Dr's office vent ... again.

bumpuser1691848

I posted last week how I had my glucose test and I called the next day to see if they had gotten my results in and I left a message for the nurse, but never got a call back. So I called again the next day and the lady got an attitude when telling me that it would take a week (even though the day before she said it would take 24 hours to get them back and it had been 28). I just think out of respect for your patients, if someone calls and leaves a message, you should at least call them back and tell them that you havne't receieved the results yet.

It's been a week now and still no call so I just called again and left another message for the nurse. Her voicemail says that if I leave a message before 4 then she'll call me back that day... we'll see how that works out. If she doesn't call me back today I'm seriously thinking about calling back and asking to speak to the doctor personally, not just some nurse. He should know that his staff isn't treating his patients right, shouldn't he? Maybe I'm just over reacting since my brother is a diabetic and that scares me.

preppynewlywed

At the practice where I go, they only call you back the same day with bad news.

No calls = good news

Yesterday they called to tell me I passed, but only because I when I went in for the test I had them put a note to call me either way.

aerobaby

I thought normally it only takes a day to get blood work results in..

bumpuser1691848

aerobaby:

I thought normally it only takes a day to get blood work results in..

Apparently the place they send me to is really slow. Who knows.

Mrs. Beeson

You are paying for all this it isn't like it's a free service. If you aren't getting the service you deserve you might want to consider changing Doctors. I personally have a midwife and I have been very happy with her. I don't have to deal with the Doctors office junk. She usually answers her phone and if she doesn't she calls me back. I even called her at 10pm at night when I had a fever and she calmed me down. Told me what to do and called me the next morning to make sure everything was ok.

bumpuser1691848

preppynewlywed:

At the practice where I go, they only call you back the same day with bad news.

No calls = good news

Yesterday they called to tell me I passed, but only because I when I went in for the test I had them put a note to call me either way.

But if I left a message asking for the results, shouldn't they call and tell me, even if it was good news?

mghnmouse

So sorry to interrupt but, preppynewlywed

OMG I LOVE the updated siggy so awesome!!!!

bumpuser1691848

Mrs. Beeson:

You are paying for all this it isn't like it's a free service. If you aren't getting the service you deserve you might want to consider changing Doctors. I personally have a midwife and I have been very happy with her. I don't have to deal with the Doctors office junk. She usually answers her phone and if she doesn't she calls me back. I even called her at 10pm at night when I had a fever and she calmed me down. Told me what to do and called me the next morning to make sure everything was ok.

My doctor is wonderful! Sweet as can be and remembers his patients very well (I wore my glasses at my 1st appt, but wore contacts to my 2nd one and he remembered that). It's just a few of his staff members who aren't very nice or realiable.

mghnmouse

That is crappy! And you have to thin of yourself as a customer, not a patient, and your providers as providing you with customer service, and if it's bad then you should be the squeaky wheel.

preppynewlywed

kimandhuck:

preppynewlywed:

At the practice where I go, they only call you back the same day with bad news.

No calls = good news

Yesterday they called to tell me I passed, but only because I when I went in for the test I had them put a note to call me either way.

But if I left a message asking for the results, shouldn't they call and tell me, even if it was good news?

My doctor's office still won't call until the next day or the day after.

Their reasoning is that people with bad results on blood work, etc need the attention immediately.  People with good news can wait a day or two.

It makes sense especially considering the number of patients they see.

Chickpea2010

kimandhuck:

preppynewlywed:

At the practice where I go, they only call you back the same day with bad news.

No calls = good news

Yesterday they called to tell me I passed, but only because I when I went in for the test I had them put a note to call me either way.

But if I left a message asking for the results, shouldn't they call and tell me, even if it was good news?

Yes. It drives me crazy when doctors' offices don't practice the same common courtesy that other offices are expected to adhere to...I'm sure I'd get a talking-to if I just didn't call a client back!

sarasek

Hopefully she'll call you back soon, especially if they told you it would be a week. Is she the only nurse you can speak to about the results? Do they have a general nurses line?

jaxmom1

I guarantee they had the results the same day (or the following day at the very latest!)

And NEVER assume that no news is good news!  Some times no news means something got lost between the lab and the office! 

 If they tell you they don't have the results yet, call the lab where you had it done and inform them that the doctors office claims they haven't received the results yet!

Mrs. Beeson

He may be very nice doctor. However a doctor is the manager of all his employees. They represent him and his practice and are a team. He needs to know that his team members are not treating his clients with respect. Hopefully is he is as good as you say, he will do something about it. But I would worry if he doesn't.

KelzinBoston

I know sometimes at my OB's office the call back nurse gets backed up with emergency calls (women in labor, women with bleeding etc).  It's possible it just got pushed to the backburner because it wasn't urgent.  I hope you get your results soon!

bumpuser1691848

sarasek:

Hopefully she'll call you back soon, especially if they told you it would be a week. Is she the only nurse you can speak to about the results? Do they have a general nurses line?

She's apparently the only nurse and then they have like 2 office people (it's a small practice and he is the only dr). Whenever I call for anything they always send me to her voicemail, no matter what it is. I just know that if something serious were to happen (praying that it doesn't) I either have to call there and be like "It's an emergency let me to the dr NOW!" or just go to the ER.

bumpuser1691848

KelzinBoston:

I know sometimes at my OB's office the call back nurse gets backed up with emergency calls (women in labor, women with bleeding etc).  It's possible it just got pushed to the backburner because it wasn't urgent.  I hope you get your results soon!

That's what I was thinking too, that's why when I called back the next day I was nice and didn't have an attitude until she got one with me. But too busy to call me back a week later?! That's just her being lazy.

bumpuser1691848

jaxmom1:

I guarantee they had the results the same day (or the following day at the very latest!)

And NEVER assume that no news is good news!  Some times no news means something got lost between the lab and the office! 

 If they tell you they don't have the results yet, call the lab where you had it done and inform them that the doctors office claims they haven't received the results yet!

I like this. If I don't hear anything by tomorrow then I'll call them. Thanks, I never would have thought about that.

huntington79

I feel really spoiled. At my Dr's office - they give you the results in a matter of 5 minutes. They do the testing right there in their office. You just sit and wait for the results - and they tell you pass, fail (and you have to schedule another appointment for the 3 hour test), or if you're really irregular, they'll send you straight to the diabetes clinic without even doing a 3 hour test. I think I would have gone crazy if I had to wait 24 hours, much less a week! So sorry you're having so many issues with the nurses. GL! 

kimmi88

My doctor's nurse always calls me back. When I did my first tests they called me back to tell me everything was fine. They always return my phone calls when I leave messages about dumb stuff as well. I would hate for them to ignore me. This is a crucial time for us and we just want to know if something is wrong or not. I would say something to my doctor. It takes a couple minutes to return a phone and say yes you passed or no you didn't.

sarasek

kimandhuck:

sarasek:

Hopefully she'll call you back soon, especially if they told you it would be a week. Is she the only nurse you can speak to about the results? Do they have a general nurses line?

She's apparently the only nurse and then they have like 2 office people (it's a small practice and he is the only dr). Whenever I call for anything they always send me to her voicemail, no matter what it is. I just know that if something serious were to happen (praying that it doesn't) I either have to call there and be like "It's an emergency let me to the dr NOW!" or just go to the ER.

That's how my RE's office worked. I got voicemail no matter when I called, and if I called by 3pm, they returned the call that day. Hopefully she'll call you back by the time their office closes. I know how frustrating it is to wait for test results, especially when it's past the time they alloted for you to find out.

jlslaugh

I don't think you're overreacting at all. If you leave a message for the nurse to call you she should even if it's just to say the results haven't come in yet. And she certainly shouldn't be getting an attitude with you. I would see what happens today and then talk to the dr if you're still not pleased with their service.

bumpuser1691848

She finally called me back, but she said everything was normal and hung up. I didn't even have time to ask what it was. I'm planning on calling the lab and see what my sugar was and see when they sent the results to my dr, but I can't think of the name of the place to save my life. All I know is that it's called SEPA, but I can't think of what that stands for and it's not in the phone book under SEPA. Ughhh, stupid pregnancy brain!