Wednesday, October 22, 2014

With a capital E

Mrs. Eword: "So, anyway, I want an MRI, and can do it today."

Dr. Grumpy: "I agree with getting one, but your insurance requires a pre-authorization. I'll have my staff get started on that, but it takes a few days and..."

Mrs. Eword: "I don't think you heard me. I want it NOW. While I'm here."

Dr. Grumpy: "Well, it has to be scheduled with an MRI facility and your insurance. I don't do them here."

Mrs. Eword: "What do you mean you don't do them here? You're a neurologist, aren't you?"

Dr. Grumpy: "Yes, and I order MRI's, but don't have the machine in my office. We use Local MRI, across the street and..."

Mrs. Eword: "I cannot believe this. What's that room I passed with the door closed down the hall here? There was a lot of noise. Isn't that your MRI?"

Dr. Grumpy: "Uh, that's the bathroom. They're replacing the sink's pipes today."

Mrs. Eword: "So you've been wasting my time this morning. Doesn't other peoples time mean anything to you? This is incredibly inconsiderate."

Dr. Grumpy: "I..."

Mrs. Eword: "I'll go elsewhere." (gets up, leaves)
at

22 comments:

  1. CandiOctober 22, 2014 at 5:03 AM

    Oh, wow. The assumptions and lack of practical knowledge is... ouch.

    The really sad part is she had a perfect opportunity to be educated -but that would mean admitting she could be wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  2. HeidiOctober 22, 2014 at 7:16 AM

    Wow. Is there even such a thing as a doctor with their own MRI in their office?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousOctober 22, 2014 at 11:06 AM

      Sure, at the veterinarian's office; most commonly at veterinary teaching hospitals or veterinary multispecialty centers. We don't deal with insurance in nearly the same way nor with same frequency as human med, though!

      Delete
  3. Aunt MurryOctober 22, 2014 at 9:08 AM

    People are great.

    ReplyDelete
  4. OldSquidOctober 22, 2014 at 9:15 AM

    First off I don't think there would be a good ROI for even a very large neurology group to have their own MRI machine. Those things need to run almost 24-7 to make up for the cost. Even then I believe there are rules regarding referral to facilities that the physician has a financial interest in

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  5. Wendy at Taking the Long Way HomeOctober 22, 2014 at 9:29 AM

    I don't think an MRI is going to diagnose her issue.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousOctober 22, 2014 at 9:48 AM

    Dr Grumpy I hope you realize your online reviews as well as your Press Ganey scores are most certainly going to suffer for this. The appropriate respose would have been, "Would you like fries with that MRI".

    ReplyDelete
  7. PackerOctober 22, 2014 at 11:23 AM

    Having had precisely the same type of day yesterday.....which crushed my spirit...unfair criticism still smarts after all these years. So I sometimes find that I need to pull myself up.

    "There are two ways of exerting one's strength: One is pushing down : the other is pulling up."
    Booker T. Washington

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  8. AnonymousOctober 22, 2014 at 11:35 AM

    I can only imagine what she's like in bed.

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  9. AnonymousOctober 22, 2014 at 11:45 AM

    Send in her into the bathroom, tell her to stick her head in the toilet and hold very still for twenty minutes, and then come out.

    I'm sure she'll be satisfied.

    ReplyDelete
  10. ndenunzOctober 22, 2014 at 12:03 PM

    Are you sure her name wasn't Mrs. Bword?

    ReplyDelete
  11. ShellyeOctober 22, 2014 at 12:59 PM

    Wow...

    ReplyDelete
  12. bobbieOctober 22, 2014 at 1:00 PM

    Good riddance...

    ReplyDelete
  13. JoanOctober 22, 2014 at 1:36 PM

    Is that "E" as in "Eejit"?

    ReplyDelete
  14. AnonymousOctober 22, 2014 at 3:18 PM

    Please tell me you have a shredder in your office and after you meet with a patient like that you just walk over and feed their file into it......

    ReplyDelete
  15. JOctober 22, 2014 at 4:06 PM

    So long...
    Farewell...

    Sounds just like the seriously under-the-influence client I had last week. Nearly insane with indignation that I could not (refused) to work around the load he was carrying in his nose. Or veins. Or lungs.

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  16. HollyOctober 22, 2014 at 5:46 PM

    WTF?! Jo, is that you? Seriously, I think that was my ex-mother-in-law. A lovely lady. *cough cough*

    In nursing school, they tell us to use therapeutic communication to deal with patients like this. Be calm, which I believe you were. But trying to convince someone that you're not hiding an MRI in the small 6'x9' room next door is another matter.

    ReplyDelete
  17. a.generic docOctober 22, 2014 at 7:21 PM

    She didn't even get as far as asking if you had a PET scanner in your office.

    And you probably didn't have time to tell her she needed her vision checked because she couldn't tell that the sign on the door down the hall said MEN, not MRI.

    ReplyDelete
  18. AnonymousOctober 22, 2014 at 7:43 PM

    Clearly you didn't do a sufficient job in selling her the benefits of waiting the few days to be able to use the MRI machine with 80% more x-Rays...

    ReplyDelete
  19. AnonymousOctober 22, 2014 at 7:54 PM

    Entitled!

    ReplyDelete
  20. AnonymousOctober 22, 2014 at 9:26 PM

    And doesn't other people's time mean anything to HER?

    ReplyDelete
  21. AnonymousOctober 24, 2014 at 10:34 AM

    Such a simple mistake. Confusing the sound of bathroom repairs with a MRI, why didn't your office staff get down on their knees to beg this patient to stay?

    Personally, I think MRIs sound like a washeteria, and wouldn't confuse it with a bathroom. But, then, I've spent my fair share of time in washeterias with a pharmacology textbook.

    ReplyDelete

So wadda you think?