What's Wrong with Doctor Offices?

Hey this guy got off easy, imagine being treated like that when you need a medicine. In smaller towns there is not so much choice "to go somewhere else" and they know when they have a captive audience so to speak.
Does anyone run into this?

Where you have to make 15 phone calls to get done what ONE PHONE CALL should be enough?

I do think I am going to talk to my kidney doctor about his office staff. My home physician one isn't much better. I am petrified and even have felt like crying whenever I have needed something medical done, realizing that to get what the drug needed to stay alive, or an insurance authorization dreading dealing with the legions of indifferent office staff, that seem to throw your paper away in the trash as they go uh-huh on the phone and ignore even the most polite messages left in their voice mail boxes which they never return, EVER!.

I've had a TEN DAY HOLD UP on obtaining a kidney drug to dissolve my large kidney stone, what if it decided to go migrate today? A surgery for me would be life threatening. These people don't care.

What I don't get is why these staff don't do things on the front end, instead of necessitating that you call them over and over, to get anything done. I would rather stay nice and polite, but then NOTHING GETS DONE, and seriously I could be here 2 months later sans kidney stone drug if I let things go or let them push me off.

They really don't care, and that disturbs me. Are they all badly paid? Overworked? Burnt out? I think the rules make it so too much is dependent on the doctor. What is worse is you want to keep things peaceful and straightforward but then if you get a little firm they turn around and tell you that you are rude when their odd behavior ruined the day to begin with.

Today's conversation, after three phone calls and struggling with voice mail jail, was "We have patients bleeding here!". Sorry don't buy that, they'd be in the ER and I'll be bleeding if I don't get my medication. I said, "I gave you a week, why do I have to call, check and babysit, every single step, I shouldn't have needed to call at all in the first place." They assured me that my authorization was ready at the top of the stack to be faxed today. I said "Could you fax it now?" but they assured me it would be done. It's Monday today, I'll call the pharmacist and see if it's done on Wednesday. If it's not, I'll be showing up in person. At least this office is local and the weather is such I am not housebound yet.

None of these things make sense to me. I have serious trust issues already with the medical establishment and they are worsening.