How long is too long to wait for a call back from Dr. office?

[Nae3]

I called this morning around 9:00 when they started taking calls and left a message about a medical problem I'm having (I posted earlier about it). Almost 3 hours later I have not heard anything. The recorded message they played said "if this is an emergency, please go to the ER. If this is not an emergency please leave a message and a nurse will get back to you within 72 hours." That's ridiculous, right? I don't think my problem constitutes an emergency, but I'd sure like to talk to someone about it. This is my GYN and I know she has a large patient load as she's also an OB. She has 1 nurse employed, only 1. She has to see patients and do call backs. Am I being unreasonable to expect to be called back within a couple of hours? I'm seriously thinking about switching, maybe to a GYN only. I really love my Dr. though.

Sorry for the vent!

Janae

[bluerose]

Mine doesn't call back till

the end of the day.

I called this morning around 9:00 when they started taking calls and left a message about a medical problem I'm having (I posted earlier about it). Almost 3 hours later I have not heard anything. The recorded message they played said "if this is an emergency, please go to the ER. If this is not an emergency please leave a message and a nurse will get back to you within 72 hours." That's ridiculous, right? I don't think my problem constitutes an emergency, but I'd sure like to talk to someone about it. This is my GYN and I know she has a large patient load as she's also an OB. She has 1 nurse employed, only 1. She has to see patients and do call backs. Am I being unreasonable to expect to be called back within a couple of hours? I'm seriously thinking about switching, maybe to a GYN only. I really love my Dr. though.

Sorry for the vent!

Janae

[Nae3]

Hopefully I'll hear something soon. 72 hours is crazy. I'm going to leave another message this afternoon just to make sure they got my first one. If I don't hear from them by tomorrow morning, I'm seriously thinking about calling another GYN.

Janae

[Chrissi]

End of the day, maybe. 72 hours not acceptable! I am nurse who did phone triage. We checked our messages and did call backs from the morning at lunch and we called back at the end of the day from the afternoon messages. It sounds to me like the office is way to busy to see patients and do phone triage. I would speak with the doctor about it, if they cant get the callbacks to once a day, I would change doctors. If they are missing calls, what else might they miss from understaffing?

[sbdeveney]

if you're done w/ kids. switch to a GYN only!! So much better/faster service!

[Dancer]

Mine is end of the day and that works for me.

The fact that they specifically said 72 hours though would lead me to believe that 72 hours is the way it will be and I would expect it to be 72 hours.

Julia

[pepperlc]

Have you heard back yet from the doctor?

I find they often call after they have seen all of their patients at the end of the day unless they think you are dying.

karen

[Nae3]

Yes, they did call back later in the afternoon. I'm still thinking about switching to a GYN only since we are not planning on having more kids. My OB/GYN's office is way too busy.

[trmooney]

If my ob/gyn is not in the office and it is not urgent, then the phone nurse will call back to tell me he is not in the office and I will get a call the next day. If my problem is urgent, then I get a call back within an hour. If I need a med called in, I leave the message on the nurse line (unless it is a refill -then I leave that on the refill line).

Very rarely do I not get called back the same day and usually can count on between 1-2 p.m.