Kate

I had mixed feelings about my visit at their Friday clinic. I was unable to see my regular doctor (no opening until early 2022) and was referred to this clinic run by medical students. When I called to schedule my appointment, I asked to make sure I would be assigned to a doctor instead of a medical student due to personal reasons. They told me I could do that.

But when I arrived on time for my appointment, the interpreter and I were brought over to a waiting room and we were there for over 30 minutes. When it got closer to the 30 minutes mark, I got up and talked to a staff to express my concerns of how long this was taking because I didn't have a lot of time with my interpreter. The interpreter needed to be at their next assignment very soon. I think that's what caused them to come by my room quickly after bringing that to their attention.

The person who talked to us acted as if they were the doctor so I thought oh great, they got my message from my phone call. But when they said they would get the doctor, I was disappointed because that meant it would take even longer and many people in the small room with my interpreter included. Other than that, the two staff were super nice and seemed to know their stuff. One of them did glance at the interpreter every time while talking; a little FYI would be helpful so they know to not do that the next time with a D/HH patient. 

One of the staff that I spoke with earlier while trying to find out what the delay was told me that the clinic tends to schedule a bunch of people at the same time. For example, several patients came at 1PM including me. I think the clinic needs to reconsider this approach, especially if the patient has an interpreter because if it takes too long, the interpreter will either have to leave early or cancel their next assignment which is unacceptable. Patients like me probably should get priority to help make sure everything goes smoothly for accessibility & interpreter reasons. That interpreter was supposed to be at an appointment assisting with a person who was in labor but got delayed because of my own appointment running longer due to how the clinic did things. That's unacceptable.