"Dental Appointments..."

I checked my phone messages..."This is your dentist's office reminding you of your Wednesday 3:00 appointment with Gail...please call to confirm this"...

Gail has been our family dental hygienist for nearly 20 years.  Our dentist took early retirement and two partners split his patients.  The office clerical staff was replaced with a new group that initiated special arrival sign-in, and computerized scheduling technologies....

I checked the mail at lunch....there was a card sent to remind me of my upcoming teeth cleaning with Gail.  I checked and there was an e-mail from the office..."Please respond to this e-mail to confirm that you are coming"... I responded three times...

Wednesday morning I had messages to call the dentists' office..."Gail will not be in today...we can reschedule you for a month later...or you can use someone else"...I took someone else because I wanted to have my teeth cleaned due to quick plaque build-up, and for egotistical reasons, because I was leaving for a 40th high school reunion!

After the appointment with a less than great technician, she said she would schedule my appointment.  I related that I had already scheduled appointments for every three months.  She checked my patient "computer" record to relate that none were shown!  At the front desk, they remembered that this had been done, and were able to find the appointments.

Last Thursday I received a call to remind me of my upcoming Monday 10:00 AM appointment with Gail.  I checked my calendar for the month and did not have this written down, it seemed to me that I had just been for a cleaning, and moreover I added that I usually only schedule afternoon appointments. The assistant related that it had been over three months since my last appointment so that I was due, and that I could be moved to 4:00 PM on Monday.  I accepted this.

During a Sunday conversation with my mother when I asked her plans for the following week, she started with her 10:00 Monday appointment!  I checked my accounting records to discover that I had been to the dentist only 5 weeks prior! Oops...with the clerical mistake, I had switched her appointment to the afternoon when she prefers not to drive!!!  Since the office was closed I left a phone and an e-mail messages to be received Monday when the office would open.  I suspected that the 10:00 slot  would be filled... 

Monday at 8:30..."This is the dentist's office for Elizabeth"...When I said that she could be reached at their phone number, I was told that their computer records had this as her phone number!!!  After their records were straightened out again, they were able to contact her and take her for a 10:00 appointment...and then it was pouring outside!!!!

Post Script:  I saw my mother after she returned from her appointment...she showed me her computer printout that listed my future appointments under her name!!!

Post Script No. 2:  My mother showed me another declaration sheet from her new residential contents insurance policy that had been issued to correct the previous three issuances' mistakes.  Believably the supposedly corrected sheet STILL incorrectly showed no fire alarm or fire sprinkler system!!!

Post Script No. 3:  I opened my mail to discover a computer generated 7/31/12 PAST DUE invoice for $43.20 from my oncology center.  I checked my check ledger to verify that I had paid that bill a month earlier!  The next envelope contained a $36 DUE NOW invoice for monthly extermination service. Even though I have given a check to my exterminator in person each month for eleven years, ever since the company switched to a billing service, each month I get a double billing!

I pity the person with bad personal records-keeping in this contemporary world!!!