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More and more frequently over the past few years, I've noticed when you call a doctor or dentist office, you get an answering service even when you call during their regular office hours. There's no way to leave a message either, it just says "call back". Has anyone else noticed this?
Not here. My doctor office sometimes answer the phone, but if I have to leave a message, they always call back right away. They also reply to me through their online portal if I use that instead of the phone. My dentist office always answers the phone right away.
No, I haven't had this experience either. I can always get through to at least talk to a Front Office person. I also use Mychart to leave messages with doctor's offices, including nurses (and those messages are usually returned within 24 hours).
I actually just got off a call where the practitioner himself answered the phone and talked to me for about 10 minutes. That was a pleasant surprise.
One ortho I've gone to for some yrs has their front office person using a machine and we are asked to leave message and will get call back..I do this and get call back in a day or so. The way of the tech world folks...change change change. Isn't technology great.
This thread is a good reminder that when we go to see the doctor, we need to be prepared. In this particular case, we need enough knowledge before we get to the appointment so that we ask intelligent and thoughtful questions.
It is very frustrating for medical practices to seek to answer all the questions, and then when the patient (usually a spouse) gets home, his/her spouse has a whole bunch of questions that the spouse who just came from the doctor's appointment either didn't ask or forgot to ask.
At most of the practices I worked at (as a physician assistant), one of my primary tasks was answering patients' questions, both during the appointment and on the phone.
It really helps if it is a semi-serious issue, for both spouses to come to the appointment. Thank you.
More and more frequently over the past few years, I've noticed when you call a doctor or dentist office, you get an answering service even when you call during their regular office hours. There's no way to leave a message either, it just says "call back". Has anyone else noticed this?
Some offices send calls to the answering service at lunch, but I never heard of not taking messages. I worked in an office for 11 years.
Yes, my doctor has gone to using an internet portal to make appointments and ask questions. Seldom does his staff ever answer the phone. I can leave a voice-mail message but it usually takes days for the staff to return my call. I get faster responses with the portal and the staff encourages use of the portal over using the phone.
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