Justifiable Homicide Tuesday-Phones

I was just over at Living in France reading about Mimi's pita time with her insurance company. [that in and of itself should explain her dilema] Anyway it reminded me of some of the more excruciating parts of my job.

Some of you might remember that I am a Blood Bank Technologist in a major medical center in my area. It is a busy department in a Level 1 Trauma hospital. This means we get the worst case traumas. MVAs, GSWs, [testing you Greys Anatomy geeks] people hit by trains, stabbings, FBs in strange places etc. There are two campuses and the other campus has a busy maternity ward and an NICU. We are forced to  rotate between both campuses so most of us have "seen it all". Ok you get the picture.

Unfortunately a large part of the job involves talking to nurses and doctors etc on the phone. [see how I finally tied this to Mimi's post] One particular event, very fresh in my mind, involved an unacceptable patient sample. Blood bank is VERY particular since there is NO room for error when I comes to patient identification and sample quality. This particular sample was hemolyzed, which is unacceptable. I called the ER where it originated and was told the patient was in the OR. I called the OR and was told the patient was either in the PACU or the ER. So I call the PACU and was told the patient was in the ER. I call the ER back and they said, "well the patient must be on the way to the OR". I call the OR, no such luck. I call the PACU again and they have no idea either. I finally told them.. "When you get this patient the sample was unacceptable and we need a new one." That was countless calls for one sample.

Another frustrating scenerio is calling a floor for some reason or another to be greeted by someone who doesn't speak English. Please why are people assigned to phone duty who can't take a simple message. I don't usually have time to explain myself over and over only to be transferred to someone else.

(Not her actual twins)

I went to visit a friend in the hospital yesterday [she had twins... the. most. adorable. babies. ever I wanted to steal one] and when I signed in to visit they were saying how the mother worked at the hospital. I said I did too and when they asked me where I said "the blood bank" and the nurses reply was "Oh your the ones that always throw away our samples" She smiled but I didn't buy it. I smiled back, [bet she didn't buy it] and went on my way.

So what went to a rant about phone calls diverged a bit and became a rant about my job... don't get me wrong, most of the time I love my job.... it's just the idiots on the other end of the phone that makes me want to stab myself in the ear [Mimi's words].

PS. No patients were harmed in the writing of the post.


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