Mr. Time: "Yeah, I have an appointment tomorrow, and I need to move it to Friday."
Dr. Grumpy: "Hang on..." (turns on iPod) "uh, you're appointment is on Friday, March 19th"
Mr. Time: "Oh. So is that the next Friday, or the following Friday?"
Dr. Grumpy: "It's Friday, March, 19th, 2010. I'll tell you the specific date to keep it clear."
Mr. Time: So when did you move it to Friday? How did you know I'd need to do that?"
Dr. Grumpy: "You must have. We don't do that."
Mr. Time: "Friday is good for me. Would Monday work better for you?"
Dr. Grumpy: "Friday is fine. See you then. Have a nice day."
20 comments:
I can't figure out how all of your patients are so crazy. When I go to my neurologist (pretty big practice- I think there are like 10 doctors) everyone in the waiting room is slumped over in their chair. Makes me want to check their pulse or something. Can't imagine them making phone calls like that. Lol. Maybe that is all they can do though.
At least he was polite!!
I would asked him to change it to Viernes just to fuck with him.
But then again I'm a cynic
Would that be an iPod Touch, Dr. G? Do you use it as a calendar?
My attempts to convince myself it would be irresponsible to buy one right now are not working.
The fact that he had no clue might indicate that he needs a good neurologist.
I just don't understand why people would call you on a SUNDAY, away from the office, and ask to change an appointment. Doesn't your answering service weed these people out????
Some of the area vet practices forward their calls to our ER, so people call asking about their pet, that is not even in our hospital, and get made when we cannot tell them anything. MY favorite was one guy that cussed us for not letting him pick up his dog from boarding....um, we don't *have* your dog, your vet does.
KateA, I was thinking that same thing. Maybe they make a huge deal out of a "problem" to the answering service to get Dr. Grumpy to call back?
You sure your specialty isn't abnormal psych?
Wow. You do love to reinforce my ideas about stupid people... they're out there, BREEDING. And declining.
Oh Lordy be Grumpy, If I paged a Dr for that well...well I wouldnt! My Drs would say they dont have a clue about anybodys appts on a Sunday morning and wouldnt look!
Your a good Dr.
Famous Clinic and Hosp switchboard operator.
Dr. Grumpy that is just hilarious. Hard to even follow that guy's logic...
I wonder what on earth he told the answering service to get through to you!
KateA,
Your post reminded me of when I was in the VA hospital for a bypass. A friend called his sister who lived nearby asking for directions to the "Vet's Hospital in South Bay". She sent a Mapquest page to him that got him to a veterinary hospital in San Jose, lol!
We heart Dr. Grumpy. Maybe he has trained his service to put through calls that will make good posts!!
Well, an 'unhappy' patient paged my colleague, a hospital pharmacist on-call, wanting to know why on earth is spermicidal jelly NOT AVAILABLE in Singapore pharmacies... This isn't just stupidity. It is blatant selfishness thinking that their very minor inconvenience in life deserves the attention of another, even on a weekday evening!
Sue
When patients leave a message on the office answering machine does it go directly to your pager during
“off” hours or are these people really paging you for this kind of BS?
To echo others does the answering service page you for anything, or do the patients say it's a medical emergency OR do you give patients your pager number?
I have a doctor who has given me his pager number both numerical and text and wants me to use whenever needed. In fact, I left him a message at the office during the Business Day thinking he only wanted me to use it during off hours in an emergency. This was indeed an emergent situation!
When his nurse contacted him he told her to call me back and ask me to page him like I was instructed. He wasn't at all mean about the situation! In fact, he was as kind, sweet and concerned as could be and it only delayed me talking to him by 10 minutes.
I asked him about it, and he simply told me he doesn't give this info out to just anyone and he wants me to get used to reaching him via pager.
I always feel so badly doing so; but I will say it has come in VERY handy on a few occasions!
His office staff was shocked I even had this info. I am not sure how to react to all of this. I suppose as long as I don't page him to ask what he had for dinner I shouldn’t be bothered by his kindness. Any thoughts?
Have a "freak" free Monday Dr. NOT Grumpy!
JS from the Midwest
I don't use an answering service. The ones I've dealt with have charged too much, and done crappy jobs.
After hours now we just roll the office phone to my cell, and I just use the ID and voicemail to screen calls.
And it works a hell of a lot better than any answering service ever did.
I have had patients give me their doctor's personal cell phone numbers to call about prescription issues. I don't think I'll ever get used to the concept of a doctor trusting a patient that much.
On the other hand, I have had my sleep specialist give me his personal cell to call in the evening about test results he was going to review for me. He said "If I forget to call you about the test results, just call me at this number." I never had the nerve to call, but I'm sure others would have no problem doing so.
Dani: as someone who works with "crazies" for a living, I'm telling ya - to look at most of them, you'd never know.
You magical powers are truly amazing, Dr. G, changing that man's appointment the moment he THOUGHT of it!
I am impressed!!!!
>:p
Uh oh. This sounds like the conversation I had with my neurologist just before I had the lobectomy. I thought he was a magic man - with my brain in his capable hands. Say - you're not really working out of New Jersey, are you?
Funny stuff...
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