Calling an attending at home...

[DonStracci]

I have a situation that I'm not sure what to do...

I am an MS4 and I have a rotation starting Monday. I will be missing a LOT of time from this rotation due to interviews and travel. In fact, I am going to miss the first day. (I don't have a month off...)

I asked my school for the contact information for the doc who will be supervising me. I got an email, a home or cell number, and an office phone number. I've emailed, and called his office, to no avail. It's to the point now that the holiday weekend is coming up, and I really want to find this guy.

Would you:
1. Call him at his home or cell number
2. Go to the hospital he's at and find him (he's an ER doc)

I've tried to call my school about this situation, but everyone is off this week for the holiday. Just curious as to what others would do in my situation.

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[OddNath]

I have a situation that I'm not sure what to do...

I am an MS4 and I have a rotation starting Monday. I will be missing a LOT of time from this rotation due to interviews and travel. In fact, I am going to miss the first day. (I don't have a month off...)

I asked my school for the contact information for the doc who will be supervising me. I got an email, a home or cell number, and an office phone number. I've emailed, and called his office, to no avail. It's to the point now that the holiday weekend is coming up, and I really want to find this guy.

Would you:
1. Call him at his home or cell number
2. Go to the hospital he's at and find him (he's an ER doc)

I've tried to call my school about this situation, but everyone is off this week for the holiday. Just curious as to what others would do in my situation.

Might as well try stalking him today at the ER (I tend to do that sort of thing in an attempt to avoid an awkward phone call).

 

[diosa428]

Are you going to be working under a resident? It may be easier to try to get ahold of them. Also, have you considered paging him? He might be a little less put off by that than you calling him at home over a holiday weekend.

 

[DonStracci]

Are you going to be working under a resident? It may be easier to try to get ahold of them. Also, have you considered paging him? He might be a little less put off by that than you calling him at home over a holiday weekend.

There are no residents at this hospital... it's a very small community hospital. I would like to page him, if only I could get a number for his pager, or if only I could actually talk to someone at that hospital who knows what I'm talking about when I call. "Medical student? We don't have medical students at this hospital."

I'm the first medical student EVER to rotate at this hospital- and that is the root of the problem.

At this point, I'm going to head over to the hospital Monday and try to sort things out. That's supposed to be the first day of the elective- the lengths I've gone to trying to get a hold of someone about this elective are absurd. They obviously don't know I'm assigned to do a rotation there.

 

[dilated]

There are no residents at this hospital... it's a very small community hospital. I would like to page him, if only I could get a number for his pager, or if only I could actually talk to someone at that hospital who knows what I'm talking about when I call. "Medical student? We don't have medical students at this hospital."

I'm the first medical student EVER to rotate at this hospital- and that is the root of the problem.

At this point, I'm going to head over to the hospital Monday and try to sort things out. That's supposed to be the first day of the elective- the lengths I've gone to trying to get a hold of someone about this elective are absurd. They obviously don't know I'm assigned to do a rotation there.

why don't you just call the ED, tell them you're a med student working with Dr. X and you need to talk to him on the phone when he has a minute?

 

[DonStracci]

why don't you just call the ED, tell them you're a med student working with Dr. X and you need to talk to him on the phone when he has a minute?

This has been done multiple times, hence, my frustration.

 

[DonStracci]

I ended up getting a hold of my attending at 6 am the day the rotation was starting (yesterday)- he decided to finally answer an email.

 

[Isoprop]

glad to hear it worked out.