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Hi all! I am mostly a lurker but actually have a story! I don't know if you consider patient visitors customers but I do.
Here's the short background: I have a part time/PRN job as a front desk receptionist/switchboard at a Small Inpatient Rehab hospital, or SIR for short. Think ortho and neuro rehab, not drug and alcohol. We are owned by For-Profit Chain, or FPC. To further confuse matters we are on the edge of the campus of a Large University Medical Center, or LUMC, and the MDs at our facility have privileges at both SIR and LUMC. In fact, part of our name includes the name of LUMC, but we are a separate facility and have been so for close to 20 years. Our employee badges are different. I have worked at SIR for nine years off and on. I also have a full time job at LUMC and have worked there for just short of 15 years).
And here's the story with just a little more background along the way as needed: I was covering someone's shift last Friday night. Our visiting hours end at 8pm and our front doors automatically lock at that time. We front desk folks stay until 9pm on week nights--I don't know why, but that's how it goes. In that hour we have to get up to let in any visitors. There aren't many; the few we get are family members staying overnight and occasional late visitors. When we get the occasional late visitors we have to call up to the unit to make sure it's OK with the nurses.
At 8:30 a male and female pair arrive so I let them in the front door. They are dressed very casually but are wearing badges from LUMC that indicate that they are Resident Physicians (Resident badges are a light color, Physicians with full Faculty appointment have badges that are the same color only darker).
Side note here: If you aren't familiar with the difference between a Resident Physician and a regular old MD/Physician basically the Residency is what you do right after you've graduated from Med School but before you can go into full practice. Maybe someone else can put it more eloquently than I have, but think Scrubs in the first couple of seasons.
I let them know that I will have to call the nurses station because it is a half hour after visiting hours. The female resident (FR) tells me that if it helps they work at LUMC. I tell them that our visiting hours end at 8 regardless of where you work. In hindsight, that was not very polite and I shouldn't have said it.
I'm on hold for a bit while the medical receptionist gets the appropriate clearance from the nurses. She says it's ok and I tell the two to sign in to our guest register and take a visitor pass. This is habit. We ask all our visitors to sign in and take a visitor pass. Some don't. Whatever. Life continues either way. So then this happens
Male Resident (MR): Why do we have to take a visitor pass? We're both physicians at LUMC
Me: We are not owned by LUMC. We are a separate facility owned by FPC. We prefer that you wear them to identify yourself as a visitor.
MR: But we have our physician badges on.
Me: Are you here as the patient's physician? (note: this happens all the time, and the physicians are often very nice about it)
MR: No, just as a friend.
Me: Then we prefer that you wear a visitor tag so the staff knows, but if it's going to cause a problem then you don't have to wear one (not the best way to phrase that. i was tired so my filter was slipping)
This continues back and forth. The guy is clearly itching for a fight, but i'm not going to give it to him and continue to tell him that it's our policy but he doesn't have to wear one. No voices are raised. The female resident is telling him repeatedly to stop to drop the subject and then...
MR: It just seems like you should extend professional courtesy to LUMC physicians
At this point I decided that this would go on all night and it was time to end it.
Me: Would you like me to page our nursing supervisor?
MR: No, I don't want to wait.
Me: Then Monday you can call our Administrator and talk to her about your concerns about our visitor policy.
He said that he would. Thirty minutes later when I'm preparing to leave they return and he asks who he should ask for when he calls. I took a card from our desk and wrote down our Administrator's name for him. I then shoot off a quick email to my supervisor, the head of HR and let her know. She works closely with our Administrator and they both think i'm pretty great for how I've handled tough situations in the past.
It burns me because we've had Chairs, Directors, Administrators, and other VIPs from LUMC and not one of them has complained about having to wear a visitor pass and not one has given me a tiny bit of attitude.
I'm covering for someone else tonight so we'll see if he calls and what my Admin has to say about it when I see her.
Here's the short background: I have a part time/PRN job as a front desk receptionist/switchboard at a Small Inpatient Rehab hospital, or SIR for short. Think ortho and neuro rehab, not drug and alcohol. We are owned by For-Profit Chain, or FPC. To further confuse matters we are on the edge of the campus of a Large University Medical Center, or LUMC, and the MDs at our facility have privileges at both SIR and LUMC. In fact, part of our name includes the name of LUMC, but we are a separate facility and have been so for close to 20 years. Our employee badges are different. I have worked at SIR for nine years off and on. I also have a full time job at LUMC and have worked there for just short of 15 years).
And here's the story with just a little more background along the way as needed: I was covering someone's shift last Friday night. Our visiting hours end at 8pm and our front doors automatically lock at that time. We front desk folks stay until 9pm on week nights--I don't know why, but that's how it goes. In that hour we have to get up to let in any visitors. There aren't many; the few we get are family members staying overnight and occasional late visitors. When we get the occasional late visitors we have to call up to the unit to make sure it's OK with the nurses.
At 8:30 a male and female pair arrive so I let them in the front door. They are dressed very casually but are wearing badges from LUMC that indicate that they are Resident Physicians (Resident badges are a light color, Physicians with full Faculty appointment have badges that are the same color only darker).
Side note here: If you aren't familiar with the difference between a Resident Physician and a regular old MD/Physician basically the Residency is what you do right after you've graduated from Med School but before you can go into full practice. Maybe someone else can put it more eloquently than I have, but think Scrubs in the first couple of seasons.
I let them know that I will have to call the nurses station because it is a half hour after visiting hours. The female resident (FR) tells me that if it helps they work at LUMC. I tell them that our visiting hours end at 8 regardless of where you work. In hindsight, that was not very polite and I shouldn't have said it.
I'm on hold for a bit while the medical receptionist gets the appropriate clearance from the nurses. She says it's ok and I tell the two to sign in to our guest register and take a visitor pass. This is habit. We ask all our visitors to sign in and take a visitor pass. Some don't. Whatever. Life continues either way. So then this happens
Male Resident (MR): Why do we have to take a visitor pass? We're both physicians at LUMC
Me: We are not owned by LUMC. We are a separate facility owned by FPC. We prefer that you wear them to identify yourself as a visitor.
MR: But we have our physician badges on.
Me: Are you here as the patient's physician? (note: this happens all the time, and the physicians are often very nice about it)
MR: No, just as a friend.
Me: Then we prefer that you wear a visitor tag so the staff knows, but if it's going to cause a problem then you don't have to wear one (not the best way to phrase that. i was tired so my filter was slipping)
This continues back and forth. The guy is clearly itching for a fight, but i'm not going to give it to him and continue to tell him that it's our policy but he doesn't have to wear one. No voices are raised. The female resident is telling him repeatedly to stop to drop the subject and then...
MR: It just seems like you should extend professional courtesy to LUMC physicians
At this point I decided that this would go on all night and it was time to end it.
Me: Would you like me to page our nursing supervisor?
MR: No, I don't want to wait.
Me: Then Monday you can call our Administrator and talk to her about your concerns about our visitor policy.
He said that he would. Thirty minutes later when I'm preparing to leave they return and he asks who he should ask for when he calls. I took a card from our desk and wrote down our Administrator's name for him. I then shoot off a quick email to my supervisor, the head of HR and let her know. She works closely with our Administrator and they both think i'm pretty great for how I've handled tough situations in the past.
It burns me because we've had Chairs, Directors, Administrators, and other VIPs from LUMC and not one of them has complained about having to wear a visitor pass and not one has given me a tiny bit of attitude.
I'm covering for someone else tonight so we'll see if he calls and what my Admin has to say about it when I see her.
to 
! This is exactly the place for this story. A lot of our members vent about bad providers, but Sickbay was also created for the members who work in health care to tell their SC stories. And we do consider sucky patients or visitors to be SCs!
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