MotherGoose
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"Very few practice receptionists are as clever as they think they are. Many of them are tight with appointments because they're scared of the practice manager!"
Being a medical receptionist/practice manager, I'm not sure how to take that Lesley! (Just kidding!) I actually agree with you. There are a lot of reception nazis out there.
When training receptionists I always instructed them that if a patient complains of indigestion or any kind of chest pain, treat it as if it is a heart attack and tell them to call am ambulance. It probably IS indigestion but you can't take the risk.
I've had two patients die on me because they refused my advice to call an ambulance or have their wives drive them to the hospital immediately. Both patients were men whose wives had phoned to make an appointment for them, and they were insisting that their wives were over-reacting and they didn't want to come to the surgery after after they'd finished work for the day.
Reply #3461. Sep 17 11, 9:27 AM
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MotherGoose
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Sorry, that last line should read: they didn't want to come to the surgery until after they'd finished work for the day.
Reply #3462. Sep 17 11, 9:29 AM
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| C30
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It has been said that the hardest part of getting a doctor's appointment, is getting past the practice receptionist. Not entirely without foundation!
One of my favourite quotes......and lord knows where it comes from, is, "From Politicians and Religious Fanatics, may the good Lord preserve us".................add:- "and Incompetent Medical Practitioners". !
Reply #3463. Sep 17 11, 9:48 AM
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| lesley153
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Sorry, MotherGoose! :) If only that particularly air-headed receptionist, the one with the rich husband and the pretty fingernails, had had you to train her.
Probably the most frightened one had only worked there a week, and didn't want to give me a same-day appointment for a two-year-old with earache. She said the practice manager would tell her off. It's OK, I got the appointment.
The Naziest was the one who emerged from her ivory kiosk, and started waking round the waiting patients, demanding to be told what was wrong with them. That was about half a century ago. I don't think that would happen now! |
Reply #3464. Sep 17 11, 10:30 AM
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| lesley153
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| **pauses to brush crumbs from the jeyboard "L" key** |
Reply #3465. Sep 17 11, 10:32 AM
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| lesley153
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| Oh dear - the typos are flowing today. I give up! |
Reply #3466. Sep 17 11, 10:32 AM
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daymare 
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Passionate posting often results in typos which r always forgiven.
Why is the receptionist working if husband is rich?
One visit to the doctor, past doctor, I had to tell four people why I was there. It was also written on my paperwork. Five times? How non-productive is that?
The best gyn I ever had has retired. His original staff were...well, outstanding! I went to him just before he retired and not only was my information placed in the incorrect file, I was asked, repeatedly, why I was there as I had just been there three months ealier (which I had not been). Luckily, there were no other patients in the waiting room as I got to the point where I stated "to remove my boot out of your backside". When I realized they couldn't even get the correct file for the patient, I told the practice manager to cancel my appointment, shread my paperwork and I left. She tried to stop me leaving and I told her it was a sorry state of affairs when the staff were more interested in chatting about their "important lives" than it was to ensure the proper file was associated with the correct patient.
I wasn't charged nor was my insurance.
Reply #3467. Sep 17 11, 10:48 AM
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| lesley153
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How wonderful that you weren't charged. I'd have paid to be a fly on the wall if they'd tried.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A couple of years ago, I couldn't sleep because my belly was a beachball. I ended up going through my medical history with a load of different people too, possibly NHS Direct, who asked me a million questions then told me to go to the out-of-hours service.
I sat at a desk while a nurse about half my age asked me about every illness, medication, treatment I'd ever had. I kept on remembering things and saying "Oh yes, there was also that... oh and that... and hang on there was that too!" until the nurse decided that I was probably mildly demented, and started talking to me with the sort of voice that's usually reserved for addressing wounded kittens.
After half an hour, I remarked that that was the umpteenth time that day I'd recounted my entire medical history - and surely it's on the centralised records system now anyway?
Her reply: "Ah bless."
She continued the demented little old lady theme by introducing me to the duty doctor by my first name - Doctor Thingy, this is Lesley: Lesley, this is Doctor Thingy.
Dr Thingy told me my liver was slightly enlarged, I didn't have cancer, and see my GP first thing in the morning. I never did ask how a bit of a prod with fingertips, however skilled, can establish an absence of cancer. Clever stuff.
The beachball was simply fluid - ascites? - which may indicate all sorts of things, including the cancer and liver disease he so happily eliminated, but is also a top-of-the-list screaming example of heart failure. Never have so many people spent so much time completely missing so many signs of the blindingly bleeding obvious.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I still think the prize goes to a recall for abnormal cells in a non-existent cervix.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Why is the receptionist working if husband is rich?"
I wondered the same thing. She didn't work full-time.
Perhaps she wanted an audience for her pretty hairdos and pretty manicures. Or perhaps she just wanted to be able to bleat about how important it is to keep one's brain active. Yes, that must be it: one day a week would have been about right. |
Reply #3468. Sep 17 11, 5:45 PM
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satguru
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It's amazing. I had a set of basic medical books, and even the doctor.com whatever site with flow diagrams of symptoms will diagnose fluid retention with heart failure as a #1 probable cause. It's no good just prescribing diuretics and not checking the cause, as some I've heard do, and as for his x-ray fingers I think he ought to be earning thousands a night on stage if he can do those sort of tricks. Most symptoms have a diagram of possible reasons in order of likelihood, and until you have found one do not stop checking along the line. But in your case they didn't even use the diagram, just an index finger which you ought to have given one back.
Reply #3469. Sep 17 11, 7:36 PM
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| lesley153
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I think the normal GP response to these books is "throw them away. You don't need them when you've got us." "Trust me - I'm a doctor!"
My ex-GP's locum listened to my breathing, but the GP didn't even pick up his stethoscope. I hung around while he kept me out of his room with increasingly fanciful theories, and I went along with it for a long time. Remember how many people on FT screamed at me, "DUMP HIM!" Wrong. The right instruction would have been "KILL HIM!"
I think the answer is
1. work out what's wrong with you before you go for help: and
2. see a shiny new medical graduate whose motivation hasn't yet been squashed and destroyed by the sheer weight of their earnings.
I have many fingers to wave but I was thinking of something a little more substantial. |
Reply #3470. Sep 17 11, 7:53 PM
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Jazmee27
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The Internet is a useful tool, too, although a doctor will tell you "don't do that"
Reply #3471. Sep 17 11, 9:14 PM
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Professer
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It is such a useful tool, Doctors do not like that we have the power now to read about a health problem and no what treatment to expect.
Reply #3472. Sep 18 11, 1:27 AM
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Jakeroo
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Well it's good I suppose, except that many people seem to work themselves into a bit of a fear-frenzy if they start researching too many (often related) symptoms.
My husband had surgery to repair a brain aneurysm last year and the doctor actually told him to look at online videos to see what the procedure involved. He wouldn't - he was too scared. Can't say I blame him as I DID look.
Reply #3473. Sep 18 11, 3:56 AM
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| lesley153
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Jake... gosh. What a scary time that must have been!
My son had spine surgery about seven years ago, and the surgeon said look it up when you get home. Jonathan knew he'd need treatment, but was shocked when he learnt that it would be surgery. Gathering a wealth of information helped him cope, although nothing could make the prospect any less frightening. One of the things he did was watch a film of the op he was going to have, while I stuck my head in the nearest bucket of sand till it had finished.
Knowledge is power, knowledge is reassurance, knowledge is hypochondria and terror. You just hope the medical person will have the personal skills to know which one it'll be. I'm not sure I would trust a GP who told me to throw all my books away and not look online. |
Reply #3474. Sep 18 11, 5:24 AM
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Professer
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Very good Lesley
Reply #3476. Sep 18 11, 8:45 AM
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| lesley153
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| Thanks, Gary. He must have been to the same practices as the rest of us. They can't all be the same, can they? |
Reply #3477. Sep 18 11, 10:14 AM
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Rowena8482
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I can now look smug and top you all [proceeds to do so] - I had to die, twice, to get my medication reviewed and changed to the correct dose because my GP proclaimed loudly that "there's nothing wrong with you except that you are fat woman" and yes, that is a direct quote.
Now of course I am the best revival since Lazarus, and have shiny new pills and a shiny new doctor, and the memory of a hospital consultant rolling his eyes and muttering "oh *that* [expletive deleted]" when I told him who the doctor was :-D
Reply #3478. Sep 18 11, 12:33 PM
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Jazmee27
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What a charmer
Reply #3479. Sep 18 11, 12:37 PM
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