2008.12.24 14:52:38

John McDaniel

#6...The Lay Persons Understanding of “Ocular Emergency”

There is always room for healthy debate as to what actually constitutes an ocular emergency.  Sometimes, however, there is no debate on what can never be defined as an ocular emergency.  As a service to my patients I provide them with a pager number that allows them to reach me when an eye emergency issue develops outside of normal office hours.  The office voicemail message even has a detailed sentence explaining what a “page worthy ocular emergency” is.  Even with all these safeguards many non-emergency pages have come my way.  Below I list a few of my personal favorites and a few that I’ve gathered from colleagues.

• “I want to order contacts now” or “I want to order my glasses now”
• “I decided I don’t like the trial contact lenses all that much – I’d like to get some new ones”
• “I need to get my hearing aid adjusted”
• (On a Sunday over a week before the scheduled appointment) “I can’t make next Tuesdays appointment; I need to reschedule”
• “My dad normally takes my contacts out for me but he is away on vacation – can you do it for me” (this was from a 20 year old patient that had been a contact lens wearer since he was 12 years old and yes, I did take them out for him)
• “What is your opinion on Lasik?” (this was a patient I had never seen before)
• “My friends contacts are not comfortable, can we get her some new trials” (I had never seen the “friend” nor the caller as a patient before)
• Patient: “I failed the drivers exam.”  Me: “did you fail the vision portion of the test?”  Patient: “no.”
• “My son is in Oregon and his eye is red – can you take care of him?”
• “I’m on my boat right now and these glasses are terrible – it is so bright” (the glasses were not sunglasses)
• “Do you take [fill in the blank] insurance?”
• “Do you have [fill in the blank] frame in red in stock?”
• “How’s it going?  I just came across a great sale on a table saw and thought you might be interested”
• “That pain in my right eye is back again and I don’t want to pay another copay so send a prescription to my pharmacy please”

And my personal all time favorite…

• From a rep for a spectacle lens lab that I’d never used before “Hey doc, I was just hoping I could go over some of the reasons you need to switch to [name deleted to protect the asininely stupid] lab; got a few minutes?”

Le Meas,

John G. McDaniel, OD, MLHR
President/Founder
Waugoo Consulting Group, LLC
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