Rules of the Dr.office

[prowlingMA]

There is a very funny " Rules of the ER" thread, so I thought I would start a rules of the Dr.office:

1. Yes the Dr.will be running behind, unless you are the first pt of the day( even then only if you are lucky).

2. You do not need to bring your spouse,kids,parents,friends,and grandchildren to a routine check up. One person is enough.

3. Be on time- or a bit early. Making us wait for you is only going to make the Dr.later( see #1)

4.yes I have " done this (drawing blood, giving a shot, etc) before" and it's not funny when you ask.

5.You are not the only patient in the office, nor do you own the office, ( so please don't take all the candy from the dish, tea/coffee bags, gauze and paper supplies from the room, search through the cupboards,etc)

6. For us CMA's - No I am not a nurse, there are other careers in the health care industry that deserve respect and acknowledgement. ( And no i probably can't get a nurse to do this- phlebotomy, injection,EKG, etc)

7. If you are rude,uncooperative, or abnoxious I will ask the D.r to see other pts first and you will wait longer( again see #1)

These are all I can think os for now. I am sure you all can add others.

[Guest717236]

Rule: In Blizzard conditions, you call the pediatric office demanding an appointment immediately for your child who has been ill(non emergency)

for the last 5 days.

Your request came into the office 15 minutes

prior to our office closing. We advised we would wait for you. We kept 1 office staff, 2 MA, 1 RN and 1 MD waiting one hour for you.

You never showed....

We could not reach you by phone for followup.

You live 6 minutes for our office and 2 minutes from the walkin at the hospital.

In the future, please call give us a call back and let us know that in this non emergency you headed for the walkin and kept our staff waiting.

Meanwhile our staff who lives in one half hour and more in all directions, now faces a blizzard conditions and evening darkness to drive home.

[AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN]

"11. TURN OFF YOUR @#%$ CELL PHONE."

My biggest pet peeve. You're on the phone in the waiting area, on the phone being walked back to a room, on the phone in the exam room...and then you want to give me a dirty look when I stare at you, waiting for you to get off the phone, so I can document your symptoms for the MD. Incredible.

We have this happen a lot. Our approach is to 1) leave them in the lobby and call back others ahead of them until they hang up, or 2) if they are on the phone when we walk in the room to examine them, we leave and let them sit for as long as we feel like.

They see no problem wasting our time, why should we care about theirs?

[scribsnurse]

That gets a huge amen!!

[RNsupermom99]

love this thread lol

[Budzmom]

I just wanted to say that these are great! Somehow along my nursing career I forgot how to laugh....and you guys "cured" me today. Thank you!