Miserable Gatekeepers

Oh my blog, how I have missed you! I am sorry for having neglected you. Unfortunately, it was not to be avoided with extreme craziness at the office. Things are returning to normal, thank goodness. On to the topic of the day....

A friend of mine calls some people like me who run practices "miserable gatekeepers". I think it's really funny and oddly true. Now, in fairness, before anyone has their panties in a bunch, he is in a completely different line of work and depends on the ability to speak to physicians to make his sales. The miserable gatekeepers that he deals with keep him from doing his business. That's a bummer.

Sometimes I have to be the miserable gatekeeper. I think it may actually be in my job description. People will call and demand to speak with the Doctor to complain about this or that. Sorry, in most instances, not happening. Why? Because they take care of patients and I take care of the other stuff. They don't know about scheduling, they don't know about your payment arrangement and they surely don't know about your insurance. That's why they have me. If they spent their day involved with all the extraneous stuff there would be no time left to take care of our patients. They stick to what they do best. If you call about patient treatment, you will get through to them without a doubt. Otherwise, it's all me and the rest of our staff.



I do have a word for salespeople though. You do often manage to come at inopportune times. In most medical/dental offices the schedule is tight. There is never any leeway. In a practice like ours, they can't drop everything to see you. We have a clinical manager, you can see her. It's also very difficult to make an appointment with our Doctors. They see patients for 95% of the day, they use the rest for Treatment Planning and Diagnosis, including lunch. They rarely take a break. That's just the way it is. I don't see it changing anytime soon. Luckily, the majority of the reps we see are very nice and understanding, not the least bit pushy. We like them.

I don't want to be a miserable gatekeeper. Sometimes, I just can't avoid it. I have to discern what is urgent and what isn't. I have to keep you from our Doctors because it will screw up the whole day if they are tied up on the phone or in person. Then it becomes unfair to everyone else who is showing up on time for their appointments. Case in point--one time a mother (who was a physician's wife!) was mad because her son was 40 minutes late for his appointment and we had to reschedule because he was too late. At his next appointment, she marched in and had words with the Doctor about how awful I was for about 15 minutes. That stunt put our whole office behind schedule. Was that fair to the patients who were waiting to be seen? No, it wasn't. Too bad I wasn't able to keep her out.

Bottom line, I have to keep a large office running smoothly and on time. There isn't time built into the schedule for office hours. We field the questions that we are able to field and speak with the Doctors about the rest. If they don't call you back personally, I certainly will with the necessary information. They just can't be as accessible as some people would like.

I guess I have to be comfortable with my role as a miserable gatekeeper. That's just part of the job. Now, if I just knew where to get an evil minion.....