Why are some office assistants at pediatrics offices so petty?

[Anonymous]

Everyone knows the lore that Mean Girls from HS become nurses, but few people know the second part of that lore: a Mean Girl's right-hand woman becomes an office assistant.

Think about the Mean Girl you know from HS. If she isn't a nurse, she's a #BossBabe #Momtrepreneur MLM kween. Now think about her right-hand friend. Is she an office assistant? I bet she is.

[Anonymous]

I once took a half day off to take my kid to a doctor's appointment. Took the kid out of school early, got to the doctor's office, office assistant says I don't have an appointment. That's odd, I say, I made it months ago. Office assistant rudely tells me I am wrong, and I leave, rescheduling for when the doctor is next available in a month, having wasted a half a day of vacation time and pulled my kid out of school. A month later, I get an invoice in the mail for that appointment date for another kid-billed to my home address. Office assistant had mixed up the slots, and billed us for the appointment we weren't give. Plus violated HIPAA by sending me another kid's bill with my address on it. We complained, but were told that the office assistant was already fired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never had bad experiences with office assistants at the pediatrician, always very kind.

Same here

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Oh my god, somebody with a sick kid thinks they should be able to take their kid to the doctor. What entitlement!

My husband almost died of meningitis as a baby because of this attitude.

LOL, as if 95% of people going to the pediatrician are there for life threatening reasons. They are there for basic care, and a ton of them are rude as hell.
The receptionist does not have medical triage nurse, and even if they did, they couldn't do it over the phone. If they hate their job they should find new employment. Oh wait, not even McDonald's would tolerate their attitude.

I'm so happy to hear you think a baby almost dying is LOL worthy. My husband has mild cerebral palsy from his brush with death. Good thing the receptionist didn't have to get up and ask the doctor if it sounded serious, that would be the biggest human tragedy ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope. Obgyn is the worst hands down

+1 omg. The front office staff at our pediatrician is fine. Not great but fine. The OB-GYN’s office on the other hand … so rude.

And now that everyone is wearing masks all the time at medical offices, you can’t understand them on the phone either.

Fertility clinic receptionist has entered the chat

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I once took a half day off to take my kid to a doctor's appointment. Took the kid out of school early, got to the doctor's office, office assistant says I don't have an appointment. That's odd, I say, I made it months ago. Office assistant rudely tells me I am wrong, and I leave, rescheduling for when the doctor is next available in a month, having wasted a half a day of vacation time and pulled my kid out of school. A month later, I get an invoice in the mail for that appointment date for another kid-billed to my home address. Office assistant had mixed up the slots, and billed us for the appointment we weren't give. Plus violated HIPAA by sending me another kid's bill with my address on it. We complained, but were told that the office assistant was already fired.

The only thing that is surprising about this story is that she was fired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone knows the lore that Mean Girls from HS become nurses, but few people know the second part of that lore: a Mean Girl's right-hand woman becomes an office assistant.

Think about the Mean Girl you know from HS. If she isn't a nurse, she's a #BossBabe #Momtrepreneur MLM kween. Now think about her right-hand friend. Is she an office assistant? I bet she is.

That mean girl was my midwife. She kicked the doula out of the OR then made fun of my husband in my face while I was bending over for the spinal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Oh my god, somebody with a sick kid thinks they should be able to take their kid to the doctor. What entitlement!

My husband almost died of meningitis as a baby because of this attitude.

LOL, as if 95% of people going to the pediatrician are there for life threatening reasons. They are there for basic care, and a ton of them are rude as hell.
The problem with this attitude is 5% of the time you will be wrong and seriously injure a kid. But at least you got to put parents "in their place" 100% of the time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I once took a half day off to take my kid to a doctor's appointment. Took the kid out of school early, got to the doctor's office, office assistant says I don't have an appointment. That's odd, I say, I made it months ago. Office assistant rudely tells me I am wrong, and I leave, rescheduling for when the doctor is next available in a month, having wasted a half a day of vacation time and pulled my kid out of school. A month later, I get an invoice in the mail for that appointment date for another kid-billed to my home address. Office assistant had mixed up the slots, and billed us for the appointment we weren't give. Plus violated HIPAA by sending me another kid's bill with my address on it. We complained, but were told that the office assistant was already fired.

The only thing that is surprising about this story is that she was fired.

+1
I literally saw this exact scenario play out the other day. Mom took day off work, office assistant rudely chewed her out in front of everyone saying she's just wrong and they never make mistakes. Made a big scene. Speaking really loudly. Daughter looks like she's going to cry. Turns out she did have an appointment but they cancelled it because they didn't take her insurance. She said she told them over the phone she would just pay and claim it on her own. The second mistake they made was the person who took the appointment got a digit wrong in her phone number. No apologies and the entire very full waiting area heard this humiliating exchange.

I didn't know why the office assistants had to be so rude. It was their mistake. They didn't offer to fit her daughter in either.

Medical office assistant is a weird profession. I consistently meet really rude people in the medical office assistant job but you don't find that in other front facing customer service jobs like at a law firm or McDonald's. I don't know why it's so different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These forums tend to lean toward "the parent is always right" but as a parent, I see how many parents behave. I imagine they act the way they do because parents call and are rude when they can't get an appointment quickly enough, are rude when they can't get the medicine the googled and think their kid needs, or are rude for some other circumstance. When I go to the doctor with my positive attitude, I don't see the negativity OP sees. There's a reason for that.

Oh my god, somebody with a sick kid thinks they should be able to take their kid to the doctor. What entitlement!

My husband almost died of meningitis as a baby because of this attitude. His dumb 21 year old mom called office staff saying he had a high fever and broke out into a rash. He'd been up all night with spiking 104 fever and meningeal signs (neck stiffness). Office staff said "We'll see you at 2". When he came in, doctor took one look at him and called an ambulance.

NP. I'm not sure that you can train front desk staff enough to guarantee that they can completely compensate for all that is lacking in parental judgment. At some point people are going to have to be responsible for their own choices.

If the Dumb 21 year old was that dumb, why would you trust her memory of exactly what she said decades later? Neck stiffness should prompt a recommendation to go to the ED, but "high fever and a rash" isn't. You can't just blame other people because they can't take total responsibility for your child, especially if they are just front desk assistants.