Maybe They Should’ve Consulted Their Brain

I work for a large doctor’s office that offers several specialized clinics; said clinics are the only ones that do these things within several hundred miles and as such, they do all their own EVERYTHING, including scheduling their own patients.

I am the main line of the building, so I get a lot of phone calls and have to triage and decipher where the patients need to go — whether it’s a basic thing I can do, or if it goes to one of these special clinics. So, I have some basic questions that I ask when people are vague. This one, though…

My phone rings.

Me: “[Doctor’s Office], how can I help you?”

Referring Doctor’s Office: “I’d like to set up a consult for a patient.”

Me: “Okay, for what exactly?”

I’m hoping they’ll narrow down a test or exam type.

Referring Doctor’s Office: “For a consultation.”

Me: *Totally done* “Okay… but like, for what?”

I had to force them to dig deeper into patient complaints and symptoms to get a diagnosis, to find that they DID need one of the special clinics.