, too. That would help matters.

That would help matters a lot with the dentist too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you are in the wrong here. If working evenings and weekends was prerequisite to being a pediatric healthcare provider, few would choose to go into that profession. Certainly no one who ever envisioned having kids would do this. Would you choose to work evening and weekends yourself? How many of your providers have children themselves?

You are obviously stressed out and I empathize, but turning your frustration into irrational anger will not help the situation any.

Well, the dentist is the one who started the whole thing, b/c I had planned ahead, and then she decided to go on a vacation and cancel her whole week. I view that as unprofessional.

This is what healthcare providers have to do when they take a vacation - cancel patients. What else is she supposed to do? Never take a vacation for fear of annoying someone with an appointment?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can your speech therapist meet your child at school? That way he only misses 30-1hr but not the whole day.

My child has cleft lip and cleft palate and cannot just see any speech therapist. The one we have found with cleft experience is not in a location that is close to my children's schools.

Well that was a choice you made to get with the specific speech therapist you wanted.
I'm not sure how being mad at a dentist for taking a vacation is appropriate.

Also, do you have any idea how many kids a pediatrician sees in a day?
40 is probably a good guess from what practices I know of.
How are they going to see 40 kids after school hours? and when would you like them to see their own kids?

Are you taking your kids to the doctor a lot when they are not sick enough to stay home from school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um, yes, you take them out of school to go to the dentist and doctor. That's how it works.

Then when do your kids GO TO SCHOOL? My kids see pediatrician, dentist, orthodontist, ENT, and speech therapist (weekly). A kid can NOT miss this much school.

The speech therapist is the only weekly appt, no?

Two kids, two speech appointments per week.

Are those during school hours or are they after school/weekends?

Are you a single parent?

I am not a single parents but my husband has a 1.5 hour commute, so once he has left early in the morning, I am the only one within distance to handle these things.

Speech is only during school hours or after school. They are not weekends. That would be nice.

I'm confused. Doesn't this solve the problem?

Yes, speech is not my problem at the moment. My problem at the moment is the pediatric dentist who just called me to say she's going on vacation the week of March 28-April 1 so she has to reschedule my app.t which was originally scheduled 6 months ago for that Monday afternoon. As you can imagine, all of the kids' parents want the after-school hours I practically now have to wait another 6 months for the next one available.

[Anonymous]

Your husband doesn't help. That is your problem, not the providers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um, yes, you take them out of school to go to the dentist and doctor. That's how it works.

Also, I have 10 days for the year. The year. Even if I used every single one of those 10 days for doctors' appts., and not vacation, I'd still run out of days before I had all the doctors' appts. covered.

Does an appointment take the entire day?

I'd be aggravated about the speech because it's every week.

I'd be aggravated (and wouldn't stay) if I can't schedule my kids together.

but the rest of it is just life. Also, our dentist does have sat hours twice a month and so does the pedi. Maybe you need to find one with more hours. Seems like groups are better at this than solo practictioners[u].

This does sound appealing. Our ped. used to have this but then changed their policy to only see sick children on weekends. No well child visits. Maybe I should consider one that sees well children on weekends, too. That would help matters.

That would help matters a lot with the dentist too.

Where do you live OP? I bet DCUM could help find you a dentist with sat hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can your speech therapist meet your child at school? That way he only misses 30-1hr but not the whole day.

My child has cleft lip and cleft palate and cannot just see any speech therapist. The one we have found with cleft experience is not in a location that is close to my children's schools.

Well that was a choice you made to get with the specific speech therapist you wanted.
I'm not sure how being mad at a dentist for taking a vacation is appropriate.

Also, do you have any idea how many kids a pediatrician sees in a day?
40 is probably a good guess from what practices I know of.
How are they going to see 40 kids after school hours? and when would you like them to see their own kids?

Are you taking your kids to the doctor a lot when they are not sick enough to stay home from school?

On the contrary, no. I hardly ever take my kids to doctors just b/c of this very reason: it's impossible to fit in with my limited time off!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your husband doesn't help. That is your problem, not the providers.

I agree with this. DH needs to step in if you have such a limited PTO policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um, yes, you take them out of school to go to the dentist and doctor. That's how it works.

Also, I have 10 days for the year. The year. Even if I used every single one of those 10 days for doctors' appts., and not vacation, I'd still run out of days before I had all the doctors' appts. covered.

Does an appointment take the entire day?

I'd be aggravated about the speech because it's every week.

I'd be aggravated (and wouldn't stay) if I can't schedule my kids together.

but the rest of it is just life. Also, our dentist does have sat hours twice a month and so does the pedi. Maybe you need to find one with more hours. Seems like groups are better at this than solo practictioners[u].

This does sound appealing. Our ped. used to have this but then changed their policy to only see sick children on weekends. No well child visits. Maybe I should consider one that sees well children on weekends, too. That would help matters.

That would help matters a lot with the dentist too.

Where do you live OP? I bet DCUM could help find you a dentist with sat hours.

That would be good! I live in Herndon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid did speech for years. Once he became school age we pulled him from school a bit early to make his appointments and waited/agitated for an after school appointment.

We eventually got one. In my kid's case his speech issues were severe enough that it was more important to us that he do speech than the last hour of the school day once a week. I had an understanding boss and worked from the waiting room/late at night to make up for the time.

Spouse also covered half the appointments.

We scheduled all other appointments during christmas/spring/summer breaks.

NP here- but how did you take the time off to take him to the appointments?