Encounters with rude people

I've always been wary of annual physical exams in the institution I work for, because it meant dealing with really rude health workers, finding my way through the many hospital buildings, lining up with the other patients of the hospital, enduring the heat, and being subjected to numerous invasive laboratory methods. Since I teach at the state university, I need to be examined by government physicians at the tertiary hospital just across the street.

I only need to have the following done: urinalysis, vdrl blood exam, drug test, chest x-ray, dental exam, and a physical. First, I claimed the medical exam referral from my department chair. Then, I went up to the 8th floor of the main tertiary hospital building (the university and the hospital are affiliated) to present my referral to the personnel office so that they can approve the medical exam. I went down to the ground floor and proceeded to the health service department to present the referral approved by the personnel office to claim the subsequent referral forms for the different tests. As you may have noticed, the inefficient method of presenting referral forms is taxing in itself. I was made to read the directions on how to go about the exam.

I then went to the hospital cashier to pay....PAY!!!!! for the tests! 210 bucks! I was, what the heck!?!
Since I basically had no choice in the matter, I just went directly to the radiology dept to have my x-ray done. Fortunately it was about 70 steps from the cashier and the line wasn't that long. Then I went up to the 2nd floor to have my blood exam and urinalysis...only to find out that I was freaking lost! Luckily, there was a man who also needed to go to the laboratories to submit his daughter's blood. Anyway, after asking an aloof health worker, we finally reached the lab.

Then.....I was led to a room for the urine test and the INCRDIBLY RUDE woman who was in front of a microscope kept on IGNORING ME! I wasn't disheveled, I didn't look like I was selling something, I was extremely polite....but no....it was just so difficult for her to tell me what to do. Finally she glanced at me with a raised eyebrow and protruded her mouth towards a pile of vials and a key. She did NOT say a word...I had to assume. GRRRRRRRR!
When I went back to the room, another lady told me to just leave the sample on the table.

For the blood test, I was told to go down to the admitting section to have my blood extracted. The med tech volunteered to bring the sample back to the lab. Thank God. I then went to the pharmacology section where the drug test should be done (it was in another building...about two blocks away!).

Yesterday, when I came back to the hospital (health service) to check on the results, have the dental exam, and the physical exam...I couldn't find my urinalysis and xray results in the files. The urinalysis was not done. They LOST the sample. I wasn't about to go back to the RUDE WOMAN so I said I'll have it done in a private lab. The x-ray results haven't come out yet. After 5 days!?! I was then told to go to the radiology department to follow-up on the x-ray result. I stood in line for 40 minutes! The result was already there....they x-ray people didn't forward it to the health service.

I'm just so frustrated right now....I no longer have the strength to write about the dental exam (ARRRRRGGGGhhhh-----I need to have two teeth extracted and 5 filled!) and the drug test.

I'm still not done with the physical...

I need to do all these things to get that teeny weeny paper saying that I'm fit to be employed for the coming semester.....If I don't get it ASAP, my salary will be on hold. (I deleted the sentences that followed this paragraph because I realized they were really egotistical...I'm calmer now)