Harassment?

[rev ronin]

So, today, my family had a Domino's driver show up at our door with a pizza for me, that I didn't order: right name, right address... but not anything I'd ordered.  (I patronize a different local pizza delivery place)

 

I don't have any friends who would play pranks like that, but we did discharge one chronic pain patient who spent most of yesterday whining over the phone at our staff trying to get me or my SP on the phone to plead his case.  Pretty sure the phantom pizza ordering was something within his capabilities.

 

What's the worst harassment you've dealt with from a patient?  How did you react?

[crossbone2007]

First of all, how did/would the patient know your address?

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

 

[RuralER/Ortho]

Had a prescription get lost in the electronic ether of e-prescribing while working UC. This was a peds patient and unfortunately the last one of the day. When they went to the pharmacy, obviously no rx was there.

 

Instead of going through the proper channels to get this resolved,they must have googled me. My number is unlisted..... My parents is not. Guardian left an angry, somewhat threatening voicemail on my parents home machine. Convieniently, they left a phone number. So they received a certified letter regarding harrassment and a call from risk management. Only action I took was to let admin folks know.

[jdenning]

 I feel like I get harrassed on a daily basis just by my patient load and the shear volume of phone calls and e mails and prior auth requests....it all gets even more fun when there's calls from the ER too.

 

Sigh.

 

We had a situation a few weeks ago where we had to terminate a really sick and psychiatrically unstable patient who would call and harass and berate our staff and threaten to blow up our building among other things.  I'm not usually scared by patients but this guy really unnerved a lot of us. 

 

The VERY NEXT morning our whole campus was on lockdown with reports of a suicidal guy with a gun. 

 

I was sure it was our patient.  Turns out it wasn't.  Whoever this was got his wish and the police shot and killed him. 

 

Pretty unsettling way to start a work day.

 

Now I still get to worry that our terminated guy is going to show up at our office again and who knows?  Maybe he'll have a weapon.  Police say there's nothing they can do

[rev ronin]

First of all, how did/would the patient know your address?

I own my home.  County assessor's website is searchable by last name.

 

Phone number, on the other hand, is unlisted.

[zeusfaber]

It's pretty easy to find addresses and phone numbers by internet search of a person's name. I have a unique name (I'm likely the only person in the world with my name, definitely the only one in the country) and if you search me on google you can find my entire extended family's names and their home addresses, including my parents' home where they live with my brother. It definitely frightens me, especially since I work in corrections. Not a whole lot I can do about it, unfortunately. 

[Maverick87]

I've never experienced any kind of harassment. But I work in a military setting, have only been working for 3 years, work far away from my family, and I rent (so you can't google me and find my address).

[Miaow]

Someone mentioned patient emails which made me want to say, I cannot stand patient emails!

 

"Hi! I googled my results. I realized that because my BUN is 21 that I am in acute renal failure and should prepare for transplant accordingly. Can you please refer me for dialysis?"

 

????

[rev ronin]

When I used to have to do patient emails, I at least had a dotphrase that said "That's too complex and/or interactive to discuss in email, please make an appointment", and set replies be disallowed.

[Reality Check 2]

Over the years a few patients have given me the creeps but not truly harassed me.

I have had a few who would likely show up in the back seat of my car just like in the movies but thankfully, no one ever did.

I had one male patient with whom I would NOT go in the room alone. He leered at breasts and made slimy comments. My male doc partner told him one day rather firmly in the hall that he had to treat everyone with respect and watch his mouth or he would no longer be welcome in our clinic. A bit of peer advice, shaming and public notice - and he disappeared - found another clinic, I guess.

 

It has been a blessing that some patients who knew how to contact me through the clinic or hospital never took advantage of that knowledge - most were employees of the same system. 

 

The bigger surprises come in retail stores or grocery stores when I witness someone doing something they are not supposed to be doing or claim to not be able to do. Usually a silent stare and I move off is all that happens. I caught one of my workers comp guys picking up his 8 yr old daughter and swinging her up in the air despite his complaint of 8/10 constant debilitating back pain that prevented him from working. Our eyes met and I said nothing - just walked away. Pretty sure the look on my face was enough - busted! The rotator cuff post op patient with no sling on at 2 weeks out is another joyful event.

 

Years ago a patient actually physically ran into me at a mall while walking in heels carrying oodles of Neiman Marcus bags on her not quite healed hip fracture from trying to snow ski in her 40s with no lessons or experience. She claimed to be debilitated and had to use a cane and couldn't go places or do things and was in the process of suing my surgeon and everyone else but somehow me. I documented my encounter in the chart and it was brought up at deposition and her lawyer physically groaned when that note was brought to light. Cell phones were rare back then and no one carried a camera places - how I would have loved to video her teetering along on her 1990s heels on a slick stone mall floor…...

 

So, I am thankful and blessed that patients have not yet found a reason or means to give me grief in my personal life.