WARNING: Medical - Medisys in Toronto

[suzukiwookie 1]

The story I'm about to tell you has not been exagerrated in the least bit. So that you are not sitting here for half an hour reading this, I will format the post in a time-line fashion and give the main points of my bad experience.

MEDICAL IN TORONTO - APPOINTMENT SET AT 1:45pm - MEDYSIS HEALTH GROUP - TORONTO, ON, CANADA

1:15pm - I arrive (early) in the reception area of the clinic and hand my passport and case number to the receptionist who looks too busy to pay any real attention to me (white, overweight woman). I fill out some forms and then she tells me to have a seat in the waiting room and that I will be called when it is my turn. So I go sit in the waiting room with about 12 other people that have alreay been waiting. She comes in and hands me back my passport and a form.

1:45pm - I notice that I have not yet been called and overhear someone else who had an interview at 1:30 get called up. So I figure they are running a few minutes late.

2:00pm - I notice a family comes into the office and are sent to the waiting room along with a couple of other people.

2:20pm - I notice that the family gets called in ahead of me.. So I call the reception from my cellphone (not wanting to be away in case they call my name) and explain this to the receptionist. She says "I'm on my way to the front office now.." So I assume that she's going to call me back or come see me. I have no idea where else she cold have been??

2:30pm - I call again and explain the same thing to her "People are going ahead of me, why haven't I been called?" The same lady that I spoke to 10 minutes prior. She says "uh.. well, they must have been downstairs getting drinks when you got here." And I was like "What?" That sounded like the stupidest excuse I've ever heard. So again she says, "You are 4th in line and will be called up soon."

3:00pm - I walk to reception and ask a nurse what is happening? "I've been here since 1:15 and everyone is going ahead of me!?" I was quite pissed at this time. She said that "You will be called soon.. please be patient." So I storm back to the waiting room and wait some more.

3:15pm - I call again from my cellphone and hear the receptionist (who is annoyed by me now) shuffle some papers on her desk and tell me "Yep, you're coming right up. Just keep waiting sir."

3:30pm - I am the last guy in the waiting room. I am super pissed! I storm to the front of the clinic and start yelling at a Chinese receptionist (not one of the originals that I spoke to, but this one's job was to get the papers to each doctor so that people could be called up) and demand an explanation! A couple of nurses and doctors are listening in on this in the background now.. Finally a nurse stops and they both ACTUALLY do some investigating into the matter instead of just glibly telling me to wait. The nurse comes back from some mysterious place and says to the Chinese girl "I can't find his form??" And the chinese girl asks me if I cheked in when I arrived, and several other stupid questions. Meanwhile there is a vein forming on my forehead.. Finally she's like "Oh shoot! I didn't put you into the system because I thought you were a NO-SHOW!" At this point I let it fly! I will spare you the yelling and colourfull words, instead, here is a cleaned up edited version of what I said. "Dear madame, I believe that you have kept me waiting in that waiting room for almost 3 hours, all the while you and the other girls kept telling me to wait, and one even told me that I was 4 in line (where she got this information, i have no clue) please get someone here right now. I got here very early and it's now 20 minutes from closing time. I am the last person in that waiting room now and 20 people have gone ahead of me. You are giving me this medical today or I will be rather displeased and will request from the office manager some heads in a paper bag."

3:40pm - I am rushed by two confused nurses to a room where I am sat on a chair. One of the nurses is trying to take blood from me but cannot find a vein so she pokes around a few times and says "You seem to be dehydrated." to which I reply, "I was quite hydrated at 1:15pm when I got here." She didn't appreciate it. So finally they find a vein somewhere on my arm and blood is taken.

3:45pm - Nurses ask each other questions about my forms, and about my vaccines and about where this is and where that is.. Nobody had much of a clue of where all my forms were and what had to be done with me. They asked me some questions about vaccines and looked at my paperwork and concluded that I needed two vaccines (one for chickenpox). I told one of them that I had already had chicken pox when I was a kid, and she scratched it off the list.

3:50pm - I was rushed into an examination room by the nurse, told to strip down to my undergoods and wait for the Doctor. The doctor came in, took my blood pressure, listened to my breathing, pushed down on my abdomen and peeked at my goods. "All done. You look good to me." Examination done in 10 minutes.

4:00pm - I am back at the front desk with the nurses (they were doing their best, by the way, so i don't totally condemn them. It was the Chinese girl and the receptionist that screwed it all up royally!). By this time word is getting around the office about "The guy who has been kept waiting all day." I am told I need to go to another location on Yonge street for my chest X-Rays... so I ask the Chinese girl what time they close, and she says, "Um, 4pm." So I say "Well they are closed then..." And she says "Um, yeah." (rolling my eyes in all directions). Then she's like "Well we need you to get some vaccines from your doctor and the chest xrays before we give you the final papers. You need to fax that into us." and then "So did you want to pay to have these things couriered, we can get them to you by tomorrow at 4pm". And so I ask "Well If I don't have the chest XRAYS and the vaccine today, what exactly will you be sending me tomorrow?" And she's like "Oh.....right." At this point I reluctantly payed my $191 and walked out. Complete and UTTER incompetence. My whole day was wasted and i had to take another day off work this week to complete the vaccines and chest X-Ray. Which were both done in a jiffy because my doctor happens to be in the same building as the X-Ray office.

So the moral of this story is: Don't go here for your medical. Go to Dr. Seiden instead. I have no experience with Dr. Seiden, but I don't think he could possibly do worse than this place.

This is what I do for love! lol

Edited August 2, 2008 by suzukiwookie

[MAO36 30]

What a huge inconvenience but I'm glad you found some sense of humor in it. When things are out of our control what else is there left to do.

I loved the part about (rolling your eyes in all directions)-hilarious when I visualize this!

Everything will go fine and yes-"What we do for love"

[angie007 0]

oh boy!!! you really have a reason to be pissed off...Thanks for sharing this experience...i'll probably go to Dr. Seiden coz I'm planning to have my medical at medysaster..I mean medysis

Edited August 4, 2008 by angie007

[JillA 2]

I can honestly say Dr. Seiden was the best experience ever... quick, professional! I was in at 7am out by 8:15!! They do the x-ray and blood tests on the spot, don't have to go to 2 places!! I would recommend them 110%!!

[MrsCat 6]

wow - that's unbelievable! The cavalier attitude would have thrown me into hysterics. Sorry that it sucked so bad.

[Eric_and_Corinna 0]

We did ours at Medisys too. It wasn't a great experience, but not nearly as bad as yours.

But I think the x-ray place is open past 4 for immigration stuff, at least that's what I seem to remember. I know that we got there around then and didn't leave until right around 5pm.

They just don't take any non-immigration patients in the late afternoon...

[suzukiwookie 1]

We did ours at Medisys too. It wasn't a great experience, but not nearly as bad as yours.

But I think the x-ray place is open past 4 for immigration stuff, at least that's what I seem to remember. I know that we got there around then and didn't leave until right around 5pm.

They just don't take any non-immigration patients in the late afternoon...

I showed up to the X-Ray place on a Friday and the lady at the counter told me "We only do immigration x-rays on Tuesdays and Thursdays." And I looked around the empty waiting room and then looked back at her, and I guess she felt like a jerk and said, "But I guess we can do yours today." I didn't even want to get into it with her. Why do these people have to be so misserable? It's like it would kill them to actually HELP someone. Their attitude is "I have to make this as difficult as I can for the patient."

Anyways, they told me to come back after 1:30 cause the radiologist was on lunch. To which I said "fine.". The actual x-ray didn't take very long at all. And she let me take a picture of my chest xray with my cellphone camera which I thought was very cool. It's not very often you get to see your insides! I emailed it to my fiancee as a little present!

[thetreble 19]

What a nightmare. Sorry you had to go through that. I once had a serious case of laryngitis in university. I didn't have a car so I had to walk about a mile to the doctors office. I had been so sick with a fever the night before that I hardly had the strength and was almost keeling over.

I could hardly prop myself up on a chair and I waited there for 3 hours. I was sort of in and out of sleep so they kept letting people in front of me. It was horrible.

[Emancipation 2]