The Oral Surgeon’s Receptionist

[Muss Muggins]

After running a solo practice for 35 years I have found out that the clients who bitch the most about paying are the ones who will stiff you in a heartbeat. My firm rule is you pay up front either an agreed upon flat fee or place at least a 10 hour advanced fee deposit in trust against which I will bill for time and services. If you don't want that I absolutely understand and I will happily accommodate the client by giving him/her the name of another lawyer. If a client says that so and so doesn't charge as much as I do, I suggest that they go to so and so. . .

Much the same here. I get potential clients who can apparently access the Federal Reserve if they can only get out of jail. I've got a minimum I need to hit, and if they can't get there up front, from somebody not in jail, they get to stay. They also will mention that so and so will do it for less, and I tell 'em to give 'em a call. I'll take payments, and I have the threat of logrolling you back in to jail for non-payment, but that's a lot of trouble. I do mention that so and who will do it cheaper will logroll them much quicker than me, and I've had a few apologize when they ended up being full pay after that, because I won't do it for less after you get logrolled . . .

 

[Jack Flash]

I can understand how people get tired of answering the same questions over and over, but that's the way they do it now. It's not like the information is difficult to remember. They want to be sure they do the right procedure on the right guy. When I had cataract surgery, they asked me several times "which eye?" even though the doctor only did right eyes that day of the week. They even made an X with a magic marker over my right eye!

Well, they did do the correct one that day.

I admit the questionnaires have gotten a little silly. For my sex, I used to check "Male" and that was it.
Now I have check boxes for
What sex is on my birth certificate?
What is my legal sex?
What sex do I identify as?

It just seems goofy to an old coot like me who's never thought of himself any other way but obviously it's really important to someone. Oh heck, it's only two more check boxes.

 

[Golddollar]

I can understand how people get tired of answering the same questions over and over, but that's the way they do it now. It's not like the information is difficult to remember. They want to be sure they do the right procedure on the right guy. When I had cataract surgery, they asked me several times "which eye?" even though the doctor only did right eyes that day of the week. They even made an X with a magic marker over my right eye!

When I had my knee surgery back in 2017, I got a little annoyed about how many times I was being asked "Why are you here?" over and over. But then i remembered how Andre Thornton, a first baseman for the Cleveland Indians, had knee surgery done on the wrong knee and ended up having to go through surgery again. So not to be a wiseacre, but to keep from having that happen to me, I wrote "Wrong leg" with a Sharpee on my non-afflicted leg. The nurse was not amused and scrubbed it off. But, to his credit, the surgeon came around to see me and HE initialed my leg that had the bad knee.