My appointment is at 10:30. Since I need to take a cab, and I have no clue how long the trip will actually take, I get into a cab at 9:30. In an hour I could be half way to New York City, so getting to somewhere on Broad St. in South Philly should be reasonable. As it happens the cab driver grew up in South Philly and knows the best way to go. I take notes because we’ll have to make the trip ourselves on Tuesday.
The hospital is way down there, very close to the stadium complex at the foot of Broad. That is a bit surprising.
The driver lets me out by the handicapped entrance. This is a long ramp, fine for wheelchair users and hell for people on crutches. It’s always like that: wheelchair users are the only handicapped usually considered. What works for them doesn’t necessarily work for people using crutches or walkers.
I manage to get to the registration desk where a kindly clerk see my predicament and jumps me to the head of the line. That is very nice, but really not necessary. I am very early in any event.
I go up to the pre-admit area on the third floor, and after a short wait, have the required interviews and tests. The only pre-admit process I’ve ever done before is at Delco, and while this is different, it’s not very different. The people are pleasant and everything is done in 90 minutes.
Because time is too short to get the required physician’s medical clearance, the people at pre-admit send me to a local associated doctor’s practice. I'm told it’s a block or two down the street. That seems well within walking distance. The blocks turn out to be about as long as Manhattan crosstown blocks, and it’s more like 4 long blocks.
It takes 45 minutes of real effort to get there.
Once I get settled in the cramped waiting room, I really wait. After 30 or 40 minutes of screaming children I get lead back to a tiny examining room at the end of a very long, narrow hall. An older, but nice, and seemingly OK doctor, gives me a fairly cursory examination and signs off on my forms.
I easily hail a cab outside and get home in about 20 minutes.
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