Mrs. Time: "I need to make an appointment for Monday, May 26th."
Mary: "I'm sorry, but we're closed that day for Memorial Day. He can see you on Tuesday at..."
Mrs. Time: "That's not acceptable. Monday is the only day I can come in."
Mary: "I'm sorry, but we're going to be closed. It's a holiday."
Mrs. Time: "Well, then I'll meet him there. 10:00 in the morning should be okay. Tell him I'll be outside the building's western entrance."
Mary: "Ma'am, he's not going to come see you on a holiday. Do you have an emergency?"
Mrs. Time: "That's irrelevant. This is nonsense. Are you aware that it's violation of both state and federal law? Any doctor is legally obligated to see any patient whenever requested to do so."
Mary: "That's not true."
Mrs. Time: "I read it on the internet!"
Mary: "I'm not going to argue with you, ma'am."
Mrs. Time: "That's not acceptable, either."
26 comments:
Sans the law business, I hear the same thing frequently. Lordy.
Why would anyone take a job where they were "legally obligated to see a patient whenever requested to do so"? There would be no doctors!
She must have been looking for room 12A.
She misunderstood. It's yak herders, not doctors, who are required to see patients at any time.
Tell me how the appointment went, uh, on
Tuesday, cause Monday we're off. If that is acceptable.
Should have just said you were completely booked, instead. :)
If you fired all of your patients who are crazy, you'd have to find another profession.
This is something I'll never understand. When did patients become so demanding? I've had patients tell me I'm not allowed to take vacation. I was even hospitalized one day and had to cancel all my appointments. They next week when the patient rescheduled, she tore me to pieces about taking the day off. Just don't get it.
"Well I'm sorry, but arguments are down the hall. You want room 12A, just along the corridor."
hehehe.
That reminds me -recently I was at a concert. In attendance was a rabbi. The musician asked if anyone in the audience was familiar with a particular phrase or knew what it meant. After a pause in which no one responded, the rabbi answered her. The musician said "oh of course, the rabbi has to show off," and the rabbi said "I'm not showing off" and the musician said "and now the rabbi is arguing with me" and the rabbi said "no I'm not!"
Nurse Lily and webhillizzy: She was in the right place, as she was handing out abuse!
You need to change the name of Grumpyville to Crazy City. I once had major surgery scheduled for me on Labor Day. When I pointed out it was on Labor Day the scheduler said that they'd be working anyway. I wasn't surprised at all when they called three days before the surgery to cancel.
Another raise for Mary ~ she should be making FAR more money than you!!
All hail the Chief...Mary that is! Do you pay for her flak jacket?
Maybe this patient thinks that Dr. Grumpy has gone concierge? Ah, Mary, the least you could have done is argue with her! Kudos to you, girl, for keeping everyone sane.
TCG, RN
Like the mother who told the answering service that I said I would take her call at any time and demanded they page me. Which they did, even tho I don't take call for my office. My response to the service: "and you believed her?"
WTH?
The world has become ruder and ruder!!! The demands made on professional people's time is outrageous! I've always respected the schedules of professionals and give them the same courtesy I expect in return. Kudos to Mary for standing her ground. She's worth her weight in gold.
Mary should have just said okay. Let the idiot stand there for a couple of hours. Had a lady rip me a new one for being closed July 4th. She said her 18 yr old daughter could have died without her Prilosec (never mind that it is also OTC). You can't fix stupid.
PharmacyJim
"Hello, FBI? I'd like to report a violation of the Doctor Obligation Law..."
"But Dr. Grumpy will be sure to bring your case up at the next Death Panel meeting."
"I was trying to be reasonable and meet you halfway, but you're going to force me to invoke the law's 'House Call' clause."
Whatever you're paying Mary, it ain't anywhere near enough.
People think this was in the ACA, I bet.
Oh well, if she read it on the intertubes, that's proof that it is true!!
This is a systemic problem. Maybe I am seeing the past with rose colored glasses, but it didn't seem to be this way 20 years ago...and I'm only 42.
I dunno, but I think it has something to do with parenting. Every year at the beginning of the year, we sit the kids down for "the warning" and it goes something like this, "If you see trouble, walk the other way. period. If we get a call from school, you will be in trouble. All you have to do to avoid trouble is to walk the other way. Don't miss your chance, because once we get that phone call, it's all over." I know there are potentially cases where it's unfair, but life's unfair and at least now we're there to support them and help them figure out where it went wrong.
We've started getting pleading from our kids, "So-and-so got into trouble but his mom called and..." or my personal favorite -- My kids go to the after school program at our local YMCA. "Mom, nobody likes counselor X. Lots of other kids got their parents to complain and I would like you to complain too." My response (after I stopped laughing so hard I could hardly believe it) was "Sorry, kiddo. I don't like lots of people I work with, but I have to find a way around it. FYI - I wouldn't say I'm glad you don't like your counselor, but I am kind-of looking forward to seeing how you resolve your differences and find a way to make it work for both of you."
Over and over, I have noticed people come to the table with different expectations, which is fine. However, some of them are wildly out of synch with reality and I don't how that happened, except to think that their expectations were set early on...
I dunno...just my two cents!
Been awhile since I've commented here but dang! Posts such as this one make me twitch. And when I'm done twitching, I just pray that you have an overactive imagination and are just telling stories. Otherwise, I would have to face the reality that there really are gnats flying around that are smarter than some humans. ::sigh::
My belief is that you do not have to 'like' anyone. The problem comes when their actions mean you cannot respect them. Referring to the example of Counselor X, not liking him is irrelevant to his job. Respecting him for doing his job well and professionally, or not being able to respect him because of ego or slacking off, is what is relevant.
As for these 'give me now' types, at least some of them have clear entitlement mentalities, where their environment has been such that they have never had to regard the needs and wants of others as worthy of consideration. There's a very interesting article about how children raised in such a way find it very difficult to operate in a constructive manner as adults. Very thought-provoking.
Title: "Child Entitlement Abuse (Part 1 of 5)
Where does the "world-owes-me" syndrome come from?
Published on September 15, 2009 by Leon F. Seltzer, Ph.D. in Evolution of the Self"
(I have it bookmarked).
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