Monday, November 21, 2011

Sunday morning, 2:18 a.m.

My cell phone wakes me with a message. It's a patient with a relatively urgent question.

I knew the call would take a while, so stopped in the bathroom, then walked to my home office, flipped on my computer, and opened the patient's chart. This took maybe 5 minutes from the original message.

Then I dialed him up.

Dr. Grumpy: "This is Dr. Grumpy, returning a call."

Mr. Etiquette: "Um, huh, oh."

Dr. Grumpy: "You called me?"

Mr. Etiquette: "Man, you just woke me up."

Dr. Grumpy: "Sorry. What can I do for you?"

Mr. Etiquette: "Took you long enough to call back, and I dozed off again. I can't believe you woke me up."

Dr. Grumpy: "Well, in your call you said..."

Mr. Etiquette: "That doesn't matter. I can't believe you woke me up. This is incredibly rude."

(hangs up)

19 comments:

Reds Kevin said...

He woke you up first right?

Grumpy, M.D. said...

Yup.

Anonymous said...

Talk about rude. Fire him, perhaps?

Anonymous said...

My thoughts exactly...I see a thirty day "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out" letter in this person's future!

Pattie, RN

Anonymous said...

hope you were able to doze off again.

OMDG said...

Fun times.

Anonymous said...

Or is his behavior a sign of a neurological or psychiatric condition?

watercolordaisy said...

5 minutes? That's blazing fast! He's a tool. Geez.

Anonymous said...

He's tired from watching 'Breaking Down',er 'Dawn'.

Lori said...

Maybe you didn't get the message until well after he had left it since you didn't hear the phone ring in the first place?

Grumpy, M.D. said...

No, the message time stamp showed about a 5 minute lapse.

Packer said...

So what time do the bars close in your neighborhood : 2:30 with last call at 2:18

Anonymous said...

If he called you at 2am, he either needed to go to the ER for a concerning symptom or he needed something called in, right? Did he think he was going to get either of those things accomplished in 5 min? Sheesh.

Anonymous said...

Well ... People aren't quite themselves when they've just woken up ... Dr. Grumpy seemed to be okay, but maybe he was still out of it ... I'm going to go away imagining him face-palming extremely hard later that morning when he was really and truly awake.

Because that's what I want to believe.

Matt said...

Obviously, you need to learn your place, medicine-slave. (I keed)

Debbie said...

Jerk. (the caller, not Grumpy)

Anonymous said...

I find it frightening that some commenters are trying to excuse this inane behavior. Such inconsideration and rudeness toward someone who is trying to help you should never be tolerated... I can only imagine those people never have to work with the general public.

Anonymous said...

what would be the next plan of care? call him back and try to leave a message?

C said...

guy is off his meds..on the wrong meds or took the wrong dosage or combination of meds. In any case, I hope he is not a surgeon, car mechanic, air traffic controller of one of the joint chiefs of staff or the owner of a deadly weapon...

 
Locations of visitors to this page