I am cross with myself

[minoanmiss]

I made an honest to god mistake today and I made it because I let someone scare me.

I'm going to call this woman beleaguered rather than cranky because she probably has a great deeal on her shoulders and did not need to be told no when scheduling appointments for her children.

Beleaguered Mom used the Online System to schedule a New Patient Appointment for her daughter. The system wouldn't let her schedule for her son so she called in. She described him as a new patient and was very cross when I said, "let's register him," saying "the system didn't make me put in all this information when I registered my daughter" [1]

I made a mental note, BM is cranky and argumentative. I said, "let me open your daughter's chart. I'll copy the information over and schedule his appointment as close to her as possible." [1]

[1] chart was a mess and I had to fix it.

So we did. I discovered son had a chart. [2] In his record I saw phone calls to a department I didn't recognize, but I figured he was a new Pediatric Primary Care patient and scheduled him. Hung up with BM. Thought a bit. Looked in his chart some more and found he was a pediatric patient a decade ago when he was a baby. Rescheduled appointment from "New" to "Resumption of care" which changed the time from 2 PM to 5 PM.

[2] to my discredit i should have looked harder to see if he had ever been seen by Primary Care *before* I scheduled.

Called BM back to let her know. She was displeased. "I'm not sitting there for two extra hours" she said repeatedly, and "can I talk to your supervisors? Can I talk to someone else?" Shaking, I promised her one of my supervisors would call her.

And the thing is I see her point. It's a stupid insurance rule that determines that I can't just schedule him as a New Pediatric Patient. But, well, I can't. If I have been having anything beaten into me over these weeks of humiliation it's that I cannot bend the rules.

And I forgot, over these weeks of humiliation, that this is actually the one job in the world where they won't hang me out to dry and fire me because an angry patient/parent demands it -- but I have to do everything right. And I didn't.

Sometimes my anxiety descends on me so tightly I cannot breathe.

Comments

[gatheringrivers]

{{{HUGS}}}

[minoanmiss]

hugs you back a whole lot

[julian]

I suppose, in the sense that you made the appointment in the first place, that was an error. Which you then fixed. So. I mean. *Good*.

Also, *hugs*

[minoanmiss]

hugs you so much

It sounds like

[dialecticdreamer]

You did your best with what you knew at the moment. That changed as the interaction went on. The other person's crankiness and willingness to pour that crankiness over you like you designed the system that you're using and can change it as you see fit, well, that was COMPLETELY out of line. It happens too much to people who have to deal with the general public.

Re: It sounds like

[minoanmiss]

Thanks wry smile I just -- I could have helped evveryone better, including her, including myself, and not given my bosses extra work, if I hadn't let myself get rattled. Getting yelled at is a known hazard of my job which I should handle better by now.

[sovay]

Hung up with BM. Thought a bit. Looked in his chart some more and found he was a pediatric patient a decade ago when he was a baby. Rescheduled appointment from "New" to "Resumption of care" which changed the time from 2 PM to 5 PM.

I am sorry it altered the appointment time, but I don't think it would have benefited the patient or his mother to show up and find they had been misclassified in a way that would undoubtedly have interacted weirdly with their insurance because everything does.

*hugs*

[minoanmiss]

Oh absolutely. She would not have blessed my memory if I scheduled an appointment she had to pay for out of pocket. I ddn't think saying so would help, tho.

[readera]

It happens. Everyone is human and makes mistakes. Hopefully your supervisor understands that.

I made a mistake at work today and called someone back several times to try to reach them so I could fix it. They didnt have a voice mail, then misread my email, returned the call while I was about to go on break & it ended up being transferred to another department. I should have just gathered all the info & submitted the form on the first call. Normally we do that & the form goes to that department who follows up with them.

[minoanmiss]

*hugs you* Thank you for telling me this.

[readera]

*hugs back*

You are a human being

[jesse_the_k]

....and can't be perfect all the time. {{hugs}}

Re: You are a human being

[wispfox]

This.

I'm sorry you have complicated things to deal with that sometimes behave in unexpected ways and the people you are trying to help aren't in a great space for the resulting complications.

Re: You are a human being

[minoanmiss]

Thanks. wry, shy smile It's a job, that's why they pay me. I was just angry at myself because I know better and I let myself get rattled.

Re: You are a human being

[wispfox]

"I know better and I let myself get rattled."

Yeah. It's hard to handle upset people, more people are guaranteed to be upset in the current economic and political climate, and you're almost certainly also drained by what's going on. Of course you are making mistakes. You're human, just like the rest of us (and yes, my partner also struggles with this idea because when he's on, he's amazing, but no one can be on all the time).

Re: You are a human being

[minoanmiss]

*hugs you back*

[radiantfracture]

That experience sucks. I'm sorry. And it sucks that you have to deal with a system so labyrinthine and punitive that it guarantees error.

[minoanmiss]

There has got to be some speculative fiction metaphor for the edifice of insurance, which got built by so many different people into this huge undulating blob monster no one can control anymore.

(Also, thank you :)

[gwydion]

I'm so sorry.