New disturbing trend in patient suckage

[skeptic53]

I was on call last night. I'm on call on a regular basis. A patient can call the answering service, who texts me with the patient's number, name, age and a brief reason why they are calling. It takes a few minutes for the text/page to go out, for me to get up, log in to the computer to pull up the patient's record, but not more than 5-10 minutes. The last 3 times I've been on call a patient has had me paged between 1:30 and 4:00 AM, for things like a baby with a fever, a school-age child with abdominal pain, last night it was a dog bite. All reasonable reasons to call a doctor in the wee hours.

But all 3 people gave their cell #, and when I call , it goes straight to voicemail. I wait 10 minutes and call again, straight to voicemail. Lather, rinse, repeat. Finally after 4 tries 10 minutes apart I go back to bed.

This is a corollary to the pizza delivery guys who show up with the hot greasy goodness and no one answers the door or the phone. Except that I still work day shift the next day, and it's virtually impossible to get back to sleep when you are worried about "What happened to the baby/kid/dog bite victim? Did they go to ER on their own?"

Bonus points for the people who call the answering service TWICE and STILL are yakking on their cell when I call back.

[Pixilated]

My assumption would be that it couldn't be that serious if they weren't picking up their cellphones when you called back, since that was the contact number they gave you.

And yes, I do realize they might have been in such a panic (for legitimate reasons) that they didn't think. But ... all three? And after repeated attempts by you to call eachone on their cellphone?

Anyway, you have my sympathy. That has got to be seriously frustrating, and no matter how you deal with it later on (including my skepticism, LOL), I can well believe that a nagging doubt is always there.

[BrenDAnn]

My only guess would hinge on how the number you're calling from appears on their caller ID. If it doesn't say on their caller ID who it is that is calling, just gives a number then perhaps they are playing the "I don't answer random numbers" game. For all of them to be that way, though, would be a stretch. Also, even if they don't answer random numbers... they'd have to know they'd be getting a call from someone about their medical emergency, right? Right?

[Catwoman2965]

Wow. I know if I call someone, in an emergency situation, and am awaiting a call back, I will answer each and every call I might get, since I won't know who is calling adn from what number.

[skeptic53]

My only guess would hinge on how the number you're calling from appears on their caller ID. If it doesn't say on their caller ID who it is that is calling, just gives a number then perhaps they are playing the "I don't answer random numbers" game. For all of them to be that way, though, would be a stretch. Also, even if they don't answer random numbers... they'd have to know they'd be getting a call from someone about their medical emergency, right? Right?

It's possible they are dumb enough to think I will be calling from my office and the office name will come up, or dumb enough to think I will call from an unblocked cell phone (thus giving the patient my personal cell phone number). I don't spend the night at the office playing Free Cell while awaiting random calls, and I don't care to have patients phoning me directly when I'm not on call. Plus, I leave voicemails. I guess robocallers leave voicemails in the middle of the night but ignoring 4 voicemails 10 minutes apart? Right after you have paged a doctor for an urgent issue? Sheesh.

[Amina516]

I appreciate people who can call their doctors since when they call the ER we are not allowed to give advice. That being said, they could at least give you a number they plan on answering. I can see how that would preoccupy you while you should be sleeping. I tend to dwell on things too which then jacks up my sleep schedule.

[Sapphire Silk]

But all 3 people gave their cell #, and when I call , it goes straight to voicemail. I wait 10 minutes and call again, straight to voicemail. Lather, rinse, repeat. Finally after 4 tries 10 minutes apart I go back to bed.

Yeah, I've run into this doing hospice triage. A patient or family member will call, and I'll get a voicemail box that is full, or worse leave a message and not get it returned.

Usually there are alternate numbers I can try to call to answer the original page, which is an advantage.

[Maria]

But all 3 people gave their cell #, and when I call , it goes straight to voicemail.

This would probably be something I'd do. There have been a couple times I've been waiting impatiently for a late-night phone call about an urgent matter, only to suddenly notice I've missed a call and a confused follow-up text, because my phone is programmed to silently ignore all communications during my normal sleeping hours. At least once I realize what's happened, I have the sense to manually override the blocking mode before I make another attempt to contact the outside world...

[Racket_Man]

My only guess would hinge on how the number you're calling from appears on their caller ID. If it doesn't say on their caller ID who it is that is calling, just gives a number then perhaps they are playing the "I don't answer random numbers" game. For all of them to be that way, though, would be a stretch. Also, even if they don't answer random numbers... they'd have to know they'd be getting a call from someone about their medical emergency, right? Right?

Plus the 4 Voicemails in 10 minutes should give them a clue even with a private/blocked incoming phone call.

The only thing I can think of is since they gave their cells number is that they are in an area with weak cell signals.

[freespirit114]

I don't get this at all. If I were up in the middle of the night with my child who was sick enough for me to bother the dr at that time if night I'd be on top of the phone waiting. That said, maybe those people just gave their cell # out of habit or panic and they didn't realize, meant to give their home #? That could be it for one person but 3?

[Orgaloth]

If they have iphones and haven't turned off 'do not disturb', then you have to ring twice in 3 minutes to make their phone ring. Otherwise it goes straight to voice mail.

[frostbitte]

Can't be too serious if they don't answer back. Besides, if it's an emergency, it's time to head to the ER or call an ambulance.

[skeptic53]

If they have iphones and haven't turned off 'do not disturb', then you have to ring twice in 3 minutes to make their phone ring. Otherwise it goes straight to voice mail.

This is good info. From now on I will call twice within 3 minutes. I have a Droid phone so am not very savvy about iPhones. I tried to check this out with Google and came up empty but a colleague with an iPhone showed me that this is indeed a sub-feature of "do not disturb". It can be disabled but the default is to ring the iPhone if the same number calls twice within 3 minutes. Thanks for the advice!

[jedimaster91]

The last 3 times I've been on call a patient has had me paged between 1:30 and 4:00 AM, for things like a baby with a fever, a school-age child with abdominal pain, last night it was a dog bite. All reasonable reasons to call a doctor in the wee hours.

As an imaging tech who takes call, if you're gonna call me at "it better not be what time I think it is o'clock," at least make it worth my while to drag my bleary-eyed carcass into work. You call me in the middle of the night (bonus points if I'm not actually the one on call) to come in and do a test, it had better be positive and you* better be doing something about the results. Otherwise you will have a very grouchy Jedi. And a grouchy Jedi is not someone you really want interacting with, well, anyone, lol.

TL;DR: I feel your pain, man.



*Not you you. General You.

[dalesys]

*Not you you. General You.

Your Privates are safe, sir.