I can’t help but notice that as a society we are more distrustful of the outside world than previously. Especially here in the south of the USA, – I can’t really speak for any area I am not living in obviously.

People are extra vigilant about keeping their private information private, making it difficult to contact people concerning things (like applications) to complete. I don’t know about you, but if I applied for something, like, say… a rental, I’d be expecting to be contacted via the phone number or email address I entered on the website that I went to of my own free will to apply.

I would even go so far as to answer my phone when it rang or check my voice messages when I missed a call. You know you miss it, let’s face it, these days we generally don’t “miss” calls, we choose whether or not to answer them. Apparently, this is outside of the realm of most people’s understanding of how stuff works. 

I get it though, there are a lot of scams out there, unsolicited offers of services, free money, and work, but that’s the key word…”unsolicited”. 

However, I notice some businesses that inherently have our trust, and seem to request a ridiculous amount of information, over and over again. Maybe it wouldn’t be so easy to have all your personal information misappropriated if you didn’t have to give your info 3x to confirm – before you even get there – every doctor’s appointment for a start.

I made discovered this recently. I had a doctor’s appointment, nothing special, just a regular check-up. I’m also aware that recently my doctor’s office was merged/taken over/affiliated with some giant healthcare company. 

Although, I seem to have missed the email/notification that our rinky dinky local doctor’s office had been absorbed by another company, and it wasn’t until I received text messages requesting I update my profile after I had made an appointment that I called the doctor’s office to check if this email from this company was legit. Yes, apparently it was. This isn’t the first time a company/business has made a major change and failed to notify me – or anyone I imagine, I don’t think I’m so special that they are only excluding me. Apparently, it was on their social media profile. 

Which is where their first blunder occurs. They are sadly mistaken if they think I am logging on to any of my social media accounts to see what’s up with my local doctor’s office, or any of my healthcare businesses for that matter. 

Definitely a hard nope. Does anybody do that? 

Then you have to “update” your details anytime you make an appointment. I get that makes sense if it’s been over a year or so since your last visit, it feels like some trite power move on their part to keep requesting you enter the same info and verifying and agreeing to stuff that only needs to be done once. 

Seriously, have they had a problem with people making appointments and checking in once, and then somewhere between the online check-in and the showing up someone else steps in and pretends they are them? Or is it that they think if someone does go through all the trouble of making an appointment in someone else’s name by requesting the same info multiple times they will catch them? 

I don’t get it.

I did it anyway, even though I was aware of the salty feeling rising in my throat, and when I got a text reminding me of my appointment, and directing me to send back a “C” to confirm. I do. Then they text me back to let me know I have an email, but here’s the link if I want to continue on my phone. 

Now I understand that a lot of people do everything on their phones, but I did not want to follow the handy dandy link on my phone. Geez, I confirmed the appointment, didn’t I?

So later at my desktop, I find the email, “Thanks for confirming, follow this link to complete check in” so I do. All the standard stuff about verifying identity. You know the drill; read, check a box, next, read, check a box, next, etc for five minutes. Which is a long time when you are still some time away from the actual appointment. 

O I am a little surprised at the overkill when I get to my appointment, and they have a “kiosk” at the door, which I have to check in with as well, for all intents and purposes, it’s exactly the same as the thing I did online; 5 minutes of answering the same questions and pressing next, read, check, next, read, check, etc to get through the stupid form because there is no skipping to the last page. 

OK, I’m checked in, so then I sit down and wait. In the meantime I see people walk in, not stop at the kiosk, and head straight to the sliding glass paneled hole in the wall where two women are answering phones and doing busy work. It looks like they are checking in there. What?

So after a few minutes, I headed over to the sliding glass paneled hole in the wall and asked if I had to check in there too. 

“Yes, otherwise how do we know you’re here?” The old lady behind the glass replies, I can’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not. People generally don’t get sarcasm in the south. Passive aggressive communication is their thing, however, especially the women. 

Which, in my mind, is a less evolved form of sarcasm, like if they keep at it and work hard to define those resentful feelings they too can graduate to true sarcasm. 

“Who did I check in with at the door? And online?” 

“We just need to know you’re here,” she replied.

“OK, but what’s the point of checking in at the door? Isn’t that what that is for?” I ask.

She gives me that look like I’m being difficult, and crisply says, “Ma’am, it’s the procedure.”

She looked back down at her keyboard and started tapping away.

“OK,” I said in the least confrontational voice I can muster. 

The conversation was finished and she slid the glass window shut.

I can only presume when people do that (shut down and fling curt remarks) they don’t know either. 

What’s the point? Where is my information going? I wanted to ask. But I did not. 

She had already turned her attention to something else. 

Eventually, I was called in by a nurse. She had a handheld device, and she took my vitals, blood pressure, height, and weight, although she did not announce my weight the way she had announced my blood pressure or height. Not like she yelled it to the whole place, but you know, just said what the numbers were, which I thought was odd, there is something about the brutal honesty of the perfectly calibrated doctor’s office scale that generally serves as a wake-up call in my life. Not today though. 

Then I remembered reading somewhere that they didn’t do that anymore at the doctor’s office, heaven forbid you to find out your true weight at your doctor’s office to prove your inactive lifestyle and diet of too many processed foods and probably alcohol is only making you unhealthier. 

When you’re overweight, you know you’re overweight, your clothes tell you every day that you’re overweight, but you don’t like hearing that you are overweight, because it hurts your feelings? What? 

So, she enters my details into her handheld device (more like an arm-held device, but still), then she guides me to a room, assures me someone will be in shortly, and shuts the door. 

After some time someone else enters, and she tells me her name but not her title…is she a nurse? A P.A? R.N? The Dr? I don’t know…She taps away at the computer in front of her, asking about my health history, and any concerns about anything, etc, entering everything into the computer, nodding, and we chat, then she says the doctor will be in shortly. 

OK, guess she was taking notes for the Dr?

Then the doctor comes in, logs into the computer and we have almost the exact same conversation, and at that point, I just had to ask “what happens to all the information I’ve just given to the nurse who took my vitals and the next person who asked questions and now you? What are you all gathering info for? Is it not in a shared database? Why do I have to repeat myself while the person I am repeating myself to takes notes and logs my answers? Where is that information going?”

She looked at me as if I had just told her that rain is wet and said nothing.

After a quick calculation, I share that I have given my SS# 3x already this morning along with my medical/health history, and it appears that none of the people taking notes share the notes. Who is my info being recorded for? Where is it being stored? Why do they need it? I understand a one-time check-in and checking your details, but really, is it necessary to do it over and over? 

Should I just tell each one something different and see if they catch on? 

She’s somewhat sympathetic, but offers the same, “it’s the procedure.”

Who’s Procedure? I want to ask. But of course, I do not. Instead, I imagine that the company that is collecting all this is somehow billing me every time I enter my details somewhere. Or having me agree to some massive breach of privacy or ridiculous charges because I am not reading every single thing they want me to check. Besides a quick skim, I mean does anybody?

That’s a little unnerving to me. Especially when I am so diligent everywhere else in my life, I don’t randomly give my social security number at the drop of a hat, and yet we are expected to just enter it three or four times in the name of medicine. 

This is a moot point apparently, I have not spoken to anyone else worried about this, and they happily provide their details when asked by medical professionals, it just seems like such an obvious gap to me. It’s funny the longer I live in this country, the more I can relate to the kid in the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes. (Quick synopsis – the kid is the only one who sees the obvious when nobody else does. For a while.)

Meanwhile, people are applying to live in other people’s houses and freak out because they have to provide personal details like paystubs. Forgetting that they approached us. A reputable business and applied for a rental. 

It was not unsolicited. 

The inconsistencies in the mindsets of people are just baffling at best, and frustrating as anything at worst. I don’t see a solution. 

I’m just venting. Wondering if I’m the only one who sees it.