Pager protocol

I always thought having a pager would be cool. It implies some sort of responsibility, an important availability. Whatever! i have already dropped one in the toilet by accident (they stop working instantly) and I can't even begin to count the number of times I have wanted to pitch it into a water grave on purpose. Let me explain how my pager at The Clinic works...it is considered a display pager. Therefore, when it beeps at me I have the choice to answer it as a call back number is left. This is compared to a priority pager, which beeps and when we have to punch our pager number into a phone and have no clue who might be on the other end. Now, I'm pretty polite with my pager, unless my hands are completely occupied and no one else is available to slip it off my scrubs and answer it, I usually always answer. Weekends, nights, in patient exam rooms, I answer it.

Lately, certain individuals are abusing my pager. Several weeks ago it began on a quiet Sunday afternoon when instead of my pager going off, my private house phone rang with a Clinic number on the ID. It is a hospital operator who has a patient on the phone. Claims he can't locate a service pager number for Team 3. Whatever....the thing is published all over every three months but I knew the patient so I just took care of it. Yesterday, my pager goes off at work with a number that tells me when I answer it a phone call is going to be on the other end. the PROPER technique for this is that the call should come through my secretary, she will page me, tell me who it is and only if I am able to do I talk to the patient. The hospital operators don't always find that, so I'm in the middle of the hallway (actually right out side the bathroom) and my pager goes off and I answer it. No operator, just a pt's girlfriend on the line with all sorts of questions about said pt. Now, I have a good memory and with a few clues (i.e. name and injury I can usually recall most details of a pt's case) but I can't pull up drug info and such if I answer a page no where near a computer and don't have an operator monitoring the call to keep the pt on hold until I get to that info.

Today was a extremely low case day. Clinic was quite busy but our cast room and operating room schedule was extremely light and I came home at 2. I have been in a funk (another long story) so i laid down to catch a few zzzzzzz's. At 3:50 my pager goes off, I stagger to get it (I was out pretty hard core) and it is a number I don't recognize. If I recognize the number I can usually determine the need to answer it, if I don't I have to answer it. So I call from home and it rings forever (first rule of paging...dont' page someone if you aren't going to be there for the call back). Someone finally answers it and it is a computer tech calling me about a PUBLIC Computer that I happened to report as not working. She called me twice yesterday already about it and I repeatedly told her, not my PERSONAL work computer, I was just the one who took the time to report it not working as it is a communal computer in our cast room that a lot of us use. Well, she finally replicated the problem and is going to keep it a few days before it returns. I point out AGAIN, not my computer, just fix it. UGH! Was it really that important to page me.

So, my pager is now sitting on my nightstand. I'll continue to answer it because the Clinic tells me i have to but if I get one more direct connect to a patient from an operator, I'm going to let someone know about it and I won't be nice.