“You Just Lost a Patient” — Woman With Cancer Fires Eye Doctor Because of Pushy Receptionist

A woman said that she ended up switching doctors, but it wasn't because the healthcare professional wasn't providing good service. Instead, her decision was solely influenced by the "pushy" receptionist her doctor chose to employ.

Rae (@raeren3617) shared a TikTok about the situation in which she explained what this receptionist did that ticked her off so much that she had to call it quits. According to her, the worker's behavior was so annoying that it ultimately ended up "cost[ing] the practice a patient."

It began when the receptionist called up Rae one day to schedule an eye examination for the month of March since this was around the same time she had scheduled the examination a year prior.

Rae informed the young woman that this wouldn't be the case as it was "the same week [she] was having radioactive treatment."

The TikToker then went on to explain that she has thyroid cancer, and its subsequent treatment necessitates certain precautions that differentiate it from other medical procedures. One of these precautions is that Rae is supposed to "isolate" herself from others whilst undergoing treatment.

She then told the woman that she wouldn't know how long this isolation period would last. That's because she needed to speak to her nuclear medicine consultant before she could give a definite date as to when she could arrange an appointment with the doctor.

However, the receptionist persisted in attempting to iron down a date, immediately proposing a time. But Rae explained to her that it wouldn't work because it was the same day she was receiving her first injection for her cancer treatment.

Furthermore, Rae clearly explained to the receptionist that since she was undergoing radiation treatment, she wasn't able to perform the eye examination at this time.

Still, the worker kept asking her if other dates within the same week would work. Again, this was the same week that Rae explained she would be receiving her injection.

Rae said that the receptionist just kept rattling off potential booking times. The TikToker conceded that perhaps the worker simply didn't understand the information she was attempting to relay to her. In spite of this, Rae said that they should've gotten the hint to stop being so pushy because she kept saying no.

After constantly shutting down the dates, the worker then stated that if she doesn't get it done the same week that she did last year, "it would be a problem." This comment confused Rae, who speculated that while it may've been an issue for the office's billing cycle, it wasn't a "problem" for her to delay her eye examination at all.

Additionally, Rae stated that due to her cancer treatments, an eye examination was very low on her list of priorities. To make matters worse, she says that the young employee kept "schooling" her on the importance of conducting eye exams in a timely fashion.

Finally, Rae had enough. She informed the receptionist that she wasn't going to schedule the appointment after all. Going a step further, she requested that the woman remove her from the system, as she was no longer going to be a patient of this doctor's office.

Initially, there was a pause, and the employee said that this type of measure wasn't necessary. However, Rae made it clear that she had made up her mind, telling the worker that she wasn't listening to her and that she didn't have "the time to keep explaining" the issue to her.

She ended her conversation by stating, "I can't schedule this now. And now you've lost a patient."

Viewers who saw her video seemed equally miffed by the receptionist's behavior. One person penned: "(Nurse here), and as a patient myself, I am so sick of medical professionals not LISTENING to their patients!"

Another person remarked that the receptionist's insistence about the eye examination date was nonsensical. "You do not have to have your eye exam exactly a year after the last one. It just has to be a year or after the last one for insurance to cover it. Maybe she's new and needs more training?"

Someone else said that the employee should've certainly amended their approach upon hearing Rae was undergoing radiation treatment. "Receptionist should have changed tactics after she heard radiation treatments and just went with 'Please call the office when you’re ready. I understand you are taking radiation treatments.'"