A Conversation with the Doctor’s Receptionist

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A Conversation with the Doctor’s Receptionist

I think there must be some standard required qualifications for a person to become a receptionist in a doctor’s office. I know that more often than not. I have encounters like the one below.

I just had to call a doctor’s office to have them send a prescription to a local pharmacy for my daughter...no big deal...simple...easy...something that could be accomplished with a pleasant conversation...

The office supposedly opened at 8am. The phone was finally being picked up at 8:20. Her voice struck me as surly and combative from her first utterance. I explained the situation and she was impassive on the other side of the line...uncomfortable silence...

"What's the number (sour voice)?"

"For what?” I questioned. I wasn't sure what number she wanted...RX number...prescription number...some kind of phone number...

"For the pharmacy," she growled.

"You know...I don't have it right here...[pause- Usually this is where someone would say, "No problem we can look that up." With the pause growing and no offer to help I continued] ...let me look it up for you..."

Then she proceeded to grill me with questions regarding the history of the patient, delivered with a droning monotone with an angry edge in rapid succession. It seemed that if my answers weren't responded to correctly within milliseconds, machine gun fire would erupt and erase me from the Earth. "...date of birth?..."...allergic to medications?..." "...what does she weigh?..." “…chewable or pill?...”

Then after fumbling my way through those answers while simultaneously rifling the phone book for the pharmacy number, I finally stumbled across it and waited for her to return to the phone. She had seemed to leave the phone line (I suspect she walked away) and I assumed she was busily typing some important note to the nurse so that they could cheerfully phone in the prescription (okay...I knew better than that)...I waited for maybe four minutes in silence figuring she'd pop back on...

Finally, out of the phone static, I hear..."Got that number?" The way she delivered that last question suggested to me (I'm very good at deciphering intent behind vocal tones) that she was growing exasperated with me, weary of having to interact with me, upset that she had to interrupt her routine to deal with me.

"Oh...were you waiting on me?"

"uh-huh."

"Well I was waiting on you...anyway...here's the number. XXX-XXXX)

"I'll give this to the nurses."

Now as soon as she said this I had the feeling that she wasn't going to give it to the nurses. She sounded like a person who was about to get off the phone with me, ball up any evidence that she may have written something that in any way documented her "conversation" with me, and toss it into the nearest trash can.

So I decided to go a little bit on the offensive. "Do you think the nurse will be able to call it in today?"

"I don't see why not." She grumbled.

"Okay. Thanks."

Click. The line was dead with me still hanging in the air.

No... "Good-bye."

No... "Have a nice day."

Just... Click.

Now let me replay how the conversation could have gone differently.

Hello, my name is ____, and my daughter is a patient of Dr. ____. Could you have the nurse phone in a prescription for us to the _____ Pharmacy?

"Sure, no problem. Let me pull up her records. This will take just a moment....okay got it. Which medication did you want refilled?"

"The __________."

"Sounds fine. We'll get that right in."

"Thanks very much!"

"Okay, have a great day!"

You see how easy that was? People don't have to be mean.