I Was on Hold For...

All professions are not created equal. We each have our own expectations for ourselves and for the other professions with which we deal. Sometimes those expectations are rather unrealistic.

Uber-Tech: Thank you for calling CP's Pharmacy. How may I help you.
Irrational Rx Expectation Deliverer: I need to call in a prescription.
UT: Can you hold, please? CP is on the other line.
IRED: Sure.
(some time later...seconds, minutes, hours, days...)

UT: Thank you for calling...
IRED: I need to speak with the pharmacist. I just called and was left on hold forever.
UT: Apparently it was not forever as here we are. You are rather impatient if you think a few minutes is an eternity. Please hold and I will tell CP you are on the line.

CP: Thank you for holding. This is CP. How may I help you?
IRED: I need to phone in a prescription.
CP: Wunderbar! We love prescriptions.
IRED: I was on hold forever.
CP: And I was busy the whole time. I still am, but, here I am, talking to you. Now what is so important that you needed to call me, hang up, and call back again? It must be life-threatening. Is it Epi-Pens?
IRED: I need to call in Augmentin 875mg bid for 10 days.
CP: Seriously? Augmentin? AND you're calling from an office 45 minutes away? What makes this more important than the other 500 prescriptions I will fill today?
IRED: Um.
CP: You do know we have voicemail, right? It's the first option available after you select the "doctor's office" option. You called me twice so you should have heard it. Let me ask you a question...When I call your office and ask to speak to the nurse, what happens? I get put through to voicemail. I don't even get the chance to ask my question which is usually about an error on an e-script you sent over. The beauty of voicemail is the convenience of it. YOU get to leave your prescription at YOUR convenience and I get to retrieve it at MY convenience. I also get to rewind and replay it since you give prescriptions like the Micro Machines guy sells cars.
IRED: Um.
CP: The next time I call your office, I expect my call to be answered immediately by a nurse or the prescriber. I don't care if you're in a room. I don't care if you're drawing blood or giving shots or taking rectal temps with your thumb. If you can't be bothered to wait, or to use voicemail or your e-script software for that matter, while I am counseling a patient, administering shots, performing an MTM, taking prescriptions, retrieving voicemail, checking prescriptions, or any of the other tasks I need to do then you can extend me the same, common courtesy. I will just keep calling, hanging up, and calling back until you answer. Is that acceptable?