To err is human

[osodecanela]

and to truly screw up requires a computer, which apparently includes the iPhone.

I was on call last night. I really despise call on Thursday nights. It's my late evening in the office and I'm never done before 7 p.m. The phone calls however start at 5 PM sharp, most often people calling to find out why their prescriptions haven't been renewed. Without fail it makes my last two hours seeing patients a royal pain in the keister.

Last night a call came in from a woman concerned about her elderly husband; my receptionist took the call and shortly thereafter handed me the information. For the next three hours I called this woman every 20 to 30 minutes, a busy signal every time I called. Finally the operator tried breaking in on the line, only to confirm that the phone was indeed off the hook.

Finally finished with patients at a 7:45, I sat down to do some paperwork in no rush to head home, as I fully expected to get a call from the ER saying I was needed. At 10:30, I decided I had enough. The evening had been blissfully quiet. I reached for my phone to dial the house, but the call wouldn't go through. The screen kept flashing, "dialing number,....." with nothing happening. Then I noticed up in the corner where the AT&T icon is supposed to be, it wasn't. Only a plaintive little message that read, "searching....."

I had lost the connection to the network. That's why it had been so quiet.

I turned off the phone, then turned it back on again at which time the network came back, along with 21 voicemail messages. The ER had been looking for me for three hours. Three bloody hours. Three whole bloody hours, while I sat at my desk a block and a half away. By the time I got the message, the hospitalist for the night (who just happens to be one of my call partners) had just finished admitting the man.

It never dawned on anyone to try my back office line at that hour, and it never dawned on me to check my phone to see that it was working. Through no fault of my own I now have a major olive branch to tend my colleague.

Comments

[beardoc.livejournal.com]

That they never tried another number for you is amazing. Surely they have your home/office numbers as well as your mobile?

I've been in a situation where I've been on the other end of the phone trying to get in contact with my boss who did not respond to phone calls to his home nor his mobile on the weekend. We ended up asking the police to attend - he was up in his olive grove and never heard the phone. At least that was the story, anyway.

[osodecanela.livejournal.com]

Oh they have them alright. When I didn't answer the mobile, the service called my home & my darling husband in turn started calling my mobile, worried where I was. It never dawned on anyone to call the back line at the office.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

People get so wrapped up in their techy toys they stop thinking. I've had to tell people that if they call my cell phone number while I am at home, I absolutely will not answer it - they have my regular landline number, and they can damn well use it. Things have improved, but in my opinion cell phones are still grievously unreliable compared to a landline.

It may not be an option for you as it's still in "beta" and by invitation - but I've gotten in on Google Voice and assuming it works out, that will be the number I give people. That gives ME control of where the call rings - if I'm out of town, all calls can go to my cell, at home I can have it just ring my landline, etc. And of course, high priority callers can ring both, to make sure I get the call.

While I understand your feeling with regard to the person who had to pick up the slack, it's really NOT YOUR FAULT, considering that everyone trying to get you had the landline number.

[ednixon.livejournal.com]