Why Do People Think They Can't Call Their Doctor?

No you cannot. I called once with a newborn spiking a big fever. They always write to call if it's over XYZ for under 3 months. They refused to take the call as it was only for emergencies. I guess mine was not. I really needed dosing info on meds.

So I will never call the Dr. unless I am about dead now. I felt so embarrassed!

While clinics around my area are pretty common, along with answering services and on-call doctors, not everywhere has this.

I agree with you that it seems kind of silly, but again, it really depends on the locale.

I called the pediatrician a lot when the children were little-I put three of his children through college and two through med school-hell yea he took my call!

My husband has about 5,000 patients, but they can always call him when they need to. They call the answering service, the representative takes the message, forwards it to my husband's pager, and it goes off, whether it is 6:30 pm, or 2 am. Within minutes he's talking to his patient on the phone. And this is in the Chicago area, so I can't believe it's a function of being a doctor in a small town. I don't personally know any primary care doctors who do not take calls at home.

ETA: When patients choose their doctor they should always find out what the office's after hours policy is. There is usually some type of coverage arrangement, but the patients might not be aware of it.

ETA2: Julie, I will vehemently disagree with your position on physician compensation. Come walk a mile in our shoes and tell me that my husband is paid too much for saving lives, while I am writing checks each month for thousands of dollars of med school debt, and putting as much money as possible into retirement each month to make up for the years that he was in training and had no 401k (that would be SEVEN years--7 years during which others who graduated undergrad with him, but did not go on to med school and residency were probably already in their careers and making contributions to their retirement).

I know you're just venting here.

Some doctors will leave another number to call after hours. Others notify their patients to go to the emergency room. Some people are apprehensive of emergency rooms - or aren't able to get to one.

Back when I had little ones, it was a standing joke at our house that, at 5:01 p.m. on Fridays, one or other of the kids would get sick!

I find it interesting that a number of mamas post here when a child is sick, wondering if they should call the doctor. I'd call my doctor before I'd ask a stranger!

I don't bother. Most docs don't like to prescribe anything if they haven't seen you, so chances are they'll tell you to go to the er or urgent care. So I eliminate the middle man and make the decision to go or not go myself.

If your doctor's office has no after hours line, then find out your resources. I realize not all offices have someone on call. That's what the other avenues are for. Urgent Care clinic, ER, 911...

I have not called my child's pediatrician today. We know croup in this house. She does not have stridor. But if she did have problems, I know we have Urgent Care and an advice line to call.

Don't know. All my doctors have after hours numbers where you get an exchange that routs you to the doctor on call who gets back to you fairly quickly. Hell they will even call in scripts to your 24 hour Walgreens. Win win!

If I had a doctor that I could not call at any hour and get satisfaction from his phone service, whatever it might be. I would find another doctor.

Now I am talking about GP.. If I had specialized health problems, I would also make sure my Oncologist, Neurologist or whoever, was in a practice where someone is on call 24 hrs a day. This may mean a group of doctors or a doctor that has a 24 hr. phone service that takes messages and then contact the doctor.

That is what I hope parents make sure their Pediatricians or their group of doctors can be reached 24 hrs a day..

And yes, Once on the 4th of July I was so very ill, my husband called my doctors office, when the Doctor called back, he said "go to the emergency room immediately and if you have any problems call me back. "

Then the next morning, the doctor called my husband to check up on me. The Hospital had given him the update the night before, that I had been sent home late that night to recover. I had Spinal Meningitis.

I'm one of those people who NEVER call. The whole time I've been responsible for my own health, 14 yrs of being a Mom , & 4 kids , I have called a doc after hours 3 times ( labor, kid/ seizure, kid/ j-tube issue). I'm sure there have been other reasons , that were good reason to call but didn't. I guess I don't want to inconvienence someone for something not urgent.

I guess some people feel that way the same way other people feel they can call all hours of the night.

It's called 'individual preference'.

Our doctor's office has a 24 hour nurse line. Usually the nurse can and will advise you what to do, but rarely, if ever, does a doctor within our practice call you back personally.
More likely than not the nurse will tell you what to do, or else tell you to take your child to the nearest ER or urgent care.
And you'd have to be pretty stupid to ignore your child's trouble breathing.
Even if your doctor doesn't have a nurse line you should have the common sense to seek out help at the ER or local urgent care.

My daughter's and my Dr's do not have after hours lines both offices you get the office is now closed if this is an emergency please hang up and go to your nearest emergency room

Springfield must be small enough that you have that kind of access with yours.
In Chicago, I definitely don't. If I call after hours, it is either classified as "emergency", or "can wait for a call back tomorrow"... and in the case of call back...I'm lucky if I hear from my actual doctor, and not the nurse in the office that simply relays information back and forth over the course of several hours/days.
If I really need to speak to my doctor, I need to go in for an appointment. So, unless a limb is falling off, or I need a prescription for something...I don't engage my doctor. It's just waaaaay too much of a PIA.

And I've been through MANY doctors of MANY times over the years...this has been the case for every single one of them.

Now my mom, who lives in a tiny town in central IL...can always talk to her doc, like you. So it must be a small town thing.

If it's something urgent, I will call. My daughter's pediatrician (and I'm sure most pediatricians and a good chunk of general practitioners) has a 24hr hotline set up specifically for determining the best route for a concerned parent to take. If they don't, then a wise parent would have *some kind* of contingency plan, even if it calling another office's hotline.

I am still more hesitant to call outside of business hours, and if it's something that seems like it can wait I will wait until the office is open. If it's something that seriously concerns me, I don't bother calling the doctor and just head straight to the ER or an urgent care. The only time I really use the hotline is if I'm not sure how to best treat something at home until the office is open, or to determine if something that is borderline serious is serious enough for the ER.

Though, at the end of the day, if I need medical advice for my DD, that comes first. It's always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to your child's health.

I struggle with whether to call or not. We have doctors in our family, and they are always happy to help their patients, but I see how much time they spend away from their families, so I always take that into consideration when I am contemplating calling a doctor after hours.

My son had his wisdom teeth taken out yesterday, and he has had complications (I won't go into details). I struggled with whether or not to call the surgeon all evening yesterday, and finally called this morning. I spoke to a nurse, and she felt it was urgent enough to call the doctor and have him call me. He ended up having us meet him at the office this morning (Saturday). I appreciated it so much. My son will likely be fine, but medications needed to be changed, and we need to monitor him closely.

I don't make an after hours call easily, but I'm glad that doctor's are available if needed. I was extremely thankful this morning.

We have a health links line we can call for advice, walk-in clinics, urgent care centers and emergency rooms that we can use outside of our doctors office hours, but no, we cannot call our doctor after hours.

Our clinic is open M-F from 7am until 5pm or 7pm, depending on the day. If you call the clinic after-hours you will get a recording. There is no live person answering the phone. You can leave a message but you won't be called back until Monday. They direct you to call Urgent Care if you need help right away.

The hospital's Urgent Care desk is open every day until 10pm. You can speak with a nurse or doctor, but it may not be your nurse or doctor. You get whoever is on rotation/on call.

If it is between 10pm to 7am, then you can get help at the ER. Unfortunately, my city does not have any 'Minute Clinics' or similar.

I know! I don't get that either. I try to not think badly about them, maybe their area doesn't have that access.

I grew up where we had the doc's home phone numbers. I can remember the doc coming to my house when there was snow on the ground and he had his kids in the car with it running. He gave me a shot for a fever or something.

In my town we call the local hospital and they page which every doc is on call that day. All our docs participate in this. The pediatricians do their own group so they are dealing with kid stuff though.

So if I felt I needed to speak to a doc I'd simply do that.

BUT BUT BUT if a child is having an allergic reaction they need to be seen, not talked to the doc about.

IF IF IF a child is having trouble breathing they need to be seen. No need to ask us, we're ALL going to say take them to the ER.

The only reason's I would bother the doc at home is if the person had had a procedure done that day and something didn't seem right. Perhaps they had a tooth pulled and they have a knot forming on their jaw. Is a stitch coming out, the wound was starting to seep some fluids.

Something that only THAT particular doc could answer. He could say go to the ER too but he might say that what was happening was normal and to just put ice on it.

For our local clinics, it doesn't make much sense to call after hours because they can't give advice over the phone. They always recommend a trip to the ER, no matter the case.

Our pediatric endocrinologist, however, has a 24 hour help line. Within 20 minutes of our call, we get phoned by the doctor on call, no matter the time. I appreciate them so much!

I do agree, G., that we can always call our doctor's office for advice and assistance. Excellent point.

I recommend that parents (and patients) call their doctor's office if they're not sure whether they should go to the ER/Urgent Care, or to continue administering home care. A nurse or doc's advice and reassurance is invaluable.

Probably because not all states have the same kind of coverage.
Some medical plans may not have advice nurses.
Not everyone has insurance etc.

I call and ask to talk to a nurse all the time. If you ask me, we pay doctors to damn much and they should be made to wait for us!

what can my doctor DO for me at that time? Oh, I tried calling a few times when each of my girls were young, and each and every time I was told to "go to the ER" if I was worried. After being told that over and over you just know that calling the doctor really does no good usually.

NOW after my daughter had kidney surgery we DID call the surgeon at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning, and it was HIS PERSONAL cell phone, not an answering service, isn't that so cool? He walked us through an emergency cath removal and all was ok because of it. So there are times when calling will do good, but they are few and far between in my opinion

Not here, if you call you get told "if it's an emergency hang up and dial 911, our business hours are....." BEEP, and not to leave a message. They have basically hung up on you.

We do have a nurses line in our state, but it's only good to give suggestions, they can not do more then that or they recommend you go to the ER/quick care if its open.

Whenever I have called after hours, I usually get a nurse who doesn't know much and reads from a manual. Then they tell you to go to the ER or Urgent care which on my insurance I have to pay the first $1500. Not worth it unless I really think there is a really bad problem. If you could actually talk with a doctor, it would save a ton of money and headaches just to get a REAL answer. Most of the time, they don't do anything....viruses can't be treated and that's usually what causes most of the illness (unless it's trauma related)