RE: returning pt calls

[Guest guest]

I would suggest having an a.m. time to

return calls as well, or another plan for those that can’t be available

during your 1 hour returning calls time, or inform them you’ll email them

if they aren’t available then, etc.

A. Eads, M.D.

Pinnacle Family Medicine, PLLC

phone fax

P.O.

Box 7275

Woodland

Park, CO 80863

www.PinnacleFamilyMedicine.com

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of Shirley Pigott

Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2007 8:19

PM

To: YahooFM; IMPcohort2 ; Dale Pigott PhD

Subject:

IHI.org meeting in Nashville;

use of answering machine to screen out unwanted calls - attn: Lynn Ho

Lynn and

others,

Hi, from Nashville!

I'm at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement for

the 8th

Annual International Summit on Redesigning the Clinical Office Practice.

Awesome meeting and awesomely expensive. ;-) I'm very privileged to

be broke here. You can download the meeting brochure if you like:

http://www.ihi.org/NR/rdonlyres/302A338C-A65B-4342-8AA8-B423851AA5CB/0/IHIOfficePracticeSummit2007Brochure12207.pdf

I met Gordon; he's funny and oh, so-o-o,

smart. Gordon said you, Lynn, are the one to talk to about having an

answering machine always answer

the phone. There are two kinds of phone calls I never want to take -

patients asking if I take Medicare or Medicaid; I don't, but we have to

interrupt our patient care a half dozen times a day to tell people

that. I don't want to take calls from anyone except my patients,

other doctors, or prospective patients during the day. I want to tell

callers we will be returning calls from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM only once at our convenience; please be

available for that time.

Is this reasonable? Anyone pulling this off? All thoughts appreciated. I

have a spiffy answering machine my husband ordered from Australia that

records all calls with names, phone numbers, and times of calls, whether or not

they leave a message.

Shirley Pigott MD

24 years solo Family Medicine

Texas