Vent-Remember The Doctor's Name

[ncscgirl2005]

:thedolls::thedolls:Write it down if you have to, post it to your forehead, repeat it 1,000 times.

Not for my sake; BECAUSE THEY ARE CUTTING ON YOUR 2-MONTH OLD CHILD!!!!! :thedolls:

:rant:
I am at my wits end with getting calls from people who saw a doctor in our surgery practice (or any of our practices for that matter) but cannot remember the doctor's name. Ok if it was 1-2 years ago since the last time you saw him or her, then it's not as bad. But when your 2-month old child is having surgery on this Friday and you don't know the name of the doctor that is performing the surgery, then I have a problem with you. Seriously!

I just want to scream!!!!! I field calls for all 13 of our practices and out of all the calls I get in one day, those are the ones that make my blood boil the most. Especially when a innocent child is involved.


Ok....I'm done. Getting down from my :soapbox:

[MsMin]

:hug: hope you feel better. I know it can be frustrating. I work with mom's that can't tell me which school their child is enrolled :confused: I can't understand it. Some can't tell you if their child is in middle school or HS??? :mad:
I could see that if my child were having surgery and I was a wreck I might forget the dr.'s name. -- I might even forget my own. I'm sure it would be all I could do to keep from crying on the phone. But knowing some of the parents I see I'm sure that you run across moms where that is not the case. :shake:
:pixie:

[Tinkermom]

You really need to cut a new mom some slack. Many times patients are referred by their family doctor or pediatrician. Many of the specialty practices these days have so many physicians it can be difficult to keep them all straight. This poor mom is probably going through an awful lot with her baby having surgery. She has a lot more to deal with then remembering the doctor's name. I agree with MsMIn, I think I would have a hard time remembering my own name due to the worry and lack of sleep. It is times like these where we need to extend some grace.

[Tiggerlovr9000]

I don't understand why you are so upset. Have you never written something down and then misplaced it? Some doctors names are hard to pronounce. Are you just mad because you have to look it up? Give them a break. I would be scared senseless if my 2 month old was going in for surgery. I hope I don't go to a medical service with so little compassion as you...

[Hayden's Dad]

I have to side with ncscgirl2005. My 2yr old son has had several surgeries, and we have seen several specialists not to mention his pediatrician, neuologist, and his whole hospice and kids path team and I guarantee you I can spit out all their names. My DW even keeps a large business card holder with all the cards of anyone who has seen him. Yes it is extremely traumatic, yes it is one of the most stressful situations you will ever be in handing your child over to a doctor for surgery and thinking in the back of your mind this may be the last time I get to kiss him, but I know who I am handing him to.

[Tinkermom]

I have to side with ncscgirl2005. My 2yr old son has had several surgeries, and we have seen several specialists not to mention his pediatrician, neuologist, and his whole hospice and kids path team and I guarantee you I can spit out all their names. My DW even keeps a large business card holder with all the cards of anyone who has seen him. Yes it is extremely traumatic, yes it is one of the most stressful situations you will ever be in handing your child over to a doctor for surgery and thinking in the back of your mind this may be the last time I get to kiss him, but I know who I am handing him to.


We do not know the situation. However, this mom DOES now know who she is handing her child to. That is why she called.

[DisneyDudet]

I fell your pain. While its not exactly like yours, we do have some people who are not exactly up on their healthcare. Most of ours are older patients, and probably won't remember anyway, but our younger ones should. You're going for open heart surgery, and you don't know your doctor? I'd be having my family look up the doctor.

People, everyone, needs to be proactive in their healthcare.

I just hope that these parents are just stressed over their baby being sick, and not just not caring.

[ncscgirl2005]

I don't understand why you are so upset. Have you never written something down and then misplaced it? Some doctors names are hard to pronounce. Are you just mad because you have to look it up? Give them a break. I would be scared senseless if my 2 month old was going in for surgery. I hope I don't go to a medical service with so little compassion as you...

I have to admit that at the time I wrote that email I was fuming. Reading back over it today, I can see why you would think that I don't have any compassion. Well let me first say that I take my job very seriously and I am nothing but professional, courteous, and understanding when I am dealing with anyone that either calls this office or steps foot inside of this office. I know what it means to be a patient and I treat everyone the way I want to be treated as a patient. But after answering so many calls in one day (many of which are similar situations) I just get frustrated from time to time (just as anyone else would with their job no matter what you do). No I am not mad every day, all day; I very rarely get upset. I do not mind looking doctors up whatsoever because that is my job. I know that a lot of people will call my office to get a number for their doctor when they don't feel like looking it up or searching for their business card and I am OK with that. That's what I am here for. My number is one of the few numbers you can still call and get a live person on the other end on the first ring instead of going through a million prompts just to speak to someone. I wish more businesses still practiced that.

You're absolutely right. If my 2-month old was going in for surgery, I would be scared, worried, and nervous too. But I would be able to give a better description than "He's a tall, Caucasian male."



I have to side with ncscgirl2005. My 2yr old son has had several surgeries, and we have seen several specialists not to mention his pediatrician, neuologist, and his whole hospice and kids path team and I guarantee you I can spit out all their names. My DW even keeps a large business card holder with all the cards of anyone who has seen him. Yes it is extremely traumatic, yes it is one of the most stressful situations you will ever be in handing your child over to a doctor for surgery and thinking in the back of your mind this may be the last time I get to kiss him, but I know who I am handing him to.

Thanks. It sounds like you are very proactive. Its funny that you responded because I was thinking about you and your son after I typed this. I hadn't seen you around lately (but I haven't been here a lot either) and I was hoping everything was OK. Just as I was looking for you to send you a PM, my computer froze and I had to restart it. I got side tracked after that but I hope everything is OK with you and your family.


We do not know the situation. However, this mom DOES now know who she is handing her child to. That is why she called.

You're right. We do not know the situation and maybe I should be more understanding. However from the conversation she was giving... Well let's just say that if I were able to playback the conversation, you would know exactly what I mean.

Today is another beautiful day!

[Gooftroop5]

I understand completely. If they are scheduled for surgery it means they have at least met with the dr. My ds#1 had surgery I made sure I knew the name & had it written down when I left my pcp's office. They just write it down anymore when I have to take any of the kids to a specialist (ds#2 sees a dermatologists for eczema). I always make sure I put it in a spot I know where it is. We have a bulleting board that we attatch them too. Only dh & I can reach it & dh doesn't even touch it unless I ask him to look at something for me.

Even my flighty friend knew the dr's name for all the dr's when her dd had to have surgery within 10 days of seeing the dr & they saw 4 different dr's before they saw the surgeon(3 of them in 1 day). She remembered the surgeon's name. She also is notorious for misplacing things but this was too important to her that she kept track of it. There isn't any excuse not to know your surgeon or not have the name handy. Long story short she had a tumor on her eye & had it removed (her eye).

I worked in a pharmacy & dealt with similar situations. We always had people call in or stop in & want refills but they couldn't remember the name of it. I understand that there are a lot of generics out there & you can't always remember everything especially when they change your medicine but most of the time their answer was when you asked them what it was for their answer was "I don't know its the one that i've (or their kids) have been taking for years" or "I need the little white pill". :confused: You have to play 20 questions. Eventually you could get what it was for & sometimes we get it narrowed down to 2 & then show them the different pills if they were there. It was my job but after you get a bunch of these by the end of the day you are ready to scream & help yourself to the "happy"pills.

You have every right to blow off steam. Especially in a place like this so you don't take it out on the patients. Of course I can say this because I've dealt with similar situations.

[crazypoohbear]

I think it's perfectly fine that you posted on here to blow off steam. Some times you just get that one phone call that sends you right over the edge. I can say that I know every doctor my son's have seen. If I couldn't remember their exact name at least I knew it sounded like "such and such" and the person on the phone knew who I meant.
At one time I was taking my 2 son's, my mother and my aunt to different doctors and I made sure that I knew the names of every doctor. I know the names of my sister's doctors and the doctor's that my nephew sees.
But... I have a big head and I can remember things that I really have no need to retain :blush: It's just a gift.
So don't worry about venting here on the board. At least you were polite and proffessional on the phone and waited to vent. That's what is really important!

[Tiggerlovr9000]

Maybe I was a bit harsh, maybe a little sensitive seeing as I just had surgery Monday. It was out-patient and I was home in 4 hours. I called the hospital the same day, wanting to tell the administrator how professional everyone was and how caring. They really listened to my concerns and addressed them. Felt bad when he asked for my nurses name and I couldn't remember. I work in the service industry and definitley have those days when I vent here. Sorry..

[ncscgirl2005]

Maybe I was a bit harsh, maybe a little sensitive seeing as I just had surgery Monday. It was out-patient and I was home in 4 hours. I called the hospital the same day, wanting to tell the administrator how professional everyone was and how caring. They really listened to my concerns and addressed them. Felt bad when he asked for my nurses name and I couldn't remember. I work in the service industry and definitley have those days when I vent here. Sorry..


Thats quite alright. Like others have said, Intercot was my outlet. I just needed to get it out. Better to do it here than on the phone with a patient right (even though I would not let it get that far whatsoever)?

I hope everything went well with your surgery. Thank you for calling the administrator to give a compliment. In the health care industry, we get many complaints, but that one compliment will outshine 100 complaints and make everyone smile! :mickey:

[MMouse6937]

I can feel your pain, it is very frustrating when people don't take control of their (or their child's healthcare). I work in internal medicine right now and I'm amazed at how many people "forget" medications they are taking and then call us later for a refill or to change something. When we tell them that there is no record of that medication in their chart, they are stunned. We actually had one lady ask "well whose responsibility is that???" UM, YOURS!! GEEZ :confused:

[MNNHFLTX]

I work in healthcare too, so I can imagine how frustrating your job might be, especially when you're fielding similar calls all the time.

To tell the truth, I kind of feel bad for many of the patients on the telemetry unit that I work on. We have a very culturally diverse bunch of doctors at our hospital with some very difficult names to remember. It took me months to learn who they all are and I work with them all the time. So my poor patients and their families that are on information overload tend to miss some of the important details. That's why I'm always telling them to write things down, as well as questions for the doctors. It's funny--a lot of people will nod their head and listen intently with the doctor in the room, but when they walk out the first thing they will do is turn to me and ask--"Now who was that and what were they talking about?"

Anyway, glad you feel a little better now. Venting is a good thing sometimes.:)

[conorsmom2000]

I can understand why you needed to vent - I'm sure that can be totally frustrating. If the parents had already met with the Doctor, then I would definitely be surprised they wouldn't remember the name - but, I'm an overly organized, write it down, possibly even google him just in case type of person! :blush: :D But, with the stress of the situation, I can also understand parents being forgetful. Now that I'm president of the PA at school, and in the office often, I see things like this a lot - parents that don't know their child's teacher. That always floors me - how can it be April and you don't know the name of your child's teacher?? :confused: Especially since our school has so many online things, like Homework Now, where you can view online what their homework is, specials are, etc. - you have to know their name to look that up!!?? But, everyone is different I guess!

Vent away, it's good to let it out! :thumbsup: :mickey:

[PAYROLL PRINCESS]

But... I have a big head and I can remember things that I really have no need to retain :blush: It's just a gift.


She really does have a big head and retains all kinds of useless trivia. But call her and she'll usually remember the answer.

I too remember my nephews Doctor's names unless it's someone they just started seeing or have only seen once. I even remember some of my friends doctors names! It is important to know who you are giving your child to though. Don't worry about venting since that's what we are here for.

[jillluvsdisney]

I can relate. An officer can spend and hour at the scene of a crime then the victim will call back with a question and can't remember the officer's name. Sure, it makes me roll my eyes and feel impatient but if that's the worst thing that happens during my shift , I can live with it.

I'm going to play devil's advocate here and think the parents have a lot of their mind and and overwhelmed by stress. Sometimes, somethings gotta give.