Several weeks ago I entered a patient's room after being updated on her status by a few residents. I introduced myself and the patient immediately responded with "oh, you're Dr. Haller." Not exactly what I was expecting or exactly what I wanted to hear. The mind can't help but leap to something negative - just what had this woman heard about me? But she almost immediately followed up with an explanation that she worked for my group's answering service. She said she'd heard my name so many times (and had actually spoken to me a few times) that it was nice to put a face to a name. Relief. Short lived, as it turned out. This very sweet woman (who incidentally had been through quite a bit already during this hospitalization) then asked me if they (the service) did a good job. Uhhhh. Yeah? (no, no, NO!) What was I supposed to say? She was ill, stuck in a hospital bed for something like 5 weeks after the gastric ulcer from hell that ultimately required a gastrectomy. What could I do? I did the only thing I felt comfortable with. I lied.
Fast forward to this morning when that same answering service paged me on my phone, not once but twice, at 659. Fast forward to this morning when I was asleep in my bed, not only not on call but also not yet off vacation. Fast forward to this morning when I was well and truly pissed.
Ask me again nice sick lady. Ask me again.
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