Dodging nasty doctor's receptionists

January said:
I work in a medical centre (am not the receptionist)

Yes of course receptionists should be polite and most are.

Remember it works both ways though - most customers/patients are polite too but there are often ones who are not and are rude and demanding when they are told No ,regardless of how polite the No was.

and receptionists do have to tell people No - if there are no appointments that day, for example, there are no appointments - it isnt the receptionist's fault. Nor if the doctor is running late or whatever.
It is often a thankless task being on the front desk.
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When a receptionist outright lies to you, then I pull out.
 

People are weird. I've found some size you up and feel they can get away with dumping on you. The best way to handle that is to give back what you get.

"I see you're in a lousy mood again today. I just want my scripts and I'm out of here. I don't care what you do, throw them, shove them, I just want to get them and get out of here. NOW."

She'll say something like, well you don't have to be so rude... Yes you do. Take your prescriptions and walk out.
 
When we lived a small town in AZ it seemed to be a requirement to be rude to work any place, including doctor's offices and pharmacies. We even had a very rude pulmonology physician's assistant. My late husband was referred because he had just learned he had a heart murmur when he had a pre-op done. The NP that referred him must have suspected something else was going on so she wanted him checked.

Anyway, the PA at the pulmonologists office came in and asked us what we were doing there. He said he was referred but didn't really know why. She never examined him or did anything. She looked at his chart and said there was no reason for him to be there and dismissed him. That was in 2021. Fast forward to today. I'm finding out through his medical records from that time, he should have been checked for mesothelioma and other heart/lung diseases. Would it have saved his life? Probably not, but that PA did not do her job and being rude was inexcusable.
 

Devi said:
Now that I think about it, we had a dentist whose receptionist was snarky to my husband, so we went to another dentist.

And, now that I think about it, he (the first dentist) was recommended to us by my husband's sisters ... but they are also no longer going to him. I haven't asked why.
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Interesting to ask the question.
 
Judycat said:
People are weird. I've found some size you up and feel they can get away with dumping on you. The best way to handle that is to give back what you get.

"I see you're in a lousy mood again today. I just want my scripts and I'm out of here. I don't care what you do, throw them, shove them, I just want to get them and get out of here. NOW."

She'll say something like, well you don't have to be so rude... Yes you do. Take your prescriptions and walk out.
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I'm naturally very quiet and polite, so I get taken advantage of.
However, I brood on things and I store anger. That is why I get depressed. I hate confrontation.
 
Rose65 said:
I'm naturally very quiet and polite, so I get taken advantage of.
However, I brood on things and I store anger. That is why I get depressed. I hate confrontation.
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Okay. In martial arts, there's something called "defense by not being there". That is, they throw a punch and you duck ... you're not there.

Same thing applies here. They want to be nasty; don't be there. No need for confrontation. Just don't be there.
 
The doctor I went to years ago had a nasty receptionist. You're supposed to go to the window and let them know you're there on arrival. I stood for several minutes and she was sitting in a swivel chair with her back to the window. Not even talking on the phone - just sitting. After a while I tapped gently on the glass with a knuckle to alert her. Well - she spun around and slammed open the window and yelled, "Don't you ever knock on the window like that again!" I thought I was pretty gentle. But no use complaining to the doc - it was a family business and he had his relatives employed there.

I never liked that doctor, but he was local. Sometimes patients were standing up waiting to see him because all the chairs in the reception area were occupied. That's terrible to make sick people stand up and wait. One other time I was been waiting over 2 hours in the reception area when an aide came out and announced the doctor had left for the day and to come to the window to reschedule appointments. Imagine leaving for the day with a room full of waiting patients! My mom went to him and she told me once she was waiting in the exam room and heard him taking to a drug salesman about camping and fishing. The doc was using time he could be seeing patients to shoot the breeze with salesmen.

Needless to say we stopped going to him.
 
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O my God !! Bad enough to need to see a doc, even with a pleasant receptionist.
Guess I've been lucky over the years. Haven't had any "run in's" with either receptionists or doctors.
Sometimes it can depend on our personal temperament. Easy going or uptight?
 
Wes said:
Personally, I am loath to complain about someone else in a work environment. People are not just black and white or on & off. We never really know what is going on with others. There may be very good reasons someone behaves as he/she does. So, I choose to be tolerant. I am not spending my day with a difficult person nor my life so I can take it for the moment, is my feeling. I would hate to have someone fired from a job when that person may be dealing with an errant or abusive family situation. There's more to people than meets the eye. I am sure you would want everyone to extend that consideration to you. I know I would.

I once worked with a supervisor who one day gleefully celebrated getting the building security guard fired because he constantly delayed him at the gate from arriving to the office on time because he carefully checked entrants. The man was only doing his job. Not everyone can make everyone happy all the time.
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I can certainly agree with much of this. Though I think some are just rude on an ongoing bases.

I was once in a small store and the lady behind the counter was being treated horribly by this man while his beaten down wife stood there. I think this jerk had an ongoing problem. When he finally huffed out the door, myself and another woman stated to the employee that we were sorry she was treated like that by such a person. I hoped it helped her.

I also have watched other people have gleeful attitudes when people get fired. I had a horrible boss fired once. Of course I never complained about him but found out after, others did. I didn't give one s. about this piece of nasty but didn't feel self satisfied. I just felt relief he was gone.
 
I am as nice and polite to that woman as I can be, but she still acts like I am ultra annoying to her, that things would be so much easier without pesky patients bothering her.
I would love to tell her what I really think of her and she would deserve it. I swallow my anger but one day someone else won't
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My post wasn't aimed at you Rose - it was a general one.

for everyone - try to be nice ourselves and remember how hard dealing with the public can be. Rudeness and courtesy works both ways.
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I had nasty receptionists and nasty doctors.

Some years ago we were with our cat at a vet who was recommended to us. At the receptionist's desk was a sign to go at once to the waiting room. We did it and shortly after this the lady came in and asked in a rude tone why we didn't wait at the desk. My wife mentioned the sign.

The vet itself was even 'better'. I told him that our cat sleeps on our bed, which he answered with an exclamation of utterly disgust "Pfui Teufel!", which is in English like "double yuck!". For a moment I thought about giving him a slap into his face.

The irony is that his son, who has a vet's office himself together with his wife, also a vet, told us that their three cats sleep with them on their beds and that he always has problems putting his legs in the right position for this reason. I think that about 70 per cent of the people with cats let them sleep on their beds. So the exclamation of this old vet was a shame. Needless to say that our visit at the old vet was our first and last.
 
Pepper said:
How can anyone stop a cat from sleeping on the bed without closing bedroom door to them? Cats do what they want. It's THEIR bed, after all.

I like you George.
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Thank you! Right. I want to go further: It's their house and we are just their staff. :ROFLMAO:
We haven't had a cat before, so as the neighbor's cat Lilou moved into our house we were greenhorns. We thought, that we won't let Lilou sleep on our bed. So we closed the door. The first night she slept outside. The second night she made noise at the door such a long time that we let her in. She slept on the carpet floor in front of our bed. The third night she jumped on our bed after some minutes. Our resistance was broken. If this is not strategic thinking, what else?
 
Wes said:
We are altogether, here. Learning never stops for me. Thanks for your come back.
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If you're going to split hairs over the use of the word "if," and then complain about the reason threads so often go off track, let's also mention "altogether." Are we all together or altogether?

Posters are telling about their own experiences and how they felt/feel about them. People feel the way they feel. Their feelings are valid. Who are you to dispute them?
 
Rose65 said:
That's exactly how I feel but it would be major upheaval to go elsewhere.
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people outside of the Uk have no idea how difficult it is to get registered with a new Doctor. Doesn't matter who you speak to everyone has a tale about the receptionists at our GP surgery 's so many of them have been given a virtual hat and they think they're the medical police, it's disgraceful the attitude many of them have.. nasty beeches..

My receptionist are very nice (so far)... but I was asked to collect a prescription from another surgery in town for my ex husband who had prostate cancer, and severe COPD...I simply had to make the collection and drop off the repeat script... what a horrible experience. A sour faced Vinegar tits, scowled and snapped at me...

I'm very pleased I'm not registered with that Surgery otherwise she would see a side of me which she would not easily forget... but for the sake of my ex husband as their patient I kept quiet...
 
When I was younger, I was yelled at because I patiently waited to be called to the receptionist window. You know, the one that has a big sign stating: After Your Appointment Please Be Seated And Wait For The Receptionist To Call Your Name. Yes the waiting area was full, and everyone stared at me.

One of many reasons I began viewing other people as objects. A cat or dog or any other living thing will make my heart hurt for being alive. People though, just aren't worthy of it. Sorry.
 
Pepper said:
How can anyone stop a cat from sleeping on the bed without closing bedroom door to them? Cats do what they want. It's THEIR bed, after all.

I like you George.
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Our Deja sleeps on my bed because my bed is actually my recliner, since I haven't been able to sleep in a bed for close to 10 years. In fact, she sometimes sleeps on me when I'm in my "bed". šŸ˜ø I'm tellin' ya...she cured my germaphobia immediately when as a kitten, she rescued me. My son sleeps in the larger bedroom. The second bedroom has been our studio for decades.

Deja is not allowed in either room...well maybe just enough time for her to sniff around, so we keep those doors closed. But my son doesn't want her on the bed and in the studio room, she goes behind his equipment desks and messes with the ton of wires. Not safe for her and a PITA for him if he ever has to fix a problem she's caused back there.
 
My first cat, Whiskers, NEVER went in the kitchen or bathroom. One Thanksgiving, we were letting the finished turkey "rest" on the stove to cool off and we went for a walk. When we came back, Whiskers was parked OUTSIDE the kitchen staring and drooling at the cooked bird. We were all amazed at his restraint!! We had forgotten about him when we went out & left the turkey. My very first cat, my Whiskers.
 
Pepper said:
My first cat, Whiskers, NEVER went in the kitchen or bathroom. One Thanksgiving, we were letting the finished turkey "rest" on the stove to cool off and we went for a walk. When we came back, Whiskers was parked OUTSIDE the kitchen staring and drooling at the cooked bird. We were all amazed at his restraint!! We had forgotten about him when we went out & left the turkey. My very first cat, my Whiskers.
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I'm amazed at his restraint!! Bless his little heart (or soul now, if he's gone). You must've trained him well. Cats have their own personalities and really are smart, amazing animals. My BFF is amazed at some of the things I tell her that Deja does and I'm amazed at some of the things her late, beloved "Sugie" used to do.
 
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