Mary: "Dr. Grumpy's office, this is Mary."
Mrs. Urgent: "My daughter needs to get in to see Dr. Grumpy right away!"
Mary: "Okay. We have an opening on ..."
Mrs. Urgent: "It's an emergency. She needs to be seen urgently."
Mary: "Okay, we can see her tomorrow at..."
Mrs. Urgent: "No, she can only do a Friday, because of her school schedule.”
Mary: "Okay... Well, this Friday, at 3:15 she can..."
Mrs. Urgent: "No, that won't work. She works on Friday afternoons. The only time she can come in is on a Friday, before noon. But it's really urgent."
Mary: "All right, let me look... Our next Friday morning opening is in 2 weeks on..."
Mrs. Urgent: "Didn't you hear me earlier? This is urgent! She needs to get in right away!"
Mary: "Yes, and like I said, we do have an opening tomorrow at..."
Mrs. Urgent: "Obviously you're not listening, don't care, and aren't willing to help her."
Click
Clearly one of them does not understand the meaning of urgent!
ReplyDelete*sigh*
ReplyDeleteIf this is so damn urgent then why aren't they at, oh I don't know, an URGENT care center or an EMERGENCY room?!?
Are you sure it's the daughter who needs to see you?
ReplyDeleteI am blessed (or perhaps cursed) with a very vivid imagination, yet I draw a complete blank when I try to imagine what is going on between the ears of a person like that.
ReplyDeleteIs it like being 200 miles beyond your oil change miles, that kind of urgent ?
ReplyDeleteIs there really an Urgent need to see a neurologist, that wouldn't be better served by going to the Emergency Department at the local hospital first, not his office?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I am under estimating his office, but I doubt that Grumpy's Office has the equipment he needs to handle something Urgent
@Don, exactly
ReplyDeleteThere are things that can certainly feel pretty urgent to the patient, that are not ER type of things. But in that case, its important enough to miss school or work!!
ReplyDeleteI have occipital neuralgia and recently had the nerve blocks wear off 2 weeks prior to my neurologist appointment. After 3 days of housebound misery due to severe headache, I contacted my neurologists office. He was kind enough to tell me to come in the following day at 8 am to repeat the nerve blocks, and called in a steroid prescription to my pharmacy. I would not have been able to dick around about my school schedule in that instance.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
ReplyDeleteMary is not alone. This same scenario happens to me in internal med at least twice a day.
ReplyDeleteand again, this is something that happens in so many other fields...
ReplyDelete"You have to fix my computer, right now! It's urgent -- I can't do anything!"
"Well, I can get there in an hour; we have at least three other emergencies in front of you."
"No, you have to make me first! You have to fix it, I can't even send email!"
"I'm sorry, but I can't get there until 4 pm."
"That's no good, I'm in a meeting at 4 pm! You're useless! I'm going to email your boss and complain about you!" *slams down phone*
Good luck with that, Skippy.
I made the mistake of one day asking a woman which was more important -- her mother's urgent ultrasound, or getting her ducts cleaned (because those appts are so hard to get.....). She complained. I have no idea why?
ReplyDeleteActually, that sounds like a pretty good t-shirt: "I'm not listening, I don't care, and I'm not willing to help you."
ReplyDeleteWhaddaya bet the mom thinks its urgent but the daughter doesn't and that's why the daughter can't/won't clear her schedule?
ReplyDeleteGood riddance...
ReplyDeleteThe nice, smallish Liberal Arts college my niece attended gave $1,000 scholarships to Eagle Scouts. The Girl Scout Gold Award recipients got $500. And, FWIW, the Gold Award takes involves a greater time and effort commitment than the Eagle Scout award does.
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed that you can get a patient in so quickly. Do you block out a few time slots each week for "urgent" appt. requests? Your patients should be more greatful!
ReplyDeleteYou've mentioned before that you suffer from migraines; is that part of why you specialized in neurology??
This happens at our dental office every single day. Patients never want to take time out of their own schedules for emergencies, yet they expect us to either stay late or come in on the weekend when it's more convenient for them.
ReplyDeleteI broke my arm when I was in the second grade.
ReplyDeleteThe school nurse called my mother to come take me to the ER.
My mother insisted I was making it up, even after the nurse told her there was a big old bend in the middle of my forearm. (My self-diagnosis, after I walked up to a teacher, was a calm "I hurt my arm." I was already living with chronic pain, and the,arm wasn't much worse than my usual experience.) And school was over in 3 hours. Couldn't it wait until then? She had plans!
They insisted she come, so finally she did, leaving my baby brother with a neighbour, because she was only going to be gone for 20 minutes. When she saw the arm she finally agreed to take me to the hospital. But we still had to do errands on the way.
Some parents just can't grasp how urgent medical care is. This was neither my first nor my last experience with that. For example, I once hit my head and lost consciousness for at least 45 minutes. Never saw a doctor about that. (She was a lot better with my siblings' emergencies, though, including some that happened after my arm. I don't know why.) I'm not sure it's something they are aware of or can really help. It really missed me off when I was a,kid, though.