Funny stories at the office :)

[PutiTai]

Anyone want to share some funny stories?



An old lady came in the other day. I knew from the moment that she came in that she was a toughy. She stomped her cane with every step, and her looks were far worse than fierce. BOOYYY was I scared! When she was handed some papers to fill out, she yelled "I can't fill this out! I can't SEE!!". She refused to the sign the HIPPA form, she refused to get her eye pressure checked with the tonometer, and she b*tched and yelled about everything. She came back out yelling that she the doctor hasn't changed her prescription. She yelled that the doctor was lying to her about her having cataracts and was ripping her off.

What would you do as the doctor?



It's funny how some people are just so grumpy. Or maybe they're just attention deprived.

Though, I must say that it'll be pretty sad if she left her cataracts untreated.

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[EyeBaller]

If you can, take pictures of her lenses and show her. I try to use props/aids to help explain, some companies make eye models with different cataracts etc. Also, you can demonstrate that changing spectacle lenses doesn't help (using +/- over her own glasses).

 

[gochi]

Anyone want to share some funny stories?



An old lady came in the other day. I knew from the moment that she came in that she was a toughy. She stomped her cane with every step, and her looks were far worse than fierce. BOOYYY was I scared! When she was handed some papers to fill out, she yelled "I can't fill this out! I can't SEE!!". She refused to the sign the HIPPA form, she refused to get her eye pressure checked with the tonometer, and she b*tched and yelled about everything. She came back out yelling that she the doctor hasn't changed her prescription. She yelled that the doctor was lying to her about her having cataracts and was ripping her off.

What would you do as the doctor?



It's funny how some people are just so grumpy. Or maybe they're just attention deprived.

Though, I must say that it'll be pretty sad if she left her cataracts untreated.

I agree about the part when she said the doctor was ripping her off.

 

[eyestrain]

Though, I must say that it'll be pretty sad if she left her cataracts untreated.

Meh, if they're going to be jerks about, I wouldn't feel too bad about leaving her cataracts untreated. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

Speaking of elderly patients, I had an older lady (78ish) on Saturday morning who has an incredible distrust for doctors. It was annoying. She almost immediately went into her rant about this, that, and the other doctor who put her on all kinds of meds that she "didn't need." Of course, she then goes on to rave about her latest quack chiropractor who's treating her "meridians" and stomach nerves, because her stomach nerves are causing her vision problems. She also said he stuck his fingers in her mouth to fix her vision and she "thought it helped a little". The powers of suggestion...

Anyway, her vision problems were fairly vague, but included "blurred vision" and diplopia x several months. She finally came to me after months at the chiropractor (apparently he wasn't helping after all). I ran a field and guess what, a dense right homonymous inferior quadtrantopia. Something tells me this isn't a stomach nerve or liver fire problem. MRI is tomorrow afternoon.

I guess that isn't a funny story, I just had to vent.

 

[PutiTai]

I guess that isn't a funny story, I just had to vent.

don't we all?

 

[JMU07]

This woman came in with her son (he was 5 or 6, she said he was in kindergarten) and he evidently failed the vision test at school and sent home a note saying he should get checked for glasses. So she comes in and basically screams in my face that her son needs glasses.
"Do you have an appointment?" No.
"Do you have a prescription with you?" No.
"Do you want to make an appointment?" Well what do you do at the appointment?
"Well the first thing that happens is he gets pre-tested --" SPEAK ENGLISH LADY, I DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!!!!!!!
"Okay. Well they'll use what's called an autorefractor --" She interrupted me 3 times telling me to speak English. I told her to be quiet so I could explain. So after I FINALLY get through the pretesting... she says, Well, I don't think that puff of air thingy sounds very nice.
"Uh, okay, well anyway, the doctor will do his eye exam and if he needs glasses, he'll write you out a prescription and we'll help you find a pair! He might also want to dilate --" (I'm told to speak English again) So I explain the dilation. When I'm done, I'm hit with this (keep in mind there are three co-workers listening to this nonsense):

"MY SON CAN'T SEE. THEY TOLD ME HE NEEDS GLASSES. I DON'T WANT HIM TO GET SOME PUFF IN HIS EYE. I DON'T WANT HIM TO GET ANY SORT OF WEIRD DROP THINGS. I DON'T WANT HIM TO GET AN EYE EXAM. I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHAT KIND OF GLASSES TO GET!!!!!!!!!!!!"

This all happened in the optical. After she was done screaming at me, she walked over to the receptionist in the doctor's office and started telling her story again. The woman started bawling and saying how unfair life was because she had to PAY for an EYE EXAM. That poor kid.

This is my all-time favorite story ever:

So one of my co-workers is calling and confirming all of the appointments for the next day. She calls this woman's work number and asks for (let's say) Jane. "May I speak to Jane?" So Jane gets on the phone. "Hi, I'm calling to confirm your 8:00 appointment with us tomorrow!" Jane says, "Um. My appointment is at 6:00." (We aren't open that late.) So my co-worker says "Well, we don't have appointments at 6. Maybe you wrote the wrong time down?" Jane then tells her she KNOWS her appointment is at 6 and that's when she'll see us. And hangs up.

So we call her back, ask for Jane, get her back on the phone. "Ma'am, we really have you down for tomorrow morning at 8:00. I'm sorry but we aren't even open at 6."

Jane says: "LOOK LADY, I AM NOT HAVING TWO COLONOSCOPIES!!"
My co-worker, stunned, says "Uh, is this Jane XXX?"

Of course, it wasn't. Yeah, if I'd called a workplace I would have used the last name in the first place but she's, um, still learning. After she got off the phone and told us the story, we laughed the rest of the day.

 

[aphistis]

After she was done screaming at me, she walked over to the receptionist in the doctor's office and started telling her story again. The woman started bawling and saying how unfair life was because she had to PAY for an EYE EXAM. That poor kid.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess while was screaming at you about having to pay for her child's well-being, you noticed her crappy highlights, manicured nails, $12,000 cell phone w/Bluetooth earpiece, and cigarette packs in her purse. Am I close, or did I forget something?

 

[JMU07]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess while was screaming at you about having to pay for her child's well-being, you noticed her crappy highlights, manicured nails, $12,000 cell phone w/Bluetooth earpiece, and cigarette packs in her purse. Am I close, or did I forget something?

Hit the nail on the head!! I mean duh, a day at the spa is SO much more important!!!

That office gets an interesting mix of patients. It's right in between the middle of nowhere (read: dairy farms) and the center of the world (where everyone drives luxury SUV's with 50 various children's sports teams written on the back window).

 

[jefguth]

These are the type of patients that you kindly inform of your policy of not rendering services to abusive patients. If they continue to be beligerent then goodbye, have a nice life.