Updated: you are out of your mind

[basil]

I live in Massachusetts. We just had a pretty big snowstorm during the day yesterday, with about a foot of snow.

I am a physician. While I realize what I signed up for was sometimes having to go in in bad conditions, yesterday I was scheduled for an outpatient clinic with routine follow ups, AM only. PM was my admin time.

Wednesday afternoon, I realized that no patients were going to show up for clinic. Our office called the patients to confirm their appointment and offered the opportunity to reschedule. All the patients that could be reached opted to reschedule. The only patients left on the schedule were those whose phone numbers were wrong or disconnected.

My husband is also a physician and was scheduled to see inpatient consults yesterday, so he had to go in. My nanny really did not want to come to work. My kids' schools were obviously cancelled.

It seemed to me the most likely scenario given the timing of the storm was that we would all come in to work, realize no patients were coming, then turn around and drive home in the worst of the storm. So I told my office manager that I wasn't coming in and to cancel the appointments. She said I did not have the authority to cancel the clinic, and the hospital administration had asked her to report me for trying to cancel it. I emailed the hospital administrator, and explained that it would be absurd to bring in front desk staff, administrative assistants, technicians, etc., when more than likely zero patients would come. This is about 20 people having to make the commute in horrible weather.

So the idiot hospital left the clinic open. One patient showed up. All my staff and my residents had to drive home in the storm. One did a 360 on the highway but miraculously didn't hit anything. Another couldn't make it out of the parking garage and had to Uber to a friend's house. My husband took 2 hours to make a 30 minute commute to his hospital because of multiple road closures, cars were off the road all over the place. In the meantime, the administrator was calling patients trying to get them to come in for routine exams.

I told them it was not safe for me to drive in, bring my children with me, then drive home in a massive storm with high winds, when the governor was telling everyone to get off the roads. So now I'm on some sort of list for official reprimand because I didn't come in. I've practically never been in trouble in my life, but I don't see what other decision I could have made. I would have literally come in, with my young children, 30 miles each way, to see one patient. Then drive home in terrible conditions.

It just speaks to how much they care for the well being of their employees and their patients. I want to tell them to suck it.

[sariana]

Write to the governor and tell this story. Ask him/her to specifically call out such professions/situations when making announcements. I don't think it really will help, but it probably won't hurt.

It is unfair to emergency services to have people on the roads who don't truly NEED to be there.

ETA: Oops, sorry, BP. Anyway, that sucks. I'm sorry they're doing this to you.

[HannaAddict]

That is outrageous and idiotic. Of course the clinic should have been closed, I’m sure there are official notices that only essential emergency personnel should be on the roads. If you have a union (unlikely as a doctor I know) or even your professional services group, I would appeal and object to any official reprimand. I’m sorry, that is awful and stupid and life endangering.


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[PZMommy]

That is crazy!! I don’t blame you for not going in. My sister lives in the Boston area and works in the financial market. They NEVER close, but she told all of her employees to stay home, and she stayed home as well since she was not able to get to work via ferry or train.

[bisous]

I'm sorry that she reported you and treated you like that. That is not best practices and you were being prudent and thinking of the welfare of others. I agree with your way of looking at it 100%. I'm glad nobody ended up getting injured from your team!

[sunnyside]

That is disgusting and makes me so angry for you! Safety is paramount and no way should people be risking their lives like that. I mean maybe if you are an emergency room physician or something, I guess sometimes you have to figure stuff like that, but if it's not absolutely necessary, people should be off the roads. That is completely asinine. I'm sorry you had to deal with that.

[abh5e8]

Wow... I can't even imagine. (And I'm a physician, v who works in a hospital, v with inpatients and outpatient clinic!) What a horrible boss. We have actually closed our outpatient clinic for bad weather,c and called to cancel all the patients appointments. Pm me if u want a new job. :Wink

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[dogmom]

OK, I realize this is the bitching post, and you might be talking about the hospital I work in, but sorry, that's the way it works. We close outpatient clinics sometimes. I think yesterday some closed early, some chose to stay open even they the could because they always do. (Outpatient chemo, hemodialysis, etc.). Our OR schedule went forward even for elective procedures. The people making the food, cleaning for floors, sterilizing the equipment, answering the phones had to get in and they make a lot less money than your or me. As storms I had to drag myself in for this was mid range. I suggest if you don't want to have this happen again you need to work in another venue.

[StantonHyde]

Did they actually say "no non-emergency vehicles", like close the roads down? if so, then close OP clinic. Just the heavy snowstorm?? If it was an OP clinic where you could easily reschedule people in the next 2 weeks, then do it.

Dogmom--working IP is totally different. Then you come in no matter what. But OP??? And they kept elective surgeries? Sorry, that's not in the patient's interest--that's making money. There are OPs that should stay open--chemo, dialysis, of course. But for internal medicine???? You endanger more people by keeping clinics open at that point. Not worth it.

[basil]

OK, I realize this is the bitching post, and you might be talking about the hospital I work in, but sorry, that's the way it works. We close outpatient clinics sometimes. I think yesterday some closed early, some chose to stay open even they the could because they always do. (Outpatient chemo, hemodialysis, etc.). Our OR schedule went forward even for elective procedures. The people making the food, cleaning for floors, sterilizing the equipment, answering the phones had to get in and they make a lot less money than your or me. As storms I had to drag myself in for this was mid range. I suggest if you don't want to have this happen again you need to work in another venue.

I doubt it’s your hospital.

I don’t work AT the actual hospital. It’s a freestanding clinic located off site. Of course all inpatient personnel had to report. I think doing elective surgery is still pretty dumb but for some people those can be hard to reschedule.

I do very specialized treatment of one very chronic disease. So there is pretty much no emergency reason for our clinic to be open.

Also of some note, I am not paid or employed by the hospital. My main private clinic was closed and I got my patients who needed to be seen in on either Wednesday afternoon or Friday morning and all my partners did the same.

Like I said my husband went to see inpatient consults on Thursday. Others in his specialty didn’t, and his specialty is 100 times more acute than mine. His partners cancelled their scheduled outpatient clinics.

I cannot imagine a logical reason to have staff and physicians come in when no patients were coming. It’s adding a lot of danger (and conditions were dangerous, we spent yesterday seeing the results of multiple mvas) for no benefit except for administration to prove a point.