Fifty One Minutes
I have medical insurance through Kaiser. Some people hate Kaiser, but I’m not one of them.
Ever since we got home from our cruise, I’ve been coughing like a retired Welsh coal miner at a cat show. Since my carefully thought out program of “leave it alone, it’ll go away” wasn’t working, I finally broke down and made an appointment. I called on Wednesday and had a 2:30 appointment on Thursday.
Moments after checking in and paying my $20 co-pay, they called my name, took my blood pressure, temperature and weight. For a rare change they didn’t ask me how tall I am–maybe they got tired of me answering 6′ 4″. Then I was ensconced in an examination room to wait for the doctor.
Who was along in just a few seconds. Just another Kaiser doctor, nobody I know. He listened to my lungs, looked in my ears and said I have a cough. Maybe I should have gone to med school; I knew that already.
He gave me a prescription for a couple of things, and ordered a chest X-ray to see if I had pneumonia and that was all.
So I went down the hall and picked up the prescriptions for only $10, then into the hospital to find the X-ray lab.
Paid another $40 co-pay and quickly went in, had two pictures taken and was back out in a flash.
This seemed like a good time to get a flu shot, so I stepped into the modular building on the campus, showed my Kaiser card, filled out the form with my age and date of birth (which seems like overkill, since you can derive one from the other), told them I wasn’t pregnant or allergic to eggs, and got the shot.
At 3:21, 51 minutes after my scheduled appointment, I was back at the elevator in the parking structure. Doctor’s visit, pharmacy, X-ray and flu shot all accomplished.
And that’s why I’m a Kaiser fan.
Totally Unauthorized 
Did you ask about the pneumonia shot?
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Thank you for making me smile.