MESSAGE TO KAISER-PERMANENTE!!!!

I was sitting in an urgent care waiting room last night for a *ahem* an bladder infection. No bueno. I called Kaiser Permanente, my insurance company, to schedule an urgent appointment with a physician and the phone triage nurse recommended to me that I go to the KP urgent care I got there at 7:30 PM and wasn't seen until 10:00. I would have gotten there at 7:00 but the MapQuest was wrong at EVERY MAJOR TURN!!! Every single one. Also, every single individual that checked in after me was seen before me. I was livid. But to start with it, I parked my car and went to the door in front of where I parked my car. For the record, I parked where the handicapped parking is, though I didn't use the handicapped spot. The door was locked and the sign on the door (of this huge, 3 story bldg) instructed me to "use the main entrance at the front of the building". Okay. Good thing I wasn't on crutches or in a wheel chair because there is no sidewalk to get there. An individual redirected to this door has to walk in the parking lot, back to the street and half a block down to the big front door, which is way up a hill. It's stupid as all get out.

Then the 2.5 hour wait. But while I was waiting, a mother and her adolescent daughter (poor girl) were sitting behind me and the girl had a fever of 105 degrees! Yes!!! I was sitting next to another mother whose poor daughter, roughly the same age as the swine flu girl, had a broken ankle. So, here broken ankle girl and myself (bladder lady) were sitting there exposed to flu girl. Don't you think Kaiser Permanente would have the foresight, given that EVERYONE and their brother knew this flu was coming, to separate those with flu symptoms from those who do NOT have flu symptoms? Doesn't that just seem reasonable? But noooo, not only were we all exposed to it, moi was overly exposed to it because my paper work got overly shuffled and I was left there to the very end.

However, as I'm trying (sometimes desperately) to be a better person in stead of a grouchy loner, I calmly accepted the fact that these things just happen. Maps can be wrong, bad building designs can happen, poor paper shuffling occurs, and since I was possibly exposed to a wretched viral infection, I can not see Em or the kids and had to cancel plans to visit the temple with friends from the desert today just in case I'm not carrying a virus that could infect them...I will remain calm and maintain presence of mind. I will not lose my temper. I will not speak unkindly. I will remain generous in my thoughts and actions.

But my message to Kaiser Permanente remains thus: SEPARATE YOUR WAITING ROOMS FROM THOSE WITH FLU SYMPTOMS AND THOSE WITH NON-FLU SYMPTOMS (FRACTURES, UTI'S, SLIGHT TRAUMAS, ETC). And frankly, you should be ashamed of yourselves! Sorry. Couldn't resist. But honestly!!!