Dear Harvard Vanguard:
Thank you for being so convenient and having every specialty I could ever imagine needing under one umbrella and the technology to truly take advantage of such a system. That I could go in and see one doctor yesterday and within 15 minutes have a spot in general surgery to get taken care of is invaluable. Especially when, instead of nickel and diming me, you just transferred my internal medicine appointment to gen surg.
Thank you for your same-day appointments and, barring that for whatever reason, your urgent care office.
Thank you for having pharmacies in each of your locations. I do like getting my insulin at Walgreens, since my local one is 24 hours and I’m kind of a spaz at not refilling before I run out, but when I have a raging sinus infection and all I want to do is go home and sleep, it’s nice to just stagger downstairs and pick up my 12 prescriptions on my way out the door with hardly any waiting time and not have to make an extra stop. Your pharmacists are also super helpful and knowledgable about good, cost-effective substitutions when my insurance won’t cover whatever superstrength decongestant I was supposed to take.
Thank you for your email system, allowing me to communicate with my doctors how I feel most comfortable and without playing phone tag.
Thank you for your compassionate nurses, like Diane yesterday, who offered to let me squeeze her hands while I was being injected with anaesthetic and scared out of my mind. The same nurse I was able to get on the phone in two minutes when calling, freaked out about my incision, who calmed me down and didn’t sound at all impatient or annoyed with the crazy hypochondriac.
Thank you for giving me a team of kick-ass doctors to ease the pain of having to replace my old team in Hartford. I didn’t think it was possible to ever find anyone approaching Dr. P, Gayle, and Dr. Lassman but you’re really making an effort. They will always be #1 in my heart but you’ve given them a run for their money.
Thank you.