You'll just have to wait your turn (LONG)

[Really]

I moved away from retail and started working in the health field where I still do "Customer Service" now just hidden behind a new term of "Patient Services". My job is to register Patients for odds and ends in an outpatient setting. Nothing too difficult. I still deal with money, payments, and the battle of "Yes you did get this done, no I don't understand why you don't remember."

Anyways this day was extremely busy, as expected at the beginning of the month and after the holidays. Nothing is going right and nothing is in our computers. I'm spending more time on the phone then helping the herd of fasting, grumps in my lobby. We have about 7 people waiting and in comes SC and SC's Son or SC2. The son is in his 30's at the youngest, dad is in his 50's and is a "normal" guy. No health issues or anything that should make his Son take charge of his dad's healthcare.

SC2: Can I have you look and see if the order is in the system?
Me: Sure! What doctor or office is it from?
SC2: I dunno.... Can't you just look my dad up?
Me: I'm sorry. There are 7 people waiting right now and my system is not friendly to those type of look ups (I have 7 places to look for orders. Knowing the office or doctor cuts out half of the places). If you find out who ordered it I may be able to help you.
SC2: Ok, I'll find out

I start helping the next person when suddenly my computer goes "HAHAHAHA! You want to print this important form??? NOPE! I'm on strike!". So here I am dealing with this when SC2 comes back up:
SC2 on the phone: It's doctor so-and-so!
Me: Sir I'm currently with someone else, You'll have to wait.

SC2 says something but I'm more focused on not loosing my job over this printer issue. Finally get it to work and then my computer just crashes.

SC2: Excuse me, now that you aren't busy can you look up my dad's orders?
Me: Sir, I'm sorry my computer just crashed, I can't do anything at the moment.

He stomps away.

Take another person finally when my computer comes back up and his insurance is denied. I'm fighting with him over the problem when the phone rings. So I answer that sending it to the main switchboard and the insurance guy decides to leave and call his insurance. I take the next person who, SURPRISE! Nothing in the system for them. I call their doctor and I'm put on hold, again, and I see caller ID stating that an insurance company is calling. My co-worker is dealing with a patient so I answer it. Yup it's them saying that the guy who just left's insurance is just fine and I shouldn't have turned him away. I'm starting to get frazzled at this point since their website even states it's not active and in comes SC2:

SC2: EXCUSE ME! We've been waiting forever now! Can you look up my dad's orders yet? You aren't doing anything!
Me: Sir, you have 2 people left in front of you and I'm on the phone. You will jsut have to wait your turn!
SC2: WHAT?!?!

I turn away and finish on the phone and finish the person in front of me. Cue Little Old Lady (LOL). Of course her orders aren't in the computer, because this is how my day is going, and I'm in the process of calling her doctor when guess who comes up?

SC2: EXCUSE ME!!! YOU NEED TO LOOK UP MY DADS ORDER NNNNOOOOOOWWWWW! I DON'T WANT TO WAIT ANY LONGER!
Me: Sir, I'm with someone and you are next....
SC2: I DON'T CARE! NNNOOOWWWW!!
Me: Sir you are just going to have to wait and that's that.
LOL: Excuse me? She can only help one person at a time. Stop being rude! You need to wait your turn.

SC2 stomps out of the office.

Coworker takes SC and I'm on the phone on hold with LOL's doctors office.

As SC walks by: You have been nothing but rude to my son. You should treat your customers better!
Me: Excuse me? I've been on the phone for the last hour, my computer shut down on me, we are busy and understaffed, I'm sorry I couldn't put everyone else who was here before you on hold so I could help you. However now my Coworker is available she can look up your order and get you on your way. I'm sorry you felt I was rude.
SC: Umm.. uh.... ok

I just burst into tears. I hit my threshold and couldn't take it any more. Calm myself down quickly, then..

I'm still waiting on LOL's doctor when my boss calls:
Boss: Do you remember a guy and his son?
Me: You mean jerk and Jerk2? YUP!
Boss: Yeah he said you were rude to him and his dad
Me: -Tells the boss about the last hour and what actually happened-
Boss: And I didn't have to collect bail money for you? Keep up the good work.

Yup, and that was all in the first 2 hours of us opening.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

Yowza, what a mess!

I've learned to have a LOT of patience with hospitals, doctors offices, health insurance companies etc. Yes, it sucks, yes it can be frustrating but that's the nature of the best. MOST people get this. Some, obviously don't.

Kudos to your boss for sticking up for you, I like him or her already.

I'm also wondering why SC couldn't look after his own affairs and decided to sic his son on you.

[Shyla]

When I go in for procedures, I just assume the computer is going to mess up something. Law of averages. If I was one of the patients they were trying to butt in front of I would have had a fit on them. Get back in line and shut up. What a mess. I'm sorry.

[Sunshine]

My last neurologist visit was like that. Nothing on my end but the poor receptionist had a phone call that sounded like a record on skip...everything was repeated...twice. That poor woman.....

[paxillated]

Aah, the stupid, she burns! (Mental picture of Really with a flame thrower...)

I have a feeling about where you might work...

My doctors' office is part of a big network, who bought a new computer system about 5 years ago. Slower than molasses, because I guess they thought computer speed comes from "the cloud"? Now they've inflicted a whole new system on them, so they have to learn how that one works - but guess what it's no faster than the old one.

Why don't the bosses ever ask the folks who deal with this stuff daily, "What do you need the system to do?" before they even call the salesmen?

"Duh... we can afford this shiny new program with all these bells and whistles, if we save money on these 'server' things... I dunno what they do, so they're not important!"

[dalesys]

"... if we save money on these 'server' things...

Everybody knows that surfers just bum & burn at the beach.

[Kogarashi]

Why don't the bosses ever ask the folks who deal with this stuff daily, "What do you need the system to do?" before they even call the salesmen?

This is why Hubby (a scientist at a university) has connections with a tech group who ask what sort of workload he's going to be putting his computers through, then make sure to supply him with a machine capable of actually handling those jobs. And we're talking data analysis that on a really tricked out computer still can take a whole weekend to process. He actually found the group through his postdoc position before we moved (several states away), but made sure to keep in touch with them because they really know what they're doing.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I'm sorry you had to go thru all that. People nowadays have zero patience when it comes to waiting for anything. -.- I've had to wait at the doctors; I just read a book and wait my turn, saving myself and them mega stress.

[Slave to the Phone]

My doctor's office is really good about scheduling. I rarely have to wait longer than 10 minutes. I think I get excellent care from her, she seems to listen to me and its easy to get appointments when I need them. As a result, I don't recommend her to anyone and have heard from other people in the waiting room that they don't either.

We've got a good thing. We know that we have a good thing. We also know that if we told people about our good thing, our good thing would stop being so good because she would get so busy.

Yes, I'm a horrible person. I can live with that

[Kittykat]

Question? With HIPPA laws are you even allowed to tell the son anything?

[Shyla]

If the patient is standing there with the son, HIPPA doesn't keep you from talking to them both. The father could also have put his son on the HIPPA form so OP could share info but they never got to see in the computer.