Sucky vet receptionist

[Dreamstalker]

We had to board McGriff last week when we ventured down to VA to visit some friends. He has renal failure and so needs to get sub-Q fluids every other day, we would be gone for 6 days so he would have to get it 3 times.

The receptionist when we dropped him off wasn't one of the normal girls. My mom produced the bag of ringer's (which was almost empty, maybe 1 dose remaining) and said that he gets fluids on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday and we needed a new bag anyway, so to use up the bag we brought, start a new one and we would just take it with us on pickup. This was written down on scrap paper (she didn't pull his chart which I thought was odd, all pets' files have spaces for boarding dates and special instructions).

So we picked him and a new bag of fluids up on Thursday. Since then he'd been off his food; we actually took him in to get checked out yesterday as we were both getting worried about the lack of appetite and excessive urination. They did a kidney function test and the levels were fairly high (uh oh).

Turned out that he never got his fluids for the whole week and that's why the kidney levels were high, he wasn't eating at all and was slightly dehydrated. Yes, we gave his fluids on schedule on Friday, but the prior week of not getting them had thrown everything out of whack.

The vet seemed to know who was on that day (and was very surprised that our instructions were not taken down), and said that him not getting fluids was definitely Not Good.

He seems OK now; he gets fluids daily for the next few days to get things back on track then a recheck and he is eating.

[LillFilly]

That receptionist should NOT be working with animals, small children and possibly event plants if she is so disinterested in the caring of living creatures.

I think next time, if the person and the desk doesn't seem to be paying attention to your instructions, ask to speak to someone else, possibly someone higher-up in rank. I hope she's not using this job as a stepping-stone into health care... She could kill someone with that attitude!

[Bright_Star]

That receptionist needs to be fired from her job NOW.

[Dreamstalker]

It seemed that the vet was going to speak with this person; at least that was the implication from the followup phone call earlier tonight which was when he discovered what happened.

When we brought McGriff in yesterday the normal crew was there and they were asking about why there were no fluids instructions on the boarding memo (which by itself isn't super-unusual; if he's only being boarded for a day we give fluids the night before so they don't need to worry about it--even so, they will write it down. Too much info on an animal is MUCH better than too little).

If I ran a vet practice, I would hold intake people responsible for errors and make them either pay for any resulting treatment out of their own pocket or if payment was already made to reimburse the owner in full. If he had needed daily fluids it could have been a LOT worse.

Hey, if she gets fired I would be glad to replace her; I have the level of attention to detail the job requires.

[tropicsgoddess]

That receptionist needs to be fired from her job NOW.

I agree 100%. If that was somebody else, they would've sued the hell out of that place for negligence. Lack of attention in that sort of business = huge liability.

[Dreamstalker]

We didn't make the solid connection until just today when discussing things with the doctor; as far as mom's concerned (and I would tend to agree with her), the office themselves did nothing wrong and it's primarily the receptionist's fault. This was the first time there has ever been a problem.

Yes, one could argue that the regular techs "should have" picked up on it but that place can get chaotic with boarders and often the only reliable info is the patient file and notes that are taken during intake.

We're not the suing types and everyone else in that office is awesome.

[Kiwi]

I think the Vet should be compensating you in some way for his staff messing up.

[MoxisPilot]

Personally, I'm glad you're not suing the vet. Our country is already sue-happy enough as it is.

Now, that doesn't mean that I think "Oh, hey, no harm, no foul." What that receptionist did was wrong, and she doesn't deserve that job; I hope she does get canned and never works with animals again (much less in the HUMAN health care field), because she obviously doesn't have the aptitude for it. That's the best compensation the vet can offer, IMO.

[Ironclad Alibi]

This was written down on scrap paper (she didn't pull his chart which I thought was odd, all pets' files have spaces for boarding dates and special instructions).

When we check our dogs in for boarding at the vets, we're given a sheet to sign. This sheet has all of the feeding and other instructions on it. Anytime it's wrong, they have to correct them and reprint the sheet.

[Dreamstalker]

Personally, I'm glad you're not suing the vet. Our country is already sue-happy enough as it is.

Yeah, we wouldn't do anything to hurt the staff there; they're awesome at what they do (best vet office in the area aside from the huge MSPCA hospital in Jamaica Plain) and adore us and the fuzzball.

I think the Vet should be compensating you in some way for his staff messing up.

Mom plans to bring it up the next time he's brought in (or maybe even talk to one of the regular crew when we have to go buy more food), and ask to not be charged for either all or a portion of the next time he stays for a week...what would be ideal is if we could be refunded for the visit that the snafu led to, but that's probably not possible.

Every other time he's needed to go in, the most up-to-date instructions in his file are always read back to us to confirm.

[chainedbarista]

wow, she was not just unprofessional, but uncaring; no annotations in the record or anything of the like is a serious no no medically (human or animal) and in the case of your baby, potentially life threatening and with another client, a lawsuit waiting to happen.

she needs to work elsewhere (not involving living ANYTHING) that requires little brain function...what that job is, i have NO idea.

hope your doggie is ok.

[Dreamstalker]

Kitty (although mom swears at times he must have been a dog in a previous life)

He seems much better now; he's been using the litter box, eating and looking generally more animated (mom says his fur looks and smells better too).

He sleeps about nine hours a day, but he's entitled--18 human years old which is unusually long for a cat.

Still on daily fluids for another 2 days then go back for a recheck. He also has an infected tooth which may or may not have resulted from the initial dehydration which was discovered when we took him in; he's got daily antibiotics for that.

ETA: The vet called earlier today with some lab results, and he apologized for what happened and authorized a $100 credit to our account there. That was really nice, to put that through without us needing to mention anything.

[LillFilly]

Our dogs went to a vet that, I just remembered, would do a lot of stuff we didn't authorize and then expected us to pay the bill. We brought the dogs in for, say, nail clipping, anal glands and rabies. We get them back and they say "oh, by the way we gave them their L:KHIOJO shots, HYOU&TGHB shots, GFTYDFHH shots and H&YTBKKJK."

......

Um, we never WANTED them to get any of that! We intended to have our dogs get only the necessary vaccinations because we'd had too many experiences with friends' animals having complications from too many vaccinations. It always seemed like the healthiest animals were the ones who'd never been to the vet!

I don't know if that's what caused it, but a few years later, within a year of each-other, both dogs (same breed, but not related) developed diabetes. Funny when we always did everything the vets told us to do; food, medication, etc.

Won't use that vet again. It came to light later that they'd also been charging people for cremations and burials for pets, but tossing the corpses in a pit at the edge of an empty lot they owned

[donruss]

He is an old kitty. In human years that would be around 90 or so. I just lost a kitty that was 19.5 years and was hoping he would make it to see 20. I cried like a baby when I had to go put him to sleep due to weight loss and old age a couple of months ago.

[mariamousie1]

I agree- she should be fired. Animals could die under her care since she is not at all interested in their well-being.