Dr has been giving out my phone number for over a year now since Covid shut stuff down.
Everyday I get folks, names, DOBs, SS, all sorts of tidbits.
Because their Dr. is a moron!

Is it possible they are giving the correct number out, but the end users are putting it in their phones wrong, how close are the phone numbers?

If they are close I wouldn't be surprised if people are switching up a number or so, we get those here from time to time...


Seems like you'd get every single text from everyone, and all phone calls if they were giving the wrong number out.

Since the msg was from someone waiting in the parking lot, maybe the sign on the door has it wrong, or again, dyslexic patients?

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Is it possible they are giving the correct number out, but the end users are putting it in their phones wrong, how close are the phone numbers?

If they are close I wouldn't be surprised if people are switching up a number or so, we get those here from time to time...


Seems like you'd get every single text from everyone, and all phone calls if they were giving the wrong number out.

Since the msg was from someone waiting in the parking lot, maybe the sign on the door has it wrong, or again, dyslexic patients?

If it were a from time to time kind of thing possibly.
But I was getting 20+ a day.
Now I am down to about 5 or fewer a day as they can now just go inside but the option for the call in is still available for folks who choose not to sit in the waiting room.

I have called the Doctors office multiple times telling them of the error and have asked their patients to inform them as well.
This has been going on since March of last year.

Be OK is he was a GYN. You could start a side business.

Do you remember the Papa John's fiasco? They gave out this guys phone number. He called Papa Johns and asked them to change their number. Papa Johns refused. He added this message to his answer machine: "You have reached Papa Dons pizza. We have been closed by order of the Health Dept." I am not suggesting this approach, btw.

Oh at the terrible things I could do with that.

Early 1960s, I had an apartment in Brooklyn, on the edge of Bedford-Stuyvesent (think Harlem, with a Brooklyn accent).

My phone number was one digit off from a gypsy cab company.

Closing time at the bars, especially Friday and Saturday nights, my phoe would ring a lot.

Caller: "Can you send a cab to"

V-Tail (interrupting the caller in mid-sentence, before s/he could give the address of the bar): "He'll be there in twenty minutes," and hang up, leaving the caller to order one more drink at "last call."

Sometimes the original caller would call back, wondering where the cab was.

Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode when Kramer's phone number is one digit off from 777-FILM. Remember Moviefone back in the 90's? Finally Kramer just started helping people find their right movie instead of correcting them. Then he started mimicking the Moviefone guy's voice.

Seinfeld seems to have covered nearly every single life experience. You can reference almost anything with at least one of the Seinfeld episodes.

My old home number is one off the local hair stylist business. We would get at least 6 hang up calls a day. I suspect when they heard my voice instead of the hair stylist they hung up.
At one point I was going to start taking appointments however a friend worked there so I decide not to.

My old music store had a number one digit off from the DMV. When it was slow and we got wrong numbers, we had some serious giggles off of that. "Yeah, it's been taken care. Absolutely. Don't worry about a thing."
There was a rather confused, but very insistent lady who prompted this stuff. She called like, four times and flatly insisted were the DMV, so we just went along with it.

Is it the Dr or his admin staff screwing up here? Usually admin handles all that stuff, right?

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Is it the Dr or his admin staff screwing up here? Usually admin handles all that stuff, right?

Well, considering the Doctor hired the staff and this has been going on for over a year now even after being told multiple times by myself and their patients.
The Dr makes extremely poor admin choices and I would not want to go there.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Is it the Dr or his admin staff screwing up here? Usually admin handles all that stuff, right?

Well, considering the Doctor hired the staff and this has been going on for over a year now even after being told multiple times by myself and their patients.
The Dr makes extremely poor admin choices and I would not want to go there.

More likely is the doctor, nurses, and front office are employed by a corporation and the doctor has very little say in front office happenings.

For example, I had a nurse screw up closing a wound and front office was very up front that it wasn’t the doctors call whether or not I had to pay copay on the follow up to properly close it. It certainly helped that the doctor saw the substandard work and was on my side that the 2nd visit was “continuation of services.” BTW, no copay for follow up visit.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Is it the Dr or his admin staff screwing up here? Usually admin handles all that stuff, right?

Well, considering the Doctor hired the staff and this has been going on for over a year now even after being told multiple times by myself and their patients.
The Dr makes extremely poor admin choices and I would not want to go there.

More likely is the doctor, nurses, and front office are employed by a corporation and the doctor has very little say in front office happenings.

For example, I had a nurse screw up closing a wound and front office was very up front that it wasn’t the doctors call whether or not I had to pay copay on the follow up to properly close it. It certainly helped that the doctor saw the substandard work and was on my side that the 2nd visit was “continuation of services.” BTW, no copay for follow up visit.

And even more reason to find a new Doctor. Not your example specifically but the Dr not having a say in their staff.

Parts department of a car dealership I worked at 1971-72 had a direct line that was close to a carryout rib place.

One Monday night I drew the short straw and was there until closing. Parts manager would let one or two of us leave if it was quiet, this particular night I got stuck there until nine P.M. Eight thirty the direct line rang, I answered "Hello parts", while the guy started rattling off his order. I thought about it and let him continue his order. At the end I asked him if he wanted it delivered, he said "Sure" and gave his address. I replied "Be there at nine fifteen" and hung up.

Probably still waiting for those ribs fifty years later.....

After a seafood restaurant on Pensacola Beach closed, my new phone # was their old #. This was in the days of wall phones and phonebooks. I felt sorry for the people who were calling restaurant employees after it had been closed for 3 months. They were shocked.

1990's, my phone number was the same as an auction gallery. Coincidentally, named Tom's. I get a few calls and tell them they have the wrong number. So, one day I hear, "Tom, I have a few things to be appraised for your auction, can I bring them in?". I replied, "Sure, come on in!". These were done by appointments only, so I'm thinking it irked the gallery with people showing up without appointments. Suddenly, the calls stopped. I'm guessing they finally changed their ad materials.

When I moved to Dallas, my new home number was one that had been previously assigned to a battery store. It took months before all the calls for battery service stopped coming. Fortunately for me, there were not so many that I considered changing my number. (It's a real pain to change a phone number or e-mail address.)

flashguy

I used to go into work early and would leave my desk to respond to the sound from the fax machine when it got a new one in.
For about a year I dealt with calling east coast doctor offices telling the staff that they needed to resend the medical records to the place in Phoenix they had sent the fax and be sure to hit the number correctly. I finished with, this is important to correct since most of the faxes had patients names, addresses, phone numbers and SSN#s. I shredded all that came in.