I feel I am an empathetic and concerned doctor, and try to take good care of all my patients. One of my patients just called me at 10 pm to report, " The medication you put my wife on 2 weeks ago has been causing her a lot of side effects. What can we do about these ?" I tried my best not to lose my temper, but I was curt on the phone and not very helpful. While I was not very proud of my bedside manner, it's the patient who was actually responsible for getting such poor medical advise. If he had been a little more considerate and respectful of my time, there was a lot I could have done to help his wife. Unfortunately, this is not going to happen, and I really don't want to have to deal with such a patient in the future. I am going to request him to find another doctor, who does not mind being troubled at such a late hour by someone who has no consideration for the doctor's personal life. If you don't respect the doctor, why should you expect the doctor to respect you ?
What sort of patient are you ?
It would seem obvious that if a physician (or other professional) did not want to be contacted by patients after business hours, he would ensure that: 1) He made it clear at the outset to his patients that he was only available between the hours of such and such, and 2) That they would consequently have no way of contacting him at home so that he would not have to suffer the bother and inconvenience of being consulted when on personal time. It's easy to blame your patients, isn't it? But you share some of the responsibility to set the boundaries of your practice as well. Just something to consider.
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