Medical frustrations/advice for a large family

[LauraClark]

This has been my week:

Sat: take ds9 to urgent care in a neighborhood town (no appts available in our town). He tests positive for strep. He gets an antibiotic

Sun: take ds6 to same urgent care. He tests negative (a notoriously false negative test). Same symptoms as ds9. Urgent care will not give him an antibiotic. I send a message to my Dr on behalf of ds3, ds6, and ds11 who all have the same symptoms hoping to get them antibiotics (note: we're not a family that abuses antibiotics-this is only the second time the kids have ever had to have them)

Tue: baby girl has a well check and I'm able to talk to my Dr. She is waiting on customer service to send her my message. 

Wed: Dr finally gets my message and is able to prescribe antibiotics. My throat starts hurting and I put an urgent call in to my Dr.

Thur: no response from Dr so I call again. Dr says I need to come in...next available appt is NEXT THURSDAY! Nevermind-I go to a medical clinic nearby and am able to get antibiotics (thankfully!!). 

 

We are not sick often, but when we are, we ALL get the same thing (obviously...) and it is impossible to get into our Dr (who I really really like). Urgent care treats us like individuals who have never met and couldn't possibly have the same illness. And when I try to make dr appts I have to make them for each individual person. I really want a family Dr who is actually willing to see our whole family together and treat us like a family. Do any other large families experience this? Any workarounds? 

Illness is frustrating enough without all of this craziness. It has been a week!

[itsheresomewhere]

It is not just large families but sadly has become the normal for all.   We are extremely lucky the kids doctor isn’t like this but he is a unicorn.  

Edited February 3, 2023 by itsheresomewhere

[KSera]

Do your kids have a pediatrician? I don’t know if this is standard, but our pediatrician is always happy to see the kids all at once and treats them all as family and relates their various medical things to what she knows about their siblings.

[BlsdMama]

We nurtured relationships for years. As we were eventually recognized to show up on time, they allowed us to make multi-kid appointments. My pediatrician is about 45-50 minutes away but she's been our ped since 2000.  She also has 8 kids.  But it has been the same with optometrists, dentists, etc. 

My daughter has a similar situation with her kiddos. Initially she took them to her childhood ped but that's a long drive with itty bitties and with well child visits.  Her ped is a homeschool dad.  Ask around homeschool friends for a family friendly doc. Then make sure you are communicative, friendly, reliable. That's the only advice I have. 😉

[LauraClark]

9 minutes ago, KSera said:

Do your kids have a pediatrician? I don’t know if this is standard, but our pediatrician is always happy to see the kids all at once and treats them all as family and relates their various medical things to what she knows about their siblings.

It's a family Dr. Maybe that's the issue? We've had a ped in the past, but they were kind of condescending and I always felt like I was a failure parent at each well check. Maybe it was just that ped, though (although I've heard others same similar things about their experiences)?

[Annie G]

We were blessed to have a family doctor for all of us. He was great about situations like op mentioned.   Dd has 4 kids and her current experience is exactly like op mentioned, right down to strep running through the kids this week. one.at.a.time.

[Arcadia]

For us it depends on whether the doctor is part of a large medical practice or a standalone. Same goes for our dentist. When it is part of a large medical group like Kaiser, they book each appointment slot per member ID/name.
Our former pediatrician would squeeze in both our kids when they were younger on the same slot if he can but he is not supposed to. One parent would have to make the out of pocket payment for the second child while the other parent stay with the kids.

For standalone doctors and dentists, they are willing to see everyone if time permits while one parent handles the billing. They are also willing to see us outside of their official hours if they are free. 

[kirstenhill]

We've only ever seen doctors that are a part of a large clinic/practice (often the only option where we've lived) they usually had an office-wide policy of no more than two kids per appointment, and sometimes only one kid/appointment.  

Luckily for us when we've had strep we all equally tested positive at the walk in clinic, so we never ran into the issue of needing meds w/o the test result.  

I too prefer family practice to peds....My boys are seeing a ped right now due to availability at the clinic closest to us, but we had some super condescending ones when the kids were little, and our favorites have been family practice.  When our current ped was out on medical leave the sub was sooo awful and kept making weird jokes that my kids felt awkward about.  We put up with it to still be on the first ped's list when she came back. 

 

Edited February 3, 2023 by kirstenhill

[rebcoola]

We don't have a doctor that will see all but once someone tests positive for strep or whatever we have had luck doing an on Virtual appointment through our insurance app to get a prescription for others

[J-rap]

We used to live in a small town and our whole family had the same general practitioner (he also delivered our babies!).  When one person had strep, he just automatically prescribed antibiotics to anyone else who had symptoms.  

Due to malpractice and so many other things, I think that's pretty unusual today.  

[LauraClark]

52 minutes ago, Annie G said:

We were blessed to have a family doctor for all of us. He was great about situations like op mentioned.   Dd has 4 kids and her current experience is exactly like op mentioned, right down to strep running through the kids this week. one.at.a.time.

I'm sorry-hope they get what they need and get better asap!

[LauraClark]

43 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

For us it depends on whether the doctor is part of a large medical practice or a standalone. Same goes for our dentist. When it is part of a large medical group like Kaiser, they book each appointment slot per member ID/name.
Our former pediatrician would squeeze in both our kids when they were younger on the same slot if he can but he is not supposed to. One parent would have to make the out of pocket payment for the second child while the other parent stay with the kids.

For standalone doctors and dentists, they are willing to see everyone if time permits while one parent handles the billing. They are also willing to see us outside of their official hours if they are free. 

Yes, our Dr is part of the large medical group-it drives me crazy! Maybe I need to look elsewhere-which breaks my heart because I really do like my Dr.

[LauraClark]

34 minutes ago, rebcoola said:

We don't have a doctor that will see all but once someone tests positive for strep or whatever we have had luck doing an on Virtual appointment through our insurance app to get a prescription for others

Oh, that's something I hadn't thought of-I'll look into it insurance and see if that's an option.

[Annie G]

1 hour ago, LauraClark said:

I'm sorry-hope they get what they need and get better asap!

Thanks. They’re on the road to recovery, but Dd remembers when she was a kid and knows it was easier for us.  Different time, different place…smaller town where our docs knew us.  You know, running into them at the grocery store or social event, our kids’ tennis matches, etc. 

 

[LauraClark]

2 minutes ago, Annie G said:

Thanks. They’re on the road to recovery, but Dd remembers when she was a kid and knows it was easier for us.  Different time, different place…smaller town where our docs knew us.  You know, running into them at the grocery store or social event, our kids’ tennis matches, etc. 

 

Sigh...I really long for that community-type feel. We live in a pretty small town, but I think that era is gone. 😭

[sweet2ndchance]

We are extremely lucky to have found our primary doctor because she is truly amazing. Dh had an appointment with her today. After she had gone over everything with my dh, she asked me how I was doing since I had been messaging her during the ice storm. She went ahead and ordered tests for me just for my peace of mind. She also prescribes us routine antibiotics for any and all family member who need it with just a virtual appointment though messages. She typically has a 2 - 3 month wait time for appointments so we have to plan for well visits in advance. We also have to drive 45 minutes to see her but it is totally worth it because she is kind and caring and just plain awesome. Her nurses are also great to work with. 

We had to search for about 5 years to find her though. Barring a true emergency requiring the local ER, we will always make the drive to see our primary doctor. Good doctors do exist, you just really have to search to find them unfortunately.