My call is not important to you

 My doctor wants an MRI scan of my hip, and his office called and set up an appointment at a nearby location next week. 

In due time I received a text from a radiology company, asking me to register for the appointment. I tap through the categories at some length, entering miscellaneous pieces of information, coming at last to the discovery that the location for which I am scheduled is not listed. 

Sighing, I call the radiology company. "Your call is important to us." "Your call will be answered by the next available representative." "Thank you for your patience." "Your call is important to us." "Your call will be answered by the next available representative." "Thank you for your patience." And then, helpfully, "You can register for your appointment at our website." 

Ultimately, a human being answers, and we go back and forth until it begins to emerge that maybe the doctor's office sent the order to this radiology company by mistake. I thank the human and move on.  

I then call the place where the doctor's office scheduled the appointment, and a human being answered and said yes, we have your order and the time of your appointment. Just show up. 

This is how it goes in U.S. medicine, a lumbering bureaucracy that offers you two choices: an electronic rigmarole that may or may not be of any use, or a lengthy wait on the phone because they will not hire enough people to handle the traffic. And while it is true that I am seventy-five years old and retired with few obligations, I am not keen to spend what time remains for me listening to inane hold music. 

This, plainly, is nothing more than a bitch session. Feel free to vent in the comments yourself.