The $10 Phone Call Rant

Last night we had a situation with Jacob where we needed to call the doctor (he's fine..no worries). It was a Saturday night about 10pm but that's when it happened. So I call my doctors office and get a recording that said something to the effect of this: "Like most pediatricians in the triangle we use Wake Med for after hours calls. You will be charged $10 for this call. We hope this won't deter you from using our services." What?? Seriously, they charge $10 for every after hours phone call!?!? Perhaps this is not news to most of you but to me it was. I'm not sure I've ever called after hours before but if I had I was definitely not charged. I thought one reason doctors got paid well was because they had to work after hours. I thought it was part of their job to work on call occasionally where they had to answer such calls. Apparently not..since the person that called us back was a nurse at Wake Med..who was already working!! So, let me get this straight...I just got charged $10 to talk to a nurse who was already working at the hospital. Are you kidding me? How many of these $10 phone calls are they taking a night? I'm betting a lot. And when the nurse called the first thing she asked was our address to send the bill! Ridiculous..simply ridiculous...it just makes me so frustrated!!!

Let me add I somewhat understand why they have the policy as I'm sure they get some really dumb calls in the middle of the night. But, if you are talking to a nurse who is already working that is different than waking up a doctor in the middle of the night. And, I had a legitimate question. Ok..now I'm over it. I think.