Our doctors surgery, (they call them "health centres" these days, but the staff remain the same, doctors, practice nurse and clerical staff) has notices up saying you now have to book doctor's appointments on-line using "Patient Access." It's a bit of a nonsense as a high proportion of the registered patients will be elderly and not computer literate. My wife refuses to have anything to do with computers. She wanted to book an appointment for a flu jab so phoned the surgery, explained her situation and got an appointment for last night. I took her down, went in with her and as we've known the doctor for decades, he did mine at the same time. But to "play the game," I decided I'd register with Patient Access in case I ever need to see a doctor. So when we came home I went on line and sorted it out. But what amazed me was that you have to create a password. No problem, I've a few dozen. But a twelve digit one?
Riley, one can go too far with this internet business. So much has to be done online these days, and I do not like it one bit. I want to speak with real persons. I find demanding that patients must ask for appointments is step too far...it's oké to have auto work done, but for health....no! I am with your Bride on this one. I have begun lying and saying that I know nothing about computers and insisting on doing things the old fashioned way. Same thing with online statements. I want them on paper--it's better for my filing. Blimey--I am sounding like a grumpy old man all of a sudden.
My bank and my credit card company frequently ask me if I want to go "paperless." I always refuse, like you I file stuff away. If you go paperless and your computer goes down and you haven't printed off a hard copy, you've nothing. So I make them provide the hard copy.
One of my medical providers keeps heckling me to sign up for their patient access. Only they don't tell me which doc they represent. So I don't know who it is. And there is no way to contact them to ask because it is one of those"do not contact us" emails. ????? I just ignore the emails. But I must say, I am registered with a hospital patient portal where I get my health care. I like it because I can see test results, MD reports, I can ask a question, renew a prescription etc. All very easily. I get test results right away, rather than having to wait for the appt with the doc.
I can see that what you say in the second paragraph is handy and a good idea. I wasn't talking about that sort of scenario though. Of course you are perfectly right in this situation. I would do the same with medical things. My beef is with the "lesser businesses" that want to force one to do things online for the sole purpose of making life easy for them (and saving them money). The thing being what's best for THEM, and not for the customer. I suppose that it is profit motivated. Ach...it is a bit of an irritation, but I refuse to get too worked-up about it, there are more weighty problems in the world at the moment.
I have a good time with the security and poor ergonomics of the current internet. I particularly enjoy overly difficult enrollments because I use very strange answers to such questions as "What is your favorite movie?". If the answer to any question is "Orange" then purpose served and we move on. This is so I can simply remember the answers of course, and not have to track so many. I usually get some laughter on the other side when someone like a phone service provider interrogates me for security reasons. The more they try to get me to use big number security, the more I try to bring a derivative essence to the party. I have more of a formula for a Password than I do actual passwords. Purely self defense of course, but enough the bots indicate a strong password.
Digressing slightly. When I was working we often had to have a security code to use when entering rooms with a restricted access. These codes were usually just four figure numbers. But I used to set them up so it was only necessary to remember one number and to rotate clockwise. For example, If it were "1" it would be 1,2,5,4, if "2" it would be 2, 3, 6, 5. if "3" it would be 3,6,5,2. if "4" it would be 4,5,8,7 and so on.
