How long do u wait b4 dr calls back?

[Shiela]

I called in some questions to my doctor (actually his medical assistant) and have called back 3 times since to get some answers. I called on October 2 and here it is Oct 13 and I'm still waiting. What is a reasonable amount of time to wait?

[BeneathTheLies]

Personally I don't wait more that 3 days for an answer. I'm not really sure of any advice I could give you. I tend to keep calling and bugging the crap out of them until I get an answer. I'm sure others will have better advice. I hope they get back to you soon though.

[Shallwearpurple]

I would be furious. If you call in the morning they should return your call that day unless the doctor is out of town. At the latest, it should be the next evening when the doctor or nurse returns your call. If the doctor is out of town longer than that, he should have a partner taking his calls or at least have the nurse let you know when to expect a call.

This is not just my ideas, but how all three of my doctors respond, the Gp, the neurologist and the MS specialist who is also a neurologist. My dentist and eye doctor do the same.

[Redwings]

Hi Shiela:
What's reasonable for a response time depends on the nature of the questions.

Urgent questions should be replied to urgently. (It doesn't sound like your questions were urgent.)

Questions directly related to your immediate care (e.g., medication) should be answered in a timely manner. To me that means within 24 to 48 hours. More general questions regarding your care (e.g., test results that don't require immediate action) can take a little longer to be answered. To me that means within 48 to 72 hours. Anything beyond 3 days isn't reasonable. Other people will have other ideas of what's reasonable for these kinds of questions.

For questions that aren't directly related to your care, what's reasonable is more subjective. By not returning your calls, your doctor or his assistant might be indirectly telling you that your questions don't have enough medical significance to merit the doctor's professional time to reply to. Doctors are paid to provide care to patients, but they aren't paid to answer every question they have (e.g, "Why does my right big toe have a tingly feeling but my left big toe feels more of a tapping sensation?"). That's why I said that what's reasonable depends on the nature of the questions. But that being said, I think that common courtesy alone would motivate the doctor to have someone return all patient calls within a day or two.

[jazzgirl]

Your doctor's office doesn't sound very well run at all! There is NO WAY you should have to wait for 11 days for a call-back, and then STILL not get one! UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!

I'd haul butt from that group ASAP, and find someone else to handle the MS. They obviously don't have your best interests at heart.

[hope32]

I agree with Redwings. That's too long.

[Shiela]

Thanks all for your responses. My call, Redwings, was in regard to a current relapse which I was wondering if I needed a course of prednisone for (my opthalmologist just told me I have a touch of retrobulbar neuritis and have many other blazing symptoms, all of which I explained to the medical assistant) and also whether I should schedule a flu shot at this time, since my doctor just told me he wants me to start on DMD immediately. All of your responses were very helpful.

[DianeD]

Depends on doc's policy

Most of my docs have policys with regard to call backs. Some say if you ask a question (usually left on nurse's voicemail) after 3:00 p.m. you will not hear back until the next day. Usually a response will come prior to office hours, but at times mine haven't gotten back till after office hours.

I see the docs are having shorter and shorter work weeks and most just work 9 till 5.

My neuro is in the office 4 and 1/2 days a week. My family doc is in only M-F. No weekends even though he is part of a group of five docs. I suppose this could be due to the expense factor.

My expectation is that we will see this more and more and I wonder if they will even do call backs in the future.

Sad and a far cry from my old gray haired docs of the 60's and 70's, some who even worked from their homes.

I even remember when I'd call the office and the doctor would respond right away to questions.

Today, there are fewer docs; lots of specialists with fewer hours to spend at the office.

The cost of seeing a doctor is greater and many are going to bypass Medicare; they are already being very choosy about plans they will accept.

I don't know where this is going, but it isn't looking good.

Diane

[Redwings]

Hi Sheila:
For your neuro or his assistant to have not called you back about a flare within 24 hours is inexcusable. Although not an emergency, a same-day response would have been even better.

But your situation brings up even more questions. Your ophthalmologist should have told you that low-dose oral prednisone is contraindicated for for optic neuritis. The ophthalmologist is more qualified than a neurologist to evaluate and manage ON. And that raises the question of why the ophthalmologist didn't handle the ON issue him/herself. For ON, the protocol for steroid treatment is high dose or nothing. The ophthalmologist should have come to a treatment conclusion with you while you were in the office. So it's odd that the ophthalmologist ever left enough doubt with you that the question of prednisone for ON ever got to your neurologist at all.

Regardless, you should have gotten a return call about a relapse the same or next day. (It would be nice if the neuro knew not to treat your ON with prednisone, but his nonresponsiveness to your call casts doubt on that.) The flu shot question, if asked alone, would have warranted a call within 2 or 3 days at the most.

I'm with jazzgirl on this one. Time to cut loose from that neuro ASAP!

[Maple25]

Same here

I am in a similar situation. I am having terrible allergies (hives) and my dermatologist asked me to contact my neuro to see if Copaxone could be a cause of it. I sent him an email over ten days ago, and I haven't got a reply.(Emailed because we are outside of the US for now). I suspended my therapy based on the sole recommendation of the dermatologist. He said that it was imperative that I got some insight on this...
Still itching like crazy, taking steroids and NO feedback from neuro.

[Shiela]

Thanks to all of you. That was very helpful information Redwings. Thank you so much.

[dpmich]

I think I'd have lost my temper and made a personal visit. I am not known to tolerate being treated like crap by anyone. That being said, I have never waited more than a couple hours for a response. Either the Dr calls me directly or her receptionist does. I have even had the Dr answer the phone (now THAT freaked me out!). She called me 3 times during the relapse/flare/exacerbation I just went through. On talking with other patients there, they never wait either. I know I been very lucky with the Dr I have. She and the staff are awesome to work with!

Debbie

[empirerecs]

I've posted on similar questions - that behavior is inexcusable. My neuro had a "gate keeper" and she either didn't give him messages or gave him incorrect messages. I began faxing my questions and would get a same day call from him. My friend with a horrible case of MS has the same doc, the "gate keeper" ignores her and she's not as pushy as I am. She lost sight in one of her eyes and didn't hear back from in for several days - I believe she ended up at the eye doc and he called the neuro. Should not have to happen that way.

I threatened the assistant of my orthopedic surgeon that I would go to another office and explain that I that my current ortho refused to call me back for 3 days, his assistant, not a nurse, offered me narcotics for the excrutiating pain and that I didn't think her boss, the doc, would like that very much. I had been calling several times a day for those 3 days. After I said that to her, he called me from the golf course and saw me the next day. I had already scheduled an appointment with another ortho for the morning.

Go to the office and sit there until someone sees you. Make some noise, cry and then find a new doctor.

I've worked for doctors - oncologists and orthopedics, they have told me never to tolerate behavior like that. I never saw them treat patients like that either - they or their PAs called back same day or next.

I get pretty upset when I hear stuff like this because treating a patient like that, someone who is scared and has no idea what is happening to their bodies, is just not right, to say the least. I think your situation warranted a call back. And if your eye doc felt it necessary and didn't feel he should have treated the situation, for whatever reason, he should have called the neuro for you.

[Shiela]

I've even waited 3 weeks for a referral. I've been thinking of writing a letter to the Medical Assistant and just letting her know of my expectations and/or copying the letter to the Office Manager, just to let them know of my disappointment and what I expect in the future and also letting my doctor know what is happening. Maybe he doesn't know this is going on. At any rate, you have all encouraged me to take some positive action. If I don't get any positive action from this to start looking for another doctor. I really appreciate all your posts.

[Mamabug]

Doctors' offices vary a lot in their response time. And, it's usually probably not the doctor's fault when response times are slow; it is usually the nurse who is in control of that.

- My PCP's nurse generally returns calls the same day, but often (unless it's more time-sensitive), it is not until the end of the day -- even possibly after 6pm, when the clinic is already closed.
My clinic does have a way, at the switchboard prior to getting through to the nurse's voice mail, to let them know that the call is urgent. I've not needed to utilize that option with my PCP's office, but I suspect that the receptionist would personally get a message to the nurse and she'd be more likely to return a call more quickly.
- My former neurologist was awesome. He returned every call I made personally. And, usually, within the hour!
- The nurse at my current MS Specialist's office is terrible at returning phone calls. One time, when I'd called 3x in one week and left messages with no return call, I went online to the KU Med Center site and found an email address for my neurologist and directly emailed her. Well ..., I got an email back from her nurse THAT DAY, requesting me to not email the physician directly. However, the nurse also used her email to answer my question, and, ... now I had her email address.
I email her every time that I need something now, and she always responds, usually within a few hours.

I didn't read all of the responses to your question, but, you may wish to ask the nurse the next time that you talk to her what the best way to contact her is, if you are wishing for a response the same day. Specifically ask her if an email is an option that she'd prefer, or, if there is a different phone number that you should try (which there likely isn't, but, then she'll know that you are serious about trying to find an option that works for you).

~ Faith