Unreasonable Demand, or Am I Just Whining?

So I called my previous dentist to ask them for a copy of my dental record because I’ve moved to a new place since then and wanted to see a dentist nearby instead. I asked them for my records, and they told me there will be a fee of 22 dollars to get the records. I’m thinking……ok. Sure, I’ll pay for it. I rather do that than getting my whole mouth x-rayed again. And then the receptionist said, ‘ok, it’ll be ready on Monday for you to pick it up.’

At that time, I said, ‘why don’t you send it to me instead?’

She said no they can’t do that.

At that point I was confused. I asked why can’t they just send it to me?

She said I need to fill out paperwork, pay 22 dollars fee so I need to be there in person.

I asked, why can’t you send me the paperwork plus the invoice and I’ll fill them out and cut you a check?

Again, she said, no you have to go pick it up.

Now, I’m a little mad at this. I asked what if I’m out of state, you can’t expect people to come to you from out of state to get their dental record!

Ok, ok. Now you’re probably wondering, do I live out of state?

No. I actually live about 30 miles from the dentist office. But then here is my reasoning for not wanting to go.

First, I have to wake up way early just so I can still go to work later that morning. It’ll take about an hour (with traffic, and with traffic stops) to get there. And it’ll take another 20-30 minutes to wait for the receptionist to call you, and another 20-30 minutes to fill out paperwork, pay, and get my records….then it’ll take 90 minutes to go to work (I live 30 minutes from work, and the dentist office is the opposite direction).

Now we add up those numbers: 60 + 20 + 20 + 90 = 190 minutes = 3 hours 10 minutes.

So basically, they expect me to take 3 hours of my time during a workday just to pick up my dental record?!

Tell me if that makes sense.

Not only that, we’re talking about at least 4 gallons of gas to get there, and also that I have to make up those hours at work.

My question, again, is why can’t they just send me the damn record?

Finally, the receptionist forwarded me to a finance woman, and she said it’s fine they can send the record to me. When I gave her my current address, she actually commented, ‘and it takes you an hour to get here?’

I of course had to explain to myself why I don’t think it’s worth my time.

How would she feel if she has to take 3 hours of her life just to go pick up her medical record when the doctor’s office can simply mail you the records?

Which would you prefer, really?

So now, how much of effort would it be for the office to send me my record? Here are the steps:

1. They send me an invoice and the paperwork (they have to prepare paperwork either way anyway).
2. They wait- well, not actually waiting, since they do have other work to do.
3. They get my check. Now they pull out my record (again, they have to do that anyway whether I come over or they send it to me)
4. They put the record in the envelope, and put it in the outbox of their mail rack.

How long does that take them? 1 hour total, top? And most of that 1 hour has to been done either way anyway.

Okay. The moral of the story is this:

Many times the so-called establishments will not consider the amount of time and effort you have to put in when you request something from them. Now, our health industry is supposed to be a service industry. Where is the ‘service’ in this? How are they making it easy for us in our busy schedules?

I mean, they work there, just like the rest of us. Why can’t they just offer us this service to alleviate the patients from going through all these time and efforts when it’s obvious that the effort for their part would be much much smaller compare to the time and effort they require the patients to go through?

I talked to my friend about this, and he jeered at me and said I complained too much. He said why wouldn’t I just pick it up and save all the hassle?

But wait a minute, does he mean that I’m saving all the hassle for the people at my dentist’s office, or that I’m saving all the hassle for myself?

Obviously, it’s definitely not the latter.

What would you do in my case?

Always know your right. Should we just take it and go on our way? Or should we try to come up with alternative solutions. Don’t take NO for an answer.

Why should you allow other people to dictate what to do, especially when the task itself is so inconvenient to you?

“Just do it,” “Everyone has to do it this way too” are the responses I get for complaining about it.

And you know what gets me mad the most amid all this?

When I asked her why they can’t send me my record, the receptionist simply replied,

“I don’t know”