it's a good thing I don't NEED a doctor!

A few years ago, a friend reminded me that, as an adult, it is important that you establish a relationship with a good doctor (an Internist, to be precise), in the event that any health problems should arise unexpectedly. At the time I didn't have a designated "primary care physician", since I was rarely ever in need of a doctor and had not established one since moving to Georgia. This did seem like a good idea, so I went to my insurance company's list of providers and selected an Internist as our PCP for the adult members of our family (I already had a pediatrician for the kids). Eventually, each one of us had gone in for a visit, for one reason or another, so in my mind that meant that we finally had a "family doctor" established. Each year my insurance company sends me new ID cards with said PCP's name and phone number printed on the front of the cards. But given the fabulous Freaks of Nature that we are, our family just really rarely ever gets sick. *knock wood* So yesterday I decided I would call my doctor and make an appointment. I would like to switch to a new asthma medication, as the powder-type inhaler I currently use makes my voice sound embarrassingly like Demi Moore or Debra Winger. They informed me that since I had not made an appointment in over a year, that my records had been dropped out of their system, and that I would have to fill out new forms as if I were a new patient, and then send a request to...somewhere...to have my records transferred back to their office. The receptionist scolded me, "YOU HAVE TO COME IN AT LEAST ONCE EVERY YEAR!" I asked, "Even if I'm not sick?!" "YES!" So I told her, "But I already have an annual health exam every year with my OB/GYN...", and besides, it's already difficult enough to get an appointment even when you are sick. Anyway, she scheduled me an appointment for 9 AM today and told me I should be there a half-hour early so they could enter my paperwork. So I showed up at 8:30am this morning, and after about 15 minutes, another receptionist comes out and whispers to me, "Um, your appointment isn't until the 20th of next month." Apparently there was a scheduling error. Oh, and btw, the doctor who is currently listed as my PCP, he is no longer accepting new patients, so they said I would have to select a different doctor. Grrr. I ended up getting in an argument with the woman who had (not) scheduled my original appointment, as she kept emphatically repeating the details of our conversation yesterday, except getting every single one of those details WRONG. (And trust me, there was no mistaking that yesterday she told me my appointment was for "Tomorrow at 9:00am", except apparently in this case, "Tomorrow" meant "3 weeks from now".) To add insult to injury, I then had to pay $2.50 for parking for the half-hour that I was there. Oh, and they would like for me to come back on Monday. I think not.