Before I get into the reason behind this post I should mention that I hate being late. Subsequently I do whatever I can not to be late. I prepare, look directions up ahead of time, etc. So whenever people are late it irritates me. It's a sign of immaturity, not caring, and being self centered. Now I understand circumstances happen, but overall being late isn't something I tolerate well.
I had two new patients show up 20 minutes late to their appointment yesterday and we asked both to reschedule. One did reschedule, the other stormed out of the office mad. I realize you may be thinking that 20 minutes isn't too late and asking what's the big deal? I can tell you.
In medicine, especially primary care, we are increasingly asked to accomplish more in smaller time frames. With that being said, it is imperative for people to arrive to their appointments on time for everything to work well. My new patient appointments are 40 minutes long. It takes approximately 10 minutes to go through the EPIC (our office's electronic medical system) check-in process for the first time. Because of this we ask all new patients to arrive 10-15 minutes prior to their appointment. I'd say one out of twenty new patients actually do this. The overwhelming majority arrive right when their appointment is supposed to start. We don't say anything in this circumstance and just accept that the appointment is going to start late. But when you arrive 20 minutes past when your appointment is supposed to start (making them technically 30-35 minutes beyond when they were asked to arrive), add10 minutes to get through the EPIC check-in process, and another 3-5 minutes to get vitals and visit info, that gives me 5 minutes to get through an annual physical. Not to mention that a lot of visits come with a "oh by the way" moment which tacks an additional 5 or more minutes onto the visit. (I had a great example of this yesterday. Guy comes in for a follow-up visit. At the end of the appointment he decides to inform me that he has been having periodic chest pain that last several minutes.)
Showing up 20 minutes late to an appointment affects all parties involved negatively. It's unfair to the patient for someone to have to rush through their preventative care in 5 minutes (not to mention impossible). It's unfair to me to be forced to rush through the rest of the day just because someone decided not to show up on time. It's unfair to my office staff who undoubtedly will have to stay late as the rest of the day we will be behind schedule. It's unfair to the rest of the patients who actually show up on time to have to wait 40 minutes because now I'm behind.
If something happens and you're going to be late all you have to do is call and reschedule. It's as simple as that and this simple action will benefit everyone. One thing I've learned in my job is that the average person is irresponsible and self-centered. I can tell you one thing: I'm not going to drop what I'm doing and ruin the whole day just because someone decides to randomly show up. If that makes me the bad guy then so be it.
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Monday, February 9, 2015
Internet 101
If you were teaching an introductory course to the internet, say for senior citizens, and you were discussing internet safety, probably one of the first things you'd mention is to never click on emails from unknown people or on suspicious ads that look like games. I'm embarrassed to say that I broke that rule today. Fortunately it wasn't on my home computer but instead on my work computer.
We get minimal spam through our work email and I work for a large company and frequently get emails from people who are unknown to me. So today when I sat down at my computer and saw an email from an unknown person labeled "accounts summary" I didn't really think much of it when I downloaded the file and opened it. That changed when I immediately received three more emails labeled "accounts summary" but from different people. By that point it was too late and the damage was done. I wasn't the only person in my office to open this email and I'd say likely 100s of people across the network did the same. We called IT and were instructed to unplug the computer for them to pick up tomorrow, presumably before it explodes.
A friend once told me you could easily tell someone's knowledge of basic computer skills by noticing if they inappropriately single or double click items. It could probably be argued the same skill set could be noticed by people who inappropriately download email attachments from unknown people. Quite silly, really.
We get minimal spam through our work email and I work for a large company and frequently get emails from people who are unknown to me. So today when I sat down at my computer and saw an email from an unknown person labeled "accounts summary" I didn't really think much of it when I downloaded the file and opened it. That changed when I immediately received three more emails labeled "accounts summary" but from different people. By that point it was too late and the damage was done. I wasn't the only person in my office to open this email and I'd say likely 100s of people across the network did the same. We called IT and were instructed to unplug the computer for them to pick up tomorrow, presumably before it explodes.
A friend once told me you could easily tell someone's knowledge of basic computer skills by noticing if they inappropriately single or double click items. It could probably be argued the same skill set could be noticed by people who inappropriately download email attachments from unknown people. Quite silly, really.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Weather Fearmongering
Somewhat embarrassingly, I admit that I watch 48 Hours on CBS on a fairly regular basis. I say that it is embarrassing because it is on TV on Saturday nights. You might think that I would have something better to do or more interesting to do but the overwhelming majority of the time I don't. My kids are asleep but they're still home and need supervision so we're tied to the house and quite honestly there typically isn't much to do on a Saturday evening, especially if there isn't any good sporting events on TV. This past Saturday we were watching TV and when the time came I switched to CBS.
What I found when I switched to the local affiliate on the TV was not one, but two banners advertising a winter storm that was coming to the region. The first banner was at the top of the screen and was scrolling through various counties that were predicted to be affected by the storm. The second banner was at the bottom of the screen and was displaying various information regarding the upcoming snow storm in font size large enough to be read across the yard.
A winter storm warning has been issued by the...
to give you an example of the size. As if this wasn't enough, there was a map displayed in the lower left corner of the screen with the various counties that make up central Indiana. Each county was shaded a certain color, I guess in an attempt to show us how bad this storm was going to get depending on where you live. Adding insult is the fact that they started displaying these graphics in some form on Friday evening, a full 24 hours before the storm even started. All of this for a storm that produced so much snow I could still see blades of grass in my yard poking through and I don't think any schools in our area were closed or delayed. TV stations do this kind of stuff all of the time and it is ridiculously absurd. I can maybe understand one banner at the bottom of the screen, but three? That's way overboard, especially for a snow storm that produced mostly rain.
What I found when I switched to the local affiliate on the TV was not one, but two banners advertising a winter storm that was coming to the region. The first banner was at the top of the screen and was scrolling through various counties that were predicted to be affected by the storm. The second banner was at the bottom of the screen and was displaying various information regarding the upcoming snow storm in font size large enough to be read across the yard.
A winter storm warning has been issued by the...
to give you an example of the size. As if this wasn't enough, there was a map displayed in the lower left corner of the screen with the various counties that make up central Indiana. Each county was shaded a certain color, I guess in an attempt to show us how bad this storm was going to get depending on where you live. Adding insult is the fact that they started displaying these graphics in some form on Friday evening, a full 24 hours before the storm even started. All of this for a storm that produced so much snow I could still see blades of grass in my yard poking through and I don't think any schools in our area were closed or delayed. TV stations do this kind of stuff all of the time and it is ridiculously absurd. I can maybe understand one banner at the bottom of the screen, but three? That's way overboard, especially for a snow storm that produced mostly rain.
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