Grrrrrrr vent vent vent vent vent.....

Ok. Now, I am really very infuriated. It takes a lot to make me really get frustrated but I kind of feel that I am at the end of my rope today!!

We have a policy at our clinic, that if you are more than 15 minutes late for your appointment you need to reschedule. We see many patients and this tends to really put our clinics behind, which is not fair on our other patients.

We have one particular lady who turned up today, 15 minutes late. They didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t apologise, they just turned up late. When I explained our policy to them the ladyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s daughter had the gall to say to me, `Well, weâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve had to wait many times for appointments in the pastâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]. Needless to say, this was me:

Our normal waiting list for a follow-up is three weeks. This lady phoned YESTERDAY and, as a favour, I put her in TODAY. THE NEXT DAY. And we continually do this for this patient – we are always fitting her in and making exceptions, and they are ALWAYS complaining about how long they have to wait. Nothing is good enough, ever.

And sheâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s really not even sick. We have much sicker patients who are MUCH less demanding and easier to deal with.

I am so angry that someone could be so ungrateful and rude!!!

Sometimes I just want to quit this job and stop dealing with such incredibly selfish people all the time.

I said it in another thread, and it applies here, too: Some people are just not happy unless they have something to complain about or pick a fight over. How frustrating for you, though, to have to deal with this, and -- of course -- be pleasant.

Originally Posted by rapunzel47

I said it in another thread, and it applies here, too: Some people are just not happy unless they have something to complain about or pick a fight over. How frustrating for you, though, to have to deal with this, and -- of course

-- be pleasant.

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Well, to be honest, I wasn't particularly pleasant to them....

Just don't know what's the matter with me at the moment! I'm so irritable all the time...need a long holiday!

Originally Posted by KitEKats4Eva!

Well, to be honest, I wasn't particularly pleasant to them....

Just don't know what's the matter with me at the moment! I'm so irritable all the time...need a long holiday!

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I expect that's part of it; you do need a vacation. A person can only put up with frustration for so long before rebelling.

Though having suffered this at doctor's offices for as long as I remember, I have to ask—was she right? Do patients have to wait for long periods of time at your office? Speaking from experience, it's difficult to value a doctor's time when you show up at 2:45 for a 3:00 appointment, only to not even be seen till 3:45, and that experience is repeated ad nauseum.

If that doesn't happen at the clinic where you work, then probably she's just one of those people who aren't happy unless they're unhappy.

What you really want to do is book her in for some really painful vaccinations. Just as a "favour". Perhaps a local aneasthetic around her mouth wouldn't go amiss either. Try sitting back and counting to ten and then thinking about all the things you would REALLY like to do to this woman. It helps me.... try this....


Imagine yourself sitting on a tropical beach. White, white sands and very gently lapping azure waves. Palm trees swaying in an almost undetectable breeze, just enough to make the leaves rustle. You have a cocktail of your choice (and hunky waiter to deliver it) You walk to the sea and look out over the horizon at a beautiful sunset. Then you look down at the face of the woman who wound you up as you hold her under the water.

Feel better?

My mothers doctors office fines you ($20) if your more than 20 minsutes late or if you don't show up at all.. or call and cancel half an hour before the appointment is.

How super frustrating, Sarah!

Originally Posted by evnshawn

I expect that's part of it; you do need a vacation. A person can only put up with frustration for so long before rebelling.

Though having suffered this at doctor's offices for as long as I remember, I have to ask—was she right? Do patients have to wait for long periods of time at your office? Speaking from experience, it's difficult to value a doctor's time when you show up at 2:45 for a 3:00 appointment, only to not even be seen till 3:45, and that experience is repeated ad nauseum.

If that doesn't happen at the clinic where you work, then probably she's just one of those people who aren't happy unless they're unhappy.

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I did think about that, and no, she wasn't right. She was talking about waiting to get an appointment, not waiting when she was actually there. Because I work for a specialist his appointments generally take as long as they're scheduled - he usually only runs a maximum of 20 minutes late if that. He's really excellent with time. However, because he's the best in his field in Western Australia, our waiting list to see him for a new patient is two months, and for an existing patient up to three weeks. But with THIS particular patient, I bend over backwards so that she doesn't have to wait that long - and she's not even that sick!!! We really treat our patients soooooo well, it's part of the reason my boss is such a popular doctor, but it's not good enough for some, it seems...lol

I mean, here's a good example. Recently we had a patient who is terminally ill, whom we fit in for a procedure on a Saturday morning. He had to be admitted Friday night. He had tickets to the football finals. It's the first time in 10 years that our team has been in the finals. He knew it was going to be his last chance to go to a live game, where our team was most likely going to win, before he died. He had to miss it. He yelled at me. I was super nice to him, and at the end of our conversation he was laughing and when I had to phone him back five minutes later he said, `You trying to get a date or something??'. This was two months ago. He died last Monday. THAT is the sort of patient you don't care if they're grumpy or demanding. He was dying, for goodness sake. He wasn't just a bit constipated!!! Grrrrrrrr......

I feel your pain, I really do! Sometimes I wish I could quit my job and stop dealing with people like that too!

Originally Posted by dawnofsierra

How super frustrating, Sarah!

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...Oh no Sarah.... .... ...

I guess she just doesn't realize that she is the exact reason the doctor runs late. If everyone were on time and doing what they were supposed to be doing the doctor wouldn't have to spend an extra 20 minutes fitting that person in. It's amazing to me. If people are often 10-15 minutes late that just sets back the next appointments.

That really reminds me of the idiots who complain that it takes too long for an ambulance to arrive and then make excuses for why they don't pull over for ambulances.

Ok....lol....I have to share another one that happened yesterday, too - yesterday was just a BAAAAAD day.....hehehe

We have a patient with an unusual condition that has developed after he had a bone marrow transplant for adult leukaemia. He's lovely (usually) and we treat him well. We did a gastroscopy on him a few weeks ago and my boss said he'd never seen anything like the way this man's oesophagus looked - nothing serious, just strange. He has what is called graft-versus-host disease - where his body is reacting strangely to the new bone marrow. My boss experimented, you could say, with a treatment that has fixed up ALL of his problems. We sent some slides to another pathologist for a second opinion, and unfortunately yesterday when this patient came in the second opinion hadn't arrived back.

When the time came to pay his account, I said, `Right, the gap on that is $9.20. Did you want to pay that today?' and he said to me, `What? You're kidding - I shouldn't have to pay - he hasn't done anything!'

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

When I told my boss today, he (the normally unflappable) was very upset. He said, `No doctor that I know of in the WORLD has used Flixotide to treat graft-versus-host disease, I think that's a pretty brilliant bit of doctoring, and he thinks I haven't done anything???' He was understandably despondent.

And all because the slides hadn't come back and this guy thought there was no point in him coming in. I pointed out that he only gets charged the Medicare schedule fee anyway but he browbeat me into waiving the gap anyway!!! $9.20!!!!!

Oh well, I guess you gotta laugh....or cry.....lol

Yikes! Sure sounds like it was a BAD day, Sarah. Sending vibes to you for a good rest of the week!