Problem: Great Doctors with rude office staff

[NY Disney fan]

I have run into this problem twice. I have a great, super-terrific doctor but the women who run his front desk are condescending and rude. I have experienced this with my dentist as well.

I feel bad saying anything b/c I don't know if they are rude or just having a hard time with their jobs. Also I wouldn't want to rat them out because then they'd hold it against me somehow. I would hate to switch doctors because they are wonderful to begin with.

Edit: Just to add, they are not rude because of me or my actions. I'm talking about instances where I'm seating in the examining room and once waited for 2 hours because the staff kept telling me "he's almost ready." I found out he was performing a root canal on someone and was no where near finished.

 

[Tink888]

I have run into this problem twice. I have a great, super-terrific doctor but the women who run his front desk are condescending and rude. I have experienced this with my dentist as well.

I feel bad saying anything b/c I don't know if they are rude or just having a hard time with their jobs. Also I wouldn't want to rat them out because then they'd hold it against me somehow. I would hate to switch doctors because they are wonderful to begin with.

Edit: Just to add, they are not rude because of me or my actions. I'm talking about instances where I'm seating in the examining room and once waited for 2 hours because the staff kept telling me "he's almost ready." I found out he was performing a root canal on someone and was no where near finished.

I'd mention it to your Dr., but in a nice way. Even though they're doctors, they're still essentially providing a service and you are a customer who has a choice in which doctor you see. Rude service can cause patients to seek treatment elsewhere. It's a business like anything else and if I was a doctor I'd want to know if my patients were being treated in a manner by my staff which could cost me business.

 

[tonilea]

Part of that may be the doctor's fault. I worked for many years for a wonderful vet. He is a fantastic veternarian, but he is terrible at scheduling. He (still, despite me insisting to the contrary lol ) thinks that a cat neuter takes five minutes. Well, it does - for him, but he doesn't include the time it takes to prep for surgery. It really takes about 20-25 minutes all told. It is very frustrating for the staff.

Anyway, my point is that he really didn't intentionally try to over schedule, but he had a poor sense of how long proceedures actually take. He also hated to tell a client with an animal in pain that it would have to wait - I am sure your dentist is the same.

 

[anotherdisneygal]

Tell the doctor. You would be surprised at how clueless some of them are about how their offices are run.

 

[KristaTX]

Please tell the doctor next time you go in, but ask to remain anonymous. I am an RN in a doctors' office, and overall our staff has a reputation for being one of the best around. If the doctor is really that great of a guy, you can bet that if a patient could give a specific example to the doctor about genuinely rude behavior by an employee, that employee would get a serious talking-to.

I do know what you are talking about, though. I have experienced it myself in many offices, and it is very aggravating.

I refuse to make excuses for our doctors when they are running late. If a patient says something to me about the wait, I never say "Well, it's just a busy day" or make up some other story. I don't appreciate that when I am a patient, and I don't do it to our patients. None of us back office nurses do that, although the front office staff sometimes does . I tell the patient that I am sorry, that I know exactly what it feels like, and that the best thing they can do is let the doctor know about their dissatisfaction. In some cases scheduling is interrupted by emergencies - such as with an OB doctor or an orthopedic surgeon. But the majority of doctors should be able to keep their schedules mostly on time. They just choose to overbook .

Our office has recently started a new thing where we are identifying by a colored card attached to the chart that the patient is a work-in that day. Ideally the doctors will make those patients wait and will first see patients who actually had appointments scheduled already before that day.

 

[npmommie]

I know that as an NP who worked in internal medicine, it is very easy to get behind without being over booked.
we get 15 min blocks for a standard appt. 30 min for a physical appt.
let me tell you all you need is one emergency, ( the person coming in for vague complaints that turn into a cardiac event that needs to go to the ED)
or the patient who books for one thing then proceeds to open the laundry list of complaints, which I have to assess whether they need to be addressed right then or if they can wait.
so it is not always overbooking that causes a doc to get behind.
and for the record 15 min is not enough time
yes for the briefest of rechecks such as a BP check, but for the most part, 15min does not cut it. very easy to get behind with the best intentions of staying on track.
on busy days I used to be thankful for those patients who didn't show up or who cancelled at the last minute ..... so not enough time for the secretary to rebook their slot

 

[blissventure]

There's no way I'd ever tell a Dr. that. It's just too easy for them to reveal who "tattled". Then, the next time you have to deal with Miss Rude, it's going to be worse.
I really like my Dr, but her (secretary? appt person?) is way too involved in the medical end of things. The medical asst called me, asked me to call her back. Miss appt. told me it was because they were sending me my test results, she checked, everything looked good. ????
I get the "results" and there are two problems, including a prescription. I called the medical asst for some (on my part) non-judgemental clarification. Good thing I did.
Sigh.
I figure if Dr's really want to know about our experience they will occasionally ask.

 

[daisax]

If I were strung along for TWO HOURS waiting for an appointment, I would have no problem telling the doctor that I would have appreciated being told upfront that he/she was way behind and given the opportunity to reschedule. Of course I would have had to tell him/her in a note, because I wouldn't wait two hours for anybody!

 

[maelstrom]

My pediatrician's office was like this. My doctor was fantastic, but the office staff and nurses were all rude and condescending. Since then, every doctor I have been to has been rude and condescending, along with her/his office staff.

 

[turkeymama]

I switched allergy docs over rude office staff. We told the doctor about the problems we had been having with his office staff. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, what are you gonna' do?" The next day our new allergy doc faxed our signed release forms over so they could send all my daughter's records to the new doc. There were only 2 pediatric allergists in town and I guess he didn't really think we would switch.

 

[bicker]

Keep in mind that one of the contributors to why a doctor can be so "great" face-to-face might be the tough job of running interference that the doctor's staff does.

 

[JoiseyMom]

I left an excellent pediatrican when my 2 oldest where smaller because of their office staff. I also left my doctor because of it. There was one girl there that was good, and if I spoke to her, we got in and got appointments, when she left so did we.

 

[NY Disney fan]

Keep in mind that one of the contributors to why a doctor can be so "great" face-to-face might be the tough job of running interference that the doctor's staff does.

Good point. But in my case, my doctor, for example, said he would get an authorization for an MRI for me. When I asked the receptionist about it, she said "You don't need an MRI, who told you that?, Of course you don't need an authorization!" That is the type of behavior I'm talking about.

 

[turkeymama]

Good point. But in my case, my doctor, for example, said he would get an authorization for an MRI for me. When I asked the receptionist about it, she said "You don't need an MRI, who told you that?, Of course you don't need an authorization!" That is the type of behavior I'm talking about.

I would switch docs over that type of problem. In my opinion, you have to deal with the office staff and nurses so much more than you do the doctors anyway. If the office staff and/or nurse drops the ball and fails to pass messages along, it doesn't really matter how great the doc is. If you aren't getting his info and he isn't getting yours, then how can he do you any good? Kwim?

But thats just me.

 

[Darcy03231]

Just yesterday DH left the Dr. office after waiting almost an hour to see him. He finally had enough and won't be back. He wrote the Dr. a note and handed it to the person who checks you in and asked that it be give to the Dr. as he was leaving. He was told he couldn't leave! Like whose going to stop him. He was told he had an appointment and he had to keep it. DH nicely told the lady he had better things to do with his time than sit there and wait.

 

[CathrynRose]

In my experience, the nicer the front desk is, the less nice the doctor has been.

I know that my favorite Dr's / Dentist's / Ortho's have always had the crappiest front desk people. I put up with it, for the great Doc.

I know when trying a new Doc out - if the staff is nice, the Dr will be a jerk.

 

[Mermaid02]

Keep in mind that one of the contributors to why a doctor can be so "great" face-to-face might be the tough job of running interference that the doctor's staff does.

Excellent point Bicker- the staff is following the rules set by the Doctor. I am a receptionist in a pediatric office and we have SEVEN physicians (soon to be NINE) and we do as the docs dictate- luckily, if a doc is behind our docs have NO problem with a patient choosing to reschedule rather than wait- but some docs DO have a problem with that.

And as far as the MRI goes- maybe she was looking at the docs notes and he didn't fill them in correctly- I had a Doc tell a Mom yesterday she could just WALK IN to the hospital for a Renal Ultrasound for her daughter (gave her the order and everything!).... that sounded wrong to me so I called the hospital- they have to have an appointment and it has to be scheduled by OUR office not the parent.

 

[C.Ann]

DD and her DH had to "tattle" to the doctor last year - things were wildly out of control with my DD.. (I see the same doctor myself..) There are 3 doctors in the practice and we all see the same "one" - unless it's a dire emergency..

A staff meeting was called (no names involved as I too had voiced several complaints) and the issues were addressed.. All of the office staff has been great ever since..

Actually they did me a HUGE favor today.. My DD's DH and my DGD have the flu right now.. (DD's DH was tested for swine flu yesterday because of the circumstances of how they became ill and the people they were with last weekend..) Turns out they have the "regular" flu - and because of my health issues, they were told they could not be around me for a minimum of 7 days after the last person came down with it.. (Haven't heard from DD yet today, so I don't know if it finally "got" her or not..)

I take Valium (to sleep at night) and DD was supposed to pick up the prescription and bring it up here this weekend - which obviously isn't going to happen.. Because it's a "controlled substance" they have a very strict office policy.. They will not mail the script nor will they call it into the pharmacy.. However, when I called them this morning they said that due to DD's family being sick, the doctor's office seeing so many people coming in with the regular flu or other contagious viruses, and my health issues, rather than having me drive down there and come inside their office to get it they are going to temporarily suspend their policy and mail the prescription to the pharmacy up here.. Back when we were having "issues" with the office staff, never would have happened..

I would speak to the doctor/dentist if I were you.. Good luck!

 

[justjudy]

My doctor used to have the rudest office manager! People would be standing at the desk and she would totally ignore them. I called for a referral once and she asked me for the diagnostic code -- what do I know from diagnostic codes? I told her that maybe the surgeon's office could tell her when she called about the referral. Her response "I'm much too busy around here to be doing that!" When I went to the surgeon's office I told them what had happened and they called her -- she was nasty to them too!! Fortunately she is no longer at the office, and I understand the doctor lost a number of patients because of her. Her new staff is wonderful.