Does your Dr do this?

[nuttylawprofessor]

That is awful! I consider DH's time as valuable as anyone, but after hours coverage, weekend and night call come with the territory of taking care of sick people and sometimes just people who think they are sick.

I'm less than thrilled with this policy, but it appears to be the standard operating procedure with many of the pediatric practices in this part of the city. I guess the thing that really irks me about this policy is that this practice group has so many physicians that if they rotated call, they wouldn't even be on duty *that* much.

 

[luvwinnie]

No, and I wouldn't go to one who did...I did have a dr. call me back COLLECT once though!!!!

 

[bengalbelle]

My pediatrician is in a group of 3 doctors and they don't charge for after hours calls. They're also open 365 days a year.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

To answer your question, no.

I'm sure it's meant as a deterrent to unnecessary nighttime calls, but what about the one time that someone can't afford to pay or is afraid or hesitant to call and it's a legitimate problem that shouldn't wait. That could have devastating consequences for an infant or child.

I wouldn't be in favor of this policy and would let administrators know how I felt and encourage others to do the same.

 

[diznygirl]

I wouldn't mind the charge. Can you keep a secret? Sometimes I wait until after hours to call the doc for a antibiotic - that way I don't have to bring the kids in and wait an hour or two......

...... this is probably all my fault!!!!

 

[ChristmasElf]

Our pediatric group charges $25 for an after-hours phone call. The one time I made an after-hours call to the answering service, they also reminded me that we would be charged if the doctor was paged.

Sorry, but would be changing doctors if they wanted to charge $25 just for calling their BREAD AND BUTTER back. How pathetic is that?
Are your children only allowed to be sick Monday through Friday 9-5???

Maybe they should also be careful not to get too sick on a Wednesday either.
The Dr. does need to get his 18 holes in that day

 

[Sonya]

merekc, I do have that number, thanks. I guess I will be calling that more often!

I am kind of upset, I didn't call one time DS was sick b/c I didn't want to pay it. I can see how some people might not be able to afford it. Also there are about 8 Drs in the group, so there are plenty of Drs to rotate through.

However I know they have lives and I am sure there are people that call but you could start charging the repete offenders.

diznygirl, I had never thought of that, I wonder if that is part of it?

When choosing the kids' Dr I had 2 choices, these are the better group of Drs and the other group I didn't agree with their policy that the well patients come in the morning and sick patients come in the afternoon. That would mean I would have to take off work to take my well kid into the Dr for their checkup. If I am going to be home with a sick child then I want to get him into the Dr asap!

 

[chell]

This is something I've never heard of either. Maybe the office I work for should think of this for the ones who abuse our on-call service. I could possibly see them charging for the ones who abuse the system but not for simply using it.

 

[Steffi]

My DD's doctor doesn't charge for after-hour calls. We also never have to wait any longer than a few minutes for office visits. I never realized before how lucky we are to have him!