I need to talk to me doctor. I really need to talk to my doctor. So I call the hospital where he works (the only number that there is for him).
I get a menu. Ok, fine. That’s ok. It’s a big complcated hospital, they need to direct calls. I’m sure there;s soetning on there that will help me. What do I get…I’m a doctor press 5 (no me, ok). If I have and emergency press 5 (stillnot me…not yet…but 5 does seem to be magic). If I need to talk about my bill, press two (there’s quite a bit about billing…I love having to hear all of it). If I need to schedual and appointmenst or talk to my doctor’s secretay (hey, that’s pretty close !) press…5. Again. So I press 5.
“Thank you, goodbye”
Magic number that makes the hospital go away.
Apparently THERE IS NO WAY TO CONTACT THIS HOSPITAL.
Did I mention this IS A HOSPITAL???
I tried the other numbers…even billing.
“Thank you, goodbye”
I called info just to check…same number. I found one other number…fax machine.
I NEED TO TALK TO MY DOCTOR
I don’t know what’s worse, the idea that you need to talk to your doctor ot\r that you need to talk to your loved one who could be sick or dying there.
I know there are phone glitches but THIS IS A HOSPITAL. Get it fixed. Immediatlely.
Or till it’s fixed get a human to find out what the person needs.
So . . . you’re gonna compose a long-ass Pit thread, to share with all of us, *every *time you encounter an out of order phone thingy?
You forgot to add “long and lame” toi your thread title. Not to mtnion “mundane and pointless” . . .
Voices aside, “0” works on most menus to get you to a real live person. I know for all of the pharmacies in my area who have a menu, 0 will take you directly to the pharmacist.
Branching out, though, why do people who work in hospitals feel the need to shorten the name of the hospital and always use the short name to EVERYONE, yet not list that short name in the phone book? And why do they keep changing hospital names? It’s nice and all to change the Podunk Hospital to the Jim Bob Memorial Medical Center, but if it keeps even one panicking family member from being able to find out where their loved one is (and trust me, it does)-- it’s not worth it in donations or whatever you might possibly get out of it.
If your love one is sick or dying there put down your latte and go there.
Very few member of the general public have much if any reason to call a hospital. If you look in most phone books at least the hospitals in my area have direct lines to any outpatient services and ER, they’re always open, just take a number.
Well, the saddest thing is that most likely there is no-one at the hospital to help this person. If he contacted the switchboard, they might give him the number for the doctor’s office, but unless he knows that the doc is in house and asks for him to be overhead paged (or just paged), he isn’t gonna find his doc by contacting the hospital.
see, the docs don’t live there. If I had a dollar for everytime the family or pt asked me, “when does the doctor round?” I could retire.
I DON’T KNOW WHEN THE DOCTOR WILL ROUND!! I HAVE 4 PATIENTS-EACH OF THEM HAS PROBABLY 3 CONSULTS-THAT’S 4 DOCS PER PT. TOTAL OF 16 DOCS TO KEEP TRACK OF. THEIR SCHEDULES CHANGE EVERYDAY.
Sorry for the caps, but this drives nurses nuts. We dial the same phones, page the docs the same way etc. For some docs, all I have is an answering service #. It is true that they will call a nurse back faster than a family member, but it’s not an absolute truth.
I have had family members call up 3 days post discharge and ask if I can get them a prescription! uh, no. Call your doctor. I had one lady call me from the drugstore! I gave her the phone number of the doctor–the pharmacy could have done the same thing. Oy.
Good point, but apparently he DOES have an office of some kind there…and a search for other office in West Winsor gave me the SAME OFFICE (ie, on that didn’t result in any contact at any point)
Another point, but you’re assuming some someone lounging around ignoring said loved one. Why? What if you just spent the night there looking afer them then, goodness had to go to work! Or lose the insurance that was keeping him in thehospital to begin with? Or had to look after your children. There are a lot of reasons you might not be able to be there every minute. But you still might want to call and see how they were.
And yes, there ARE good reasons for calling a hospital (i had a good one) but none ofthe ways you sugestest worked.