I worked 16 hours yesterday to help out my floor. I worked 7A-7P as a nurse, then worked 7P-11P as secretary since our secretary was sick. Our day shift secretary works 7A-3P. So after I handed my patients off at 7p I sat at the desk to begin working on a mountain of orders that had been written that afternoon. The charge nurse tried to put some orders in that afternoon but there were quite a few charts left.
I was tired, hungry, and flustered. The first chart I picked up had a urology consult on it. We call all consults until 9pm then wait until the next AM to call unless urgent. It was 6:55 So I paged the urologist. When he called back he was a complete jerk. I mean just hateful. Asked me all kinds of questions that I answered to the best of my ability. The order was written that he could come in the AM to see the patient. He said he could not come see the patient tomorrow because he has surgeries scheduled all day. So he said that he would come that evening because he had time to come then. I mean he was really rude.
I did a few more charts and then slipped into the conference room to eat my supper. I had to get my supper at 6:30 because the cafeteria closes then. So it was probably 7:05 and my food was already cold. As my food was heating up the charge nurse came and got me and said the urologist was out there and needed to talk to me. Me?? why me? I wasn't the nurse. She said I know... He wants to talk to the person that called the consult.. Well this made me nervous. He was already so mean to me on the phone. What else could he have to fuss at me about.
So I left my food... went out there and.. I HAD CALLED THE WRONG UROLOGY GROUP!!! OMG I felt really terrible. And it just had to be this jerk doctor... He was about to blow his top. He yelled at me and told me that I shouldn't be a secretary and that I wasted his precious time. (WELL I"M NOT A SECRETARY I"M A NURSE!) I apologist repeatedly. (I did feel bad at this point.) He then told me to call the supervisor. Great.... So I got the charge nurse.. NO he wanted to speak to the supervisor of the hospital.. WOW...
Ok so the supervisor comes up and they walk around the corner. I hear him yelling at her telling her that I pulled him out of a difficult surgery case and told him he had to see the patient tonight. And it wasn't even the right urology group. That he was in surgery helping his partner at the hospital on the other side of town when I paged him and he left because he had to see the patient tonight due to surgeries all day the next day. He told her I shouldn't be allowed to call consults yadda yadda yadda....
He was on the floor 10 minutes after I called the consult. It is impossible that I pulled him out of surgery. He drove across town. Parked and made it to our hospital in 10 minutes. So he just fabricated this ridiculus story to make me look worse than I already did.
I mean really! I'm sorry? I felt bad... But to lie to make me look even worse?? what a jerk!
Oh and a nurse leaving day shift ended up on the elevator with him. She called me and told me that he was holding a list of patients and got off on the next floor to see a patient!! So really he didn't even go out of his way at all!
I do recall back in the days of when a doctor wrote a consult they were the ones who then followed through with calling the other doctor themselves.
Interesting. I have never worked in a hospital where we didn't call consults personally. Perhaps the community facilities are bit more lax on this than the academic hospitals. Personally though, why would I want someone else to call a consult for me? If I need a specialist to see a patient, it's because I need something specific, and it would be foolish not to communicate that myself.
On various services I have occassionally been called by nurses, secretaries, etc "on behalf of" a physician. In every case I have declined to even hear the story until it's from the horse's mouth.
tiredMD, this is WHY we do provider to provider consults... because of this sort of behavior.
i am so sorry this happened to you. when i consult with another provider, i do my best to be as courteous as possible, but sometimes the other provider can be in a crappy mood. and sometimes, it makes people feel BETTER to do this sort of thing... because they are ugly on the inside. i am sorry that this happened to you.
here's some ammunition for your nurse manager and administrative staff re: this physicians inappropriate behavior.
according to joint commission:
"joint commission alert: stop bad behavior among health care professionals. rude language, hostile behavior threaten safety, quality"
"(oakbrook terrace, ill. - july 9, 2008) health care is a high-stakes, pressure-packed environment that can test the limits of civility in the workplace. a new alert issued today by the joint commission warns that rude language and hostile behavior among health care professionals goes beyond being unpleasant and poses a serious threat to patient safety and the overall quality of care.intimidating and disruptive behaviors are such a serious issue that, in addition to addressing it in the new sentinel event alert, the joint commission is introducing new standards requiring more than 15,000 accredited health care organizations to create a code of conduct that defines acceptable and unacceptable behaviors and to establish a formal process for managing unacceptable behavior. the new standards take effect january 1, 2009 for hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, laboratories, ambulatory care facilities, and behavioral health care facilities across the united states. "
TiredMD
501 Posts
Interesting. I have never worked in a hospital where we didn't call consults personally. Perhaps the community facilities are bit more lax on this than the academic hospitals. Personally though, why would I want someone else to call a consult for me? If I need a specialist to see a patient, it's because I need something specific, and it would be foolish not to communicate that myself.
On various services I have occassionally been called by nurses, secretaries, etc "on behalf of" a physician. In every case I have declined to even hear the story until it's from the horse's mouth.