This is a question for Jon. Only because he is following this question. I don't know if there is more than one specialist in his office. If not, maybe he can't address it.
We have a good deal of specialty offices in the area who have anywhere from one to five or more physicians in the group. Using a scale of one to five, we may consider a group of three like this:
Dr. Mary Jones: 5 stars
Dr. John Smith: 3 stars
Dr. Sally Johnson: 0 stars
Not only is Dr. Jones overall better, but I may have a much better rapport with that person.
So, there are a few issues here. One is making a referral. I may want to refer to Dr. Jones. But, there may be many factors including who is on call that day or who has the lightest schedule. Some offices accommodate this. Some don't. I can certainly understand why.
The other issue is a phone consult. I may REALLY prefer Dr. Jones for a variety of reasons. Most practices give you the on call doctor for the day, which makes sense. Some practices will get Dr. Jones on the phone. An added issue to this is if it becomes known in the office that I always ask for Dr. Jones, do the other doctors become resentful? If they are the ones who take the call, are they more likely to be short with me.
Last issue is and, again, Jon can certainly address this although anyone can. I know that sometimes when I call, the doctor can't immediately come to the phone. Say you are doing a procedure. But, if you are just doing a consult, if you can come to the phone at that time, it is much more efficient. Many times the patient is in the room and just finding out if I should use a CT scan or an ultrasound (maybe not a great analogy), would take 30 seconds. Sure, I guess you could get three calls at once, but the nurse could triage them. I always feel like psychologically the specialist tends to feel that we need them more than they need us especially in an area that has a lot of competition. On the flip side, when a specialist calls me back, I immediately take the call one, to be courteous and two, I want to make sure I get the help and not play phone tag.
I sort of know the answers to these questions. But, maybe some specialists can add a few things to the dilemma.
THIS IS A MAJOR HIJACKING OF THIS THREAD. IT APPEARS THE QUESTION HAS BEEN ANSWERED. I CAN EASILY MOVE THIS TO A NEW THREAD OF THE OP FEELS HIS QUESTION HAS BEEN HIJACKED.
