Mr. Ivac: "Yeah, I need the phone number for the infusion center."
Annie: "We don't have an infusion center at our office."
Mr. Ivac: "I KNOW THAT! I'm talking about the infusion center by Farfaraway Hospital. I need to check on my appointment."
Annie: "Did we refer you there?"
Mr. Ivac: "Hell no! I'm not even your patient! I see Dr. Darth."
Annie: "So why are you calling our office?"
Mr. Ivac: "Because I need the phone number for the infusion suite! Can't you look it up for me?"
Annie: "Okay, but..."
Mr. Ivac: "You people are wasting my time. I'm glad you're not my neurologist." (click)
23 comments:
I'm a bitch and would not have given it to him.
What.....the fuck......
Aside from general agreement witn Anon @706, I counsel patience as it may be a case of Chemo Brain, which I am told is a real phenomenon.
I looked it up, and Neurology is medical talk for brain surgeon. So this guy who called is obviously a patient in need of a tune up. Or whatever Dr. Grumpy does to keep Mrs. Grumpy in high heels.
How can you let new business like this just slip through your fingers?
Neurology is NOT Neurosurgery! I only touch knives at the dinner table.
I might have been tempted to ask if he had a phone book and then suggested that his fingers do some walking..
All in all this Ivac guy is right, you never lose your temper with neurologist. I kinda sympahtize with him, it's easy to lose temper with *them*. Zen is the answer.
In the practice I attend, I'd probably fire 90% of the 'helpdesk', but hey, they only obey 'editor in chief', damn, He's to be fired for the rules... :-)
Some rules are idiotic, and lots of useless staff could... just go, why don't they hire more docs? Of course 'editor in chief' will never be fired (I don't see him firing himself), he's far too handsome and has fab eyes (I bet he wears coloured contacts, good god, never seen such colour, ok, never paid attention, but imagine ICE in eyes, I think I'm in love).
"And we're glad you're not our patient."
How did he get YOUR phone number? Couldn't he have just looked up the infusion center instead? Geesh!
I am a hospital call center manager and I am SO not surprised by that exchange.
Sir, may I direct you to "let me google that for you"?
PS-you're glad we're not your neuroloigst-guess what? We are just as glad you aren't our patient!
Are you sure someone isn't giving out your number on little cards saying, "Hey any medical problems at all call this number. Really anything. Maybe even not medical problems, just anything that's bothering you, please call Dr Grumpy!"
Brent is partly right, the trick is to spin them to google it and extract detailed info. That way they feel needed and fulfilled. And there's no arguing. They actually feel they are doing their job! Win win situation.
But how to spin them into thinking: 'I like my job, I like doing my job, I want to do my job'?
Dr. Grumpy, does your office have a really easy-to-remember number? I'm guessing maybe this guy was somewhere without a phone book or internet access and called you guys in lieu of 411 to save the charges. Inexcusable, still, but that's the thought that came to mind.
My current place of employment is also known as the operator's desk as people call all the time to ask for the phone number of something completely unrelated to their medications. Unfortunately, many of the callers can't read or write, so the numbers must be given extremely slowly... 8...... 6....... 7...... 5..... 3..... I kid you not.
"Oh, I thought you said the confusion center!" (you stupid sick %#&*)
This guy was incredibly rude and the way he talked to Annie was inexcusable, in my field if someone starts yelling at me on the phone ordering me to look up numbers or whatever, i ask them to stop and if that doesn't work, I hang up. My boss insists as we aren't to be abused by aggressive callers. I love my boss :)
I'd give him Dr Darth's number. This could be a symptom.
I admit, I have made a number of ridiculous calls to our hospital Locating service. Mainly because we have to login to our computers, an dialing "0" is a lot faster than logging onto a computer, waiting for the damn thing to load, then waiting for Internet explorer to load (we are still using pentium 4s), then looking up the other hospital / clinic / dr number... Or I just dial "0", apologize profusely, and ask for Dr X's number... They probably do the same google search on their computers as I would have, but I appreciate their kindness.
I generally collect doctor's mobile numbers (they insist me to have them), but hell, they're So boring I almost never use them.
The phone for the blood lab next to us defaults to their central command in nearby great big city. We're an imaging department, depending on answering our phones and booking patients. We're forever getting phone calls, 'when are they open' 'are they open now' 'do I need to fast for this test'.
If they sound elderly, we'll help them out. Otherwise, you're on your won.
Dr G - you should consider in office policy that allows this scenario:
Annie: certainly sir, Ill be delighted to help you with your information/number request, ...but I'll need your debit card number
Mr IVAC: what??
Annie: our current policy is $100.00 for non patient information calls. When your account clears, then we will call you back with the number your request = typically in 7-10working days.
i had person call me at the pharmacy one day looking to get a doctors phone number, so i tried looking it up in the computer only to not have it listed. so i told the person i had no listing for the doctor only to have him ask me if i was smart enough to look it up in a phone book. really..... so i put him on hold never to hear from him again. why do people have to be assholes to you when you are taking time out of your day to try to help them?
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