Does your doctor have a 24 hour on call phone number?

My Humana Medicare policy pays for an in home visit each year. The NP does them. Mine is scheduled for this coming week. They take your vitals, go over meds and address any concerns you have. Saves me a trip there and if she thinks I need to see my doctor, she will make the appt then. Its been awhile since I have had my BP checked, so I went ahead and set the appt up with the NP. I have seen her before and am comfortable with her.
 
My doctor has an answering machine that urges patients that if the office is closed (which seems most of the times I call) to go to a hospital emergency room. Yeah, that' s gonna happen. With all the ^%$# going on, I'd end up with something worse than my original problem.
 
Gaer said:
hahaha! My doctor has one hand on the door knob and one on your chart! The longest doctor visit I've had was 1 1/2 minutes!
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That has been my experience as well. I feel like I am an inconvenience @ best.

As much as I hate too ...... I think it is time to start shopping for a new one. Trouble is, he/she might not be any better, trouble there is we don't know till we try.
 
I belong to a health care system so I can always get someone during working hours. There is email accessibility too. Otherwise it's the ER.
 
My doctor is on call once a week as are all the doctors in our insurance plan including surgeons, so while you may not get your doctor, you will get a doctor 24/7. And the doctor usually says go to the ER 😂, but I have so many issues the liability frightens them I think.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
I believe their message is "If this is an emergency, dial 911".
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Not if you mean me, they have an answering service after hours, you get an operator, tell her the issue, she calls the doctor and describes the issue you are having, and then he takes the call or tells her to tell you to call the paramedics and/or go to ER.
 
Aneeda72 said:
Not if you mean me, they have an answering service after hours, you get an operator, tell her the issue, she calls the doctor and describes the issue you are having, and then he takes the call or tells her to tell you to call the paramedics and/or go to ER.
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No...I was talking about my doctor's office. Guess I should have made that clear, huh?! :rolleyes:
 
My online call nurse for my Diabetes told me that all Diabetic doctor's have 24 hour online doctor. Which now I know is wrong. I was hoping my doctor had a 24 hour call center because when I walk into my local hospital ER it costs me 500-1000 dollars with insurance.
 
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Robert59 said:
My online call nurse for my Diabetes told me that all Diabetic doctor's have 24 hour online doctor. Which now I know is wrong. I was hoping my doctor had a 24 hour call center because when I walk into my local hospital ER it costs me 500-1000 dollars with insurance.
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Which is why my husband still works, his company has great medical insurance and second is Medicare-it’s expensive to have both but not as expensive as paying bills out of pocket
 
The healthcare system where I'm living is very responsive. My cardiologist has an after-hours message number and he returns the call 24/7 ... I have messaged him at 3 AM and he's called me within minutes. Each doctor/specialist I've been a patient of has been very accessible and have called me personally at home multiple times. I feel very fortunate.
 
When I was pregnant with my oldest (which was only 14 years ago) the Head of Obstetrics took me under his wing because of my miscarriages and loss of our first born child. He came in on his day off to give me an ultrasound, no tech, he did the ultrasound himself. My husband came from work so he had his airforce uniform on and the two had a great chat. The doctor gave me his card with both his secretary’s phone number and he hand wrote his home phone number on the card with the statement that I promise not to call unless it’s urgent, or if I wanted to share some baked goods :) He instructed my midwife to call when I was in labour, and he came to the hospital to assist. The child was born lifeless, and had to have infant CPR but she is now a healthy 13 year old girl.

I never called him at home, and two years later ended up working at that very hospital. We saw each other daily and I considered him a true friend, almost father or grandfather like.

You can’t get that today, doctors are too stressed out with all the paperwork required because of liability and finding. It’s a shame. I blame people who complain or threaten to sue or actually sue people over everything. It’s a litigious world we live in and we are suffering because of it.
 

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