Pediatrician's Office vent

RibbitGrl930

Jake's been coughing since yesterday. I work starting at 8 and didn't get a break to call the ped's office today until nearly 11, but figured that was enough time to get a call back in time for lunch, which was scheduled for today around 1. I just wanted to know if it sounded serious enough to bring him in, or if there was any medicine they could approve me to give to him (or a prescription they could call in and I would swing by the pharmacy on lunch). Well, they didn't call by lunch. They don't call until nearly 3. I don't see the call until I'm about to leave work, so I check the VM when we get home, thinking maybe they left me a message with some advice. Nope. Just a "Call me back." Well, they close at 4:15, so that call back won't happen until tomorrow when we'll probably just play another round of phone tag. To top it off, Jake sounds like he's gotten worse, and there's nothing I can do about it until tomorrow night. I'm so annoyed and ticked off. I know Jake's not their only patient and she probably had other parents to call back today, but is it too much to leave a little advice in the VM to make DS a little more comfortable just for tonight?

RibbitGrl930

Mine's a group, and the person who was supposed to call us back was a nurse or assistant I think. They don't offer any after hours non-emergency help, unfortunately. He's not wheezing, running a fever, or coughing up blood, so I wouldn't feel right tying up the emergency line, but he's obviously not well, so it's frustrating and sad.

Mrs.Castaldi

Does your insurance company have a nurse line? I know my old coverage did, since I'm on DHs now I don't know if we have one, but I would see if that's an option, they can't call in a perscription or anything, but it's usually good for advise.

RibbitGrl930

@Mrs.Castaldi I'm not sure if our insurance has a nurse line. I'll have to look into it. Thanks!

Blondie1212

That irritating! I think sometimes the volume of patients they see affects their care. Usually though I think the general rule is if they don't call you back within an hour you can call again. Maybe try that if they don't get in touch with you.

We were supposed to have an appointment today which they called to confirm with my husband yesterday. Then as I get out of work he texts me to tell me they called to cancel the appointment because LO is not 6 months old yet (he will be before the weekend). We have gone to all our appointments the week he will be turning the age and not after. So now I have to call and sort it out. I'm assuming they are overbooked and looking for excuses to chop people.

spring_time

There isn't any cough medicine approved for babies our age.  Unfortunately the honey, water, lemon juice concoction does not work either due to the honey.  You can use karo syrup in place of the honey, though.  It might give some relief until you can talk to the doctor.

2 oz water

2 tbls karo syrup

1 tsp lemon juice

RibbitGrl930

So, it turns out that the reason the nurse couldn't leave advice for me was because she didn't know the heck the problem was. Turns out, when you call the office to leave a request for call back for the answer on a question, no matter how much detail you give, the nurse is simply given the message, "Call this person back. Here's the number." Ugh. I actually got ahold of her today and, when I introduced myself, her response was,"Oh, yeah. hi! So what's going on?" So annoying.

hdall0807

We called our dr office today which they old us to. They wanted To know if she was tolerating this new formula or if it was still causing an allergic reaction. I called at 10:30 and the nurse said she would have another pedi call me back today since ours was gone, I said ok that's fine
. I call back at 4 and the b..... On the switchboard won't even transfer me. Says they haven't had time to read it and they will call me when they do.
She said j needed to give them a chance.
Then our Pedi called us at supper
time. Was short with us/annoyed.
And asked that we not call his cell phone and that there are other pedi there that can answer our questions when he is not on call. We told him we never called him and he didn't seem to believe us. So I don't know if they paged him with our number? But i sure didnt tell them to

RibbitGrl930

hdall0807 said:

We called our dr office today which they old us to. They wanted To know if she was tolerating this new formula or if it was still causing an allergic reaction. I called at 10:30 and the nurse said she would have another pedi call me back today since ours was gone, I said ok that's fine . I call back at 4 and the b..... On the switchboard won't even transfer me. Says they haven't had time to read it and they will call me when they do. She said j needed to give them a chance. Then our Pedi called us at supper time. Was short with us/annoyed. And asked that we not call his cell phone and that there are other pedi there that can answer our questions when he is not on call. We told him we never called him and he didn't seem to believe us. So I don't know if they paged him with our number? But i sure didnt tell them to

Ugh, that is so lame.