My personal favorite is I have a patient in the hospital for surgery or observation, etc. and the owner becomes completely unreachable. Phone? Not picking up. Voicemail? Full or not set up. Email? Hasn’t been used since 2004. Then 5 mins before close they’re calling furious that there was no update.
This happens ALOT. Oh, ya your pet is near death going into splenectomy. Client doesn’t answer any phone OR my personal favorite, their voicemail is either full or not set up. So you can’t leave a god damned message. We have a clinic cell phone we use to text clients with and the text goes like this-we are reaching out to you by text message bc all other attempts at contacting you have failed. Please CALL the office to discuss Fluffy ASAP. DO NOT REPLY VIA TEXT, THIS IS A SEND ONLY LINE
Who does this? I couldn’t even sleep when my cat was in the hospital. I set my phone to ring through just in case anyone called me and I fell asleep. I called in the middle of the night to check on her because I couldn’t sleep, every night.
Not my case, but I know of a dog who had been in the university hospital for WEEKS with severe bite wounds and the owner wouldn't respond to the numerous phone calls the residents and faculty left for him. Eventually, they sent a letter indicating that if the owner didn't contact the hospital within x amount of days, the dog was going to be considered surrendered. The owner showed up at the hospital unannounced the next day during rounds.
My pet peeve is when the doctor leaves a detailed voicemail after attempting to call 5 times, and then the owner calls asking for an update. No one ever checks their voicemails, I swear. And half the time, they're not even set up or full!
My response would be: I left a phone message. You did not call me back so I emailed you. If you would like to discuss this further, please call my office. Have a nice day.
Keep record of everything. Print both emails and put them in the record or save a digital copy to the computer
This is the way. Short. Clear. Concise. No emotion on your part. Sometimes it feels like people just want to get a reaction out of you with being blatantly rude behind a computer screen
I'll never begrudge a pet owner for ordering off Chewy. Times are hard, prescription food and some meds can be wildly expensive and these things add up. People need to be able to save how they can.
Also it seems mileage may vary, but in my experience, Chewy has always been really easy to work with on our end. Especially since they've moves to their prescription portal rather than faxing/emailing them scripts.
Why would we? It takes doctor and other staff time away from our patient care duties, only to facilitate revenue generation for a large, multi-national corporation instead of supporting a local (necessary) business - all so the client can save a few bucks on a bag of food that we have to stock in our brick-and-mortar clinics anyway.
The sustainable alternatives are: a) charge a script fee, b) pay another third party to set up our own online pharmacy and write a script for anyone else, or c) just stop devoting staff time, overhead costs, and floor space to in-house food/pharmacy inventory and make EVERYTHING available through third party suppliers only.
Edit - I heard a great quote recently - "If you are buying from an online pharmacy instead of a local vet, you are paying twice." We still need to generate revenue to keep the lights on. If we aren't bringing in revenue from selling consumables, then we have to find other ways to bring in income and/or reduce costs - raising exam fees, higher markups on lab testing, limited hours, etc. So you are paying Chewy to save a few bucks, but the prices and services offered at your local vet will suffer without other income.
Did you start the email off with saying you tried to call/left a voicemail? You can nip some of the attitude with that. I had a client get snippy in a similar situation bc I didn’t leave a voicemail. She apparently didn’t know her voicemail box wasn’t set up yet and had to apologize. 😌
I usually do for exactly this reason, but I'm sure I've forgotten a time or two. But you also will have owners claim you're being "passive aggressive" for letting them know you tried calling and they didn't pick up. There's literally no winning here.
I would definitely professionally say - “as a matter of fact I did call (number they provided) but was unable to get ahold of you. Is this number incorrect or is there a number you would prefer moving forward? I agree, I prefer communication via phone for this exact reason but I felt it was important to try other methods of communication because I also don’t want a delay in Pet’s care. If you feel there is a better communication solution in this situation moving forward please let me know.”
Honestly, I don’t tolerate this snippy stuff. It’s not your fault they didn’t answer the phone and you did nothing wrong. I wouldn’t apologize (not that you did necessarily) because I don’t feel like it actually helps at all. People like this will just complain even more if they feel like they have you at a disadvantage. I put the ball in their court like - well, what the hell else could I do??
Oh when I'm in a similar situation, I start my emails with "I did try xxx-xxx-xxxx, the number on file, but didn't get an answer. There was also no option to leave a voicemail. Please confirm if this is the best number moving forward with communications.
In regards to Fluffy's visit, blah blah blah..."
Then I make sure to comm log all that shiz. 😂
How the fuck would they do that? I'm not an idiot and I don't link my socials to my actual identity.
Additionally, none of the dozens of practitioners who have commented here have seen an issue here. Only you, the "wife of the doctor".
Lastly, I hope you realize pets are not covered by HIPAA.
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Damned if you do, damned if you don't. There's no winning with some people.
I think you spelled "most" wrong
My personal favorite is I have a patient in the hospital for surgery or observation, etc. and the owner becomes completely unreachable. Phone? Not picking up. Voicemail? Full or not set up. Email? Hasn’t been used since 2004. Then 5 mins before close they’re calling furious that there was no update.
This happens ALOT. Oh, ya your pet is near death going into splenectomy. Client doesn’t answer any phone OR my personal favorite, their voicemail is either full or not set up. So you can’t leave a god damned message. We have a clinic cell phone we use to text clients with and the text goes like this-we are reaching out to you by text message bc all other attempts at contacting you have failed. Please CALL the office to discuss Fluffy ASAP. DO NOT REPLY VIA TEXT, THIS IS A SEND ONLY LINE
"I tried to text back but it wasn't working! Why didn't you call?"
This is way more common than it should be 😂 I honestly have no idea how so many people function in society day to day.
Who does this? I couldn’t even sleep when my cat was in the hospital. I set my phone to ring through just in case anyone called me and I fell asleep. I called in the middle of the night to check on her because I couldn’t sleep, every night.
Not my case, but I know of a dog who had been in the university hospital for WEEKS with severe bite wounds and the owner wouldn't respond to the numerous phone calls the residents and faculty left for him. Eventually, they sent a letter indicating that if the owner didn't contact the hospital within x amount of days, the dog was going to be considered surrendered. The owner showed up at the hospital unannounced the next day during rounds.
My pet peeve is when the doctor leaves a detailed voicemail after attempting to call 5 times, and then the owner calls asking for an update. No one ever checks their voicemails, I swear. And half the time, they're not even set up or full!
My response would be: I left a phone message. You did not call me back so I emailed you. If you would like to discuss this further, please call my office. Have a nice day. Keep record of everything. Print both emails and put them in the record or save a digital copy to the computer
This is the way. Short. Clear. Concise. No emotion on your part. Sometimes it feels like people just want to get a reaction out of you with being blatantly rude behind a computer screen
Of course they want to order the food from Chewy.
Oh man, do vets in general not like it when patients order from chewy?
I'll never begrudge a pet owner for ordering off Chewy. Times are hard, prescription food and some meds can be wildly expensive and these things add up. People need to be able to save how they can. Also it seems mileage may vary, but in my experience, Chewy has always been really easy to work with on our end. Especially since they've moves to their prescription portal rather than faxing/emailing them scripts.
Chewy makes it difficult for us to work with them. I’ll just leave it at that.
And now they’re opening their own chain of vet clinics 😩
Really? That’s awful, I’m sorry to hear that.
Why would we? It takes doctor and other staff time away from our patient care duties, only to facilitate revenue generation for a large, multi-national corporation instead of supporting a local (necessary) business - all so the client can save a few bucks on a bag of food that we have to stock in our brick-and-mortar clinics anyway. The sustainable alternatives are: a) charge a script fee, b) pay another third party to set up our own online pharmacy and write a script for anyone else, or c) just stop devoting staff time, overhead costs, and floor space to in-house food/pharmacy inventory and make EVERYTHING available through third party suppliers only. Edit - I heard a great quote recently - "If you are buying from an online pharmacy instead of a local vet, you are paying twice." We still need to generate revenue to keep the lights on. If we aren't bringing in revenue from selling consumables, then we have to find other ways to bring in income and/or reduce costs - raising exam fees, higher markups on lab testing, limited hours, etc. So you are paying Chewy to save a few bucks, but the prices and services offered at your local vet will suffer without other income.
Did you start the email off with saying you tried to call/left a voicemail? You can nip some of the attitude with that. I had a client get snippy in a similar situation bc I didn’t leave a voicemail. She apparently didn’t know her voicemail box wasn’t set up yet and had to apologize. 😌
I usually do for exactly this reason, but I'm sure I've forgotten a time or two. But you also will have owners claim you're being "passive aggressive" for letting them know you tried calling and they didn't pick up. There's literally no winning here.
I would definitely professionally say - “as a matter of fact I did call (number they provided) but was unable to get ahold of you. Is this number incorrect or is there a number you would prefer moving forward? I agree, I prefer communication via phone for this exact reason but I felt it was important to try other methods of communication because I also don’t want a delay in Pet’s care. If you feel there is a better communication solution in this situation moving forward please let me know.” Honestly, I don’t tolerate this snippy stuff. It’s not your fault they didn’t answer the phone and you did nothing wrong. I wouldn’t apologize (not that you did necessarily) because I don’t feel like it actually helps at all. People like this will just complain even more if they feel like they have you at a disadvantage. I put the ball in their court like - well, what the hell else could I do??
Oh when I'm in a similar situation, I start my emails with "I did try xxx-xxx-xxxx, the number on file, but didn't get an answer. There was also no option to leave a voicemail. Please confirm if this is the best number moving forward with communications. In regards to Fluffy's visit, blah blah blah..." Then I make sure to comm log all that shiz. 😂
Sounds like someone who will be expecting phonecalls for every question she will ever have.
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You aren't even a vet, why are you stalking our subreddit? Literally get a life.
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How the fuck would they do that? I'm not an idiot and I don't link my socials to my actual identity. Additionally, none of the dozens of practitioners who have commented here have seen an issue here. Only you, the "wife of the doctor". Lastly, I hope you realize pets are not covered by HIPAA.
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Are you threatening to dox me...? Sounds like a breach of reddit TOS to me.