Doctors WITH Borders

    You make an appointment with your doctor or health care provider.  There are times when you may need to change the date of that appointment.  Chances are, though, any change to your appointment will come not from you but from the doctor's office. Appointments used to be pretty much set in stone, but currently it is not unusual to get a call from the office rescheduling the date for your appointment.
    But, for whatever reason, it is also not unusual to find that your doctor has changed, not the time, but the location  of your appointment or procedure.  Just one year ago, I was scheduled to have knee surgery at the same facility and by the same surgeon, as the year before.
   About 2 weeks before the date of the procedure,even after the paperwork had been filed, the office called to change the location, from Samaritan Hospital to St. Peter's. "The surgeon doesn't operate  there anymore."
   Earlier this  year, my ophthalmologist's follow-up visit was changed from Clifton Park to Troy.  "Dr. Sax no longer goes to Clifton Park."
   A few days ago, the orthopedist's office called to change the site of my follow-up visit for rotator cuff tear from Clifton Park to Everett Road in Albany.  "Dr. Kaback no longer goes to Clifton Park."
      I wonder if it's an individual decision, or a group practice conversion or such.  Do the doctors get tired of the drive, or the personnel, or both.  Or does one office or operating room get priority.  (The only explanation I ever heard was when another patient asked the surgeon, and he told her that Samaritan didn't compensate them for their Emergency Room work.  What---not get paid?  Or not get paid enough?!!