Instead of IPMessenger, I am still using the FREE Yahoo Messenger. I do the same as you, Adam and it freaks the patients out. We never give any patient's last name. I can message a staff to see when a patient's last colonoscopy was and then while I am moved onto something else, the staff can call, find out, request the report and message me back all within a matter of minutes. And usually the fax is also there before I am finished with the patient.

Even better, if a patient is going on and on and on about their second cousin's bunionectomy I can message the staff "GET ME OUT OF HERE!" and within seconds, there is a knock on the door telling me the ER is on the phone. Whew! I have also had to use that ploy when my second cup of coffee kicks in at a disadvantageous time.

Leslie
Hospital Employed Physician Who Misses The Old AC

"It's a good thing for a doctor to have prematurely grey hair and itching piles. It makes him appear to know more than he does and gives him an expression of concern which the patient interprets as being on his behalf. "