>>>>>>I'll give you a thousand chances to guess what the receptionist asked me....
>>>>
>>>
>>>>>Why all this repetition? Because the consequence of error is far greater than the minor irritation of checking and confirming details repeatedly.
>>>
>>>When you think about it, you can say that about filling your gas tank, inflating your tires, lighting your BBQ grill, changing a flat tire or tying your shoe laces.
>>>
>>>Yes, yes, you'll say.. but.. this is your health I'm talking about. Well, tripping over your shoe laces can be pretty damaging to your health, can't it? Maybe we should hire someone to check them after we've tied them and fill out forms in triplicate to prove that they've been checked and that I have been made aware of my privacy rights and that if I have a living will, blah blah blah.
>>>As you say, it's a "minor irritation" in the large scheme of things, don't you think?
>>>
>>>That's absurd, isn't it? Well, it took almost an hour for me to get a flu shot this year while someone filled out more paper than I knew existed in the town of Hamilton, New Jersey.
>>>All for a poke in the arm. And all that nonsense increases the cost of the shot dramatically.
>>>Then I had to acknowledge all the privacy nonsense.
>>>
>>>I'm cynical enough to wonder if the difference might be that the person tying the shoe laces doesn't wear a white coat and is not being paid for the extra checking and double checking, the living will junk and the privacy crap so one good tug will therefore suffice.
>>
>>Where did you go for the flu shot? The last time I got one was at Walgreens and I was in and out.
>>
>>The main thing I remember about that shot was that it didn't hurt a bit. I commented on it to the pharmacist who administered the shot, an older guy, saying I remember shots hurting a lot more. He said that was when we used needles over and over instead of just once. They would get flattened and spread out a bit at the end. "AIDS?" I asked. "Yep."
>
>I went to CVS.

Interesting. CVS and Walgreens are practically clones of each other. Maybe Walgreens has more rigamarole now, too.