Doctor's receptionist is a bully!!

[ladysarcasma]

My 5 year old daughter had pain in her ear this morning. She had no fever and no other symptoms of an illness except a very slightly stuffy nose leftover from a cold. I gave her Tylenol for the pain and she went to school (she BEGGED me to let her go even though I didn't want to send her, but she really wasn't sick at all).

I just got a call from the school nurse saying her ear hurts and her eardrum is red but that she has no fever at all and is fine to stay in school today. I told her to please call if my daughter says she doesn't want to stay in school or that it hurts too badly. She said she would and that if I got a doctor's appointment for today, I could come take her out.

My ex husband has her for the weekend and he is a real jerk about illnesses. If I haven't taken her to the doctor and she has so much as a cough, he freaks out on me and puts in writing that I'm a horrible parent who needs to take better care of my child (though he'll never take her to the doctor, himself...ever).

I don't want this treated with antibiotics and most ear infections resolve on their own, so I called the doctor's nurse line and said I wanted a nurse to call back w/ recommendations of what to do at home. She asked in a condescending way if my daughter had pain. I said yes and she said she absolutely had to be seen and I had to make an appt. I said she was in school until 3 and she said go pick her up and have her here by 3!

I didn't say anything but OK the whole time because I was shocked! She never even let me talk to the nurse. My husband is calling to try to get an evening appt. so I don't have to take my 4 week old son into the sick room for a visit my daughter probably doesn't need.

I'm so upset over being treated like I'm a horrible parent for not rushing her to the doctor for this! Anyone else ever have this experience?

 

[SerenityNow]

Yes. So irritating! I once called our Dr. because my DD had been running a fever for about a week and even though it would come down with medicine, I wanted to check in to see if the Dr. thought she should be seen.
The receptionist freaked out and told me "you need to get her here immediately!" When I got there with my mildly ill DD she gave me all this grief about how she'd had to shuffle appointments around and how hard it was to to fit her in-- it seemed like she was trying to make me feel guilty about it. It was all very strange. I just chalked it up to her being a bit of a loose cannon.

You are right, she doesn't need to be rushed in because her ear hurts. The receptionist should have let you speak to a nurse.

I think I'd be inclined to mention it to the Dr. or nurse when you are there that you were taken aback by the receptionist's urgency.

 

[suzib76]

When she asked if your daughter had pain you should have told her it was none of her business and you wanted a callback as requested from a medical professional

I would be sending a letter of complaint to the practice manager

 

[ladysarcasma]

Yes, I think I am going to send them a letter. She was completely out of line.

 

[DJJ]

I don't want offend anyone who's a doctors receptionist but i think it's in the job description to be like that.

 

[m4nc3r]

Its almost definitely in the job description!!

Every time I need to book a doctors appt the receptionists are always bitchy. In my old town I used to book them, have the receptionists tell me they are "too busy" then walk in 5 minutes later and have a go at them as the surgery was ALWAYS empty, I did this literally 4 times when I was working in the town center...

Where I live now, every time i ring for an appt they tell me "we're booked for the morning, if you want an afternoon appt you have to ring after 2pm" - then naturally by the time you get through at 2.02pm they're also fully booked, and they don't do advanced appts. Yet my sister-in-law can ring in and get an appt at any time of the day whatever time you want it (even right THAT second) just cause they know of her last name from when she worked in the chemist that delivered prescriptions....
Its rediculous how awkward and mean these people can be especially considering they could essentially be toying with someones life by not helping provide the proper care & service...

 

[mandaxx]

I've been a doctors receptionist and I would never have treated anyone like this. Most likely she was just frustrated with her day but doesn't excuse her behaviour. As a pp said it really is none of her business to say anything like that to you. She isn't there to decide what needs done, she's there to take down details to arrange a call back xxx