Venting, frustrations

I feel like I have to share a few experiences I had at my children's pediatrician. Now I know we have all experienced bad times at the doctors office but some things need to be addressed; like receptionists being warm and friendly, and nurses doing their job properly, and maybe doctors taking extra care to check that the work the nurses are doing is done up to code, doctors are the superiors after all of their nursing staff.
Lets face it we have all had our bad days at the doctors office, and I'm sure even the receptionist and doctors and nurses have bad days. You need to be professional and courteous and understanding when you work for a doctors office, you are involved in some of the most intimate parts of peoples lives. When you are greeted over and over again by a cranky person who lacks compassion as you sign your child into his appointment or as you are leaving the office you begin to wonder why she/he has such a position. Usually receptionist set the tone for the visit with the doctor and if you get off on the a wrong foot the minute you walk in the door your setting yourself up.
For example I recently had to take my son who is 19 months old to this office for a high fever. It was August 17th and he was very sad and hadn't eaten all day and I was concerned because his fever had gone up to 103 degrees that day. My son had a seizure earlier this year in February due to a fever of 103 so I was getting more worried by the minute. I came into the office and signed my son Josiah in. Let me go back a little further. In January my husband Kenneth had a seizure. I took him to the ER and after some tests the doctor had to tell us the news no family wants to hear, CANCER. He had a tumor the size of a baseball in his brain and needed brain surgery the next day or he wouldn't make it. Thank God he made it through the surgery. Well needless to say it is now August and my family has been through A LOT. Kenneth has not been able to go back to work and his insurance is running out. The state has granted us medical to cover us when his insurance is used up.
So back to Josiah's doctor visit, I handed the receptionist my medical insurance from my husbands work, which is still good till September, and I also showed her my medical card from the state and informed her that my husbands insurance was running out and this would be our new insurance. She took the card and we got in right away to see the doctor. Unfortunately our visit would be one of the worst we've had. The doctor saw my son and decided to have his blood tested because his fever was his only symptom, but one mistake by a nurse would send us on a journey through many unnecessary, painful and traumatic procedures. The nurse contaminated his first blood test so the doctors were looking for an infection they wouldn't find. My son had to endure a catheter and a blood draw and 2 shots of antibiotics that he didn't need. So after my son had screamed himself into a sleeping coma we headed out of the office. We were stopped by a very uncaring receptionist who informed me that we couldn't come back and shouldn't have been seen that day. There was no hello, or how is your son feeling, just straight for her pay check I guess. She had no compassion and was not willing to offer any thing but her "sorry you cant come back because your medical card is not excepted here". Umm OK well the doctor wanted to see my son the next day for a follow up (we didn't know yet about the contamination with his blood test). So she said without looking at us, "We will see you through this illness". Really? I have been taking my children to this clinic for over 6 years, since my oldest son was born, and all of a sudden because of a mistake that could be handled by simply calling the number on the back of the card I get treated like a criminal who just stole something from a store. I have been to a lot of doctor offices since the beginning of this year and this was the only time I ever felt like I wasn't wanted there. How can a parent or a child be treated in such a manor? A receptionist is unknowingly involving herself in some of the most intimate and painful experiences a family can go through just by sitting behind a counter. A doctors office is a place we go to get help when we feel the most vulnerable and lets face it some people are at the doctors office a lot more than others, so shouldn't a person who is employed by a doctors office have some kind of people skills at least?
I am very upset by this whole ordeal and whats worse is it could have all been avoided. Some one needs to address these issues and something must be done. I know I am not the only one who has been treated in such a manor and who has had to deal with the mistakes of the doctors offices since this isn't the first time something like this has happened to us at this same doctors office. I shouldn't have to find another doctors office to bring my children to. If there is an issue or problem we should address it and learn from these mistakes and try to better your services. I hope that in writing this letter I can raise awareness and maybe even bring out other stories from people who thought they were alone in their struggles with this doctors office or others. I hope some action will be taken to avoid such mistakes in the future.