How to be pleasant to front desk phone reps?

[allthesmallthings]

As a home health nurse, I have to call into MD offices to leave messages.  Usually, I get non-medical front desk staff.  I always get irritated w/ their inefficiency.   E.g., they'll spiel me: "To better assist you, I just need some information about the patient. Can you tell me the patient's name?"    Instead of just saying, "Pt's name. DOB. Your name. Your phone. Your message. OK, done."   

     When it comes to actually leaving the message, I'll break down the medical-speak into bite-size pieces of a sentence - and if/when they mess it up, that's it for me.   I'm just saying: if your job is literally writing down what a person says, IN YOUR OWN LANGUAGE - how are you messing it up?          

    ANyway, I lose my ***.  I can't stand fake pleasantness and smarminess; I honestly just prefer efficiency.   (Call me Sheldon Cooper.)

    But - I want to take the stress off myself of dreading these calls; and I would like to quit being a *** to the front desk people.  (I can tell they think I'm rude.)  I'm a Christian, and I know that my interactions w the front-desk phone people suck.  

     Is there a way to mind-game the non-medical front desk people into being more efficient?    Or is there a way to mindgame ME into quit thinking of my interactions w these people as a hair-pulling time-suck?         Thanks    

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

Not a Home Health Nurse here but it's no better working in a setting without an onsite provider. It is a hair pulling time suck, no way around it. I have the backline phone numbers to my frequently called offices and it used to go directly to that office, now after yet another health care system expansion all calls, even the backline numbers are routed through a call center. I hate it, I have to go through everything at least three times, first for some non-medical call center staff that has no clue what I'm talking about or what my actual needs may be, then again for the front desk person in the office who also doesn't have a clue and ends up saying "let me transfer you back to a nurse," and when I am finally transferred to the person that can actually help there's often nobody at that desk so I have to leave a message and hope that somebody calls back within a reasonable amount of time.   

More often than not if it's anything I need an answer to somewhat quickly I end up going through the on-call provider phone tree which is another challenge but at least the on-call provider responds pretty quickly and so far none of them seem to be too bothered by these calls that are important but clearly not an emergent need.

[allthesmallthings]

kbrn2002 said:

Not a Home Health Nurse here but it's no better working in a setting without an onsite provider. It is a hair pulling time suck, no way around it. I have the backline phone numbers to my frequently called offices and it used to go directly to that office, now after yet another health care system expansion all calls, even the backline numbers are routed through a call center. I hate it, I have to go through everything at least three times, first for some non-medical call center staff that has no clue what I'm talking about or what my actual needs may be, then again for the front desk person in the office who also doesn't have a clue and ends up saying "let me transfer you back to a nurse," and when I am finally transferred to the person that can actually help there's often nobody at that desk so I have to leave a message and hope that somebody calls back within a reasonable amount of time.   

More often than not if it's anything I need an answer to somewhat quickly I end up going through the on-call provider phone tree which is another challenge but at least the on-call provider responds pretty quickly and so far none of them seem to be too bothered by these calls that are important but clearly not an emergent need.

:)    Thanks, kbrn2002.   Good to know I'm not the only one annoyed.   I will try the on-call provider route!  :)

[Crystal-Wings, LVN]

OMG yes this is very annoying. I hate having to call a provider's office for all the reasons everyone else here has listed. I have to remind myself "Even though I'm annoyed, am I still getting paid? Yes.” 

[allthesmallthings]

Crystal-Wings said:

OMG yes this is very annoying. I hate having to call a provider's office for all the reasons everyone else here has listed. I have to remind myself "Even though I'm annoyed, am I still getting paid? Yes.” 

Wow.  Good point.  Ty!

[Ludwig Pan Needhoven]

Hello,

HH LPN here.

A lot of my patients have access to a patient portal. I actually discourage my patients from calling the Dr. office ( it just elevates their B/P ). Whenever possible , using the patient portal works much better ( in my area ) as it goes directly to the MA or nurse inbox and you don't have to explain stuff. For those occasions when a call needs to be placed - what Crystal-Wings said sounds like a great plan.

[allthesmallthings]

Ludwig Pan Needhoven said:

Hello,

HH LPN here.

A lot of my patients have access to a patient portal. I actually discourage my patients from calling the Dr. office ( it just elevates their B/P ). Whenever possible , using the patient portal works much better ( in my area ) as it goes directly to the MA or nurse inbox and you don't have to explain stuff. For those occasions when a call needs to be placed - what Crystal-Wings said sounds like a great plan.

Thank you!