MyPoopisGreen

I’m going to reiterate a message that I spoke about in one of my last blogs - Be nice to the office staff that you speak with.  But I’m also going to add something else on to that - Do you honestly think that you are the ONLY patient that the office staff/doctor are dealing with on that day?  I don’t know if it’s because I’m in the field, but I certainly don’t think that I’m the only person that is calling my doctor’s office with a question/complaint/issue.  I know, hell I expect, to wait to hear from my doctor’s office.  And I certainly don’t expect THE DOCTOR to call me back.  The doctors that I work with are overly sympathetic and incredibly nice.  They are the sweetest and most concerned people that I have ever met, they take the time to call a patient back, even in the same day as when the patient has left the message.  However, I think that it is almost above and beyond the call of their duty to constantly be talking to these people - and they will repeatedly call patients to explain things and have discussions with them.  But again, it is the patients that are NICE and that have the expectation that they will talk to the doctor when the doctor can do so.

My gripe is the over-demanding, out of control people, that just EXPECT to talk to the doctor and to hell with the middle men.  That’s not the way to play it people!  And on top of it, please understand that it gets to a certain point that the doctor just isn’t going to call you back anymore.  They aren’t going to talk to you anymore.  There ARE other patients besides you and they can’t keep taking the five or ten minutes out of their day to talk to you about your referral- because NEWSFLASH the doctors know NOTHING about such things.  They take care of the medical side of things.  They can answer what to do about your anemia, or answer questions regarding what was found during your procedure.  They are not the ones to ask what your insurance will cover and what it won’t.  They shouldn’t have to talk to five of the 105 year old’s family members to tell everyone the exact same thing.  If you, as the caretaker, can’t be at the office visit, then trust that the person you are sending with the 105 year old patient will do what you need them to do.  The doctor is not going to call you back to talk to you for “five minutes”  because I know as the Medical Assistant that “five minutes” to you is a reality of 20 or more minutes that the doctor doesn’t have.  They do work all day.  They are on call all night, and they have more than this one little patient to discuss, take care of and be there for.  And P.S. I’m not going to hold a gun to my doctors head and MAKE them call you!  It’s none of my business if the call is made or not, because it’s NOT my decision to make!  Unfortunately I’m still going to hear about it, and I know that I won’t be able to say to this person about holding the gun to my doctor’s head and the fact that my doctor would probably rather I pull the trigger than dial the phone to talk to you!

My final note: You can’t always get what you want.  And yes, that is a Rolling Stones song and I think it would be perfect hold music for the office.  The only thing that would be one better is to have a sign up in the office when the patients check in and check out that makes the comment of “This is NOT Burger King, you cannot have things YOUR WAY!” As comedian Dane Cook says in one of his routines.  But it’s very true!  This is life people, you can’t always get what you want, and the sooner your realize that the happier you might be and you might not be trying quite so hard to make other people miserable when you are feeling bad about yourself.

So that’s my little rant on this day.  I’m very tired, so please forgive me - I do love helping people, but some people are just so rude about things that you almost wonder WHY you are trying to help them at all.  It’s the way of the world I guess…or the phases of the moon?  Oh right, next time, I’ll try to remember to tell you all about the patient that only gets constipated with the New Moon.  It’s amusing, that’s for sure.  In the mean time…take care all!:)

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