EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 4/13/23

From the “it’s always good to double check your work” file. A general practitioner’s practice in the UK mistakenly sends text messages related to a diagnosis of aggressive metastatic lung cancer instead of the planned holiday greeting. The practice, or “surgery” in NHS terms, has 8,000 patients who may have received the message. A corrective message was sent about an hour later, but there’s no way to know how much agony the original message caused. As expected, the practice was then slammed with phone calls and patients were unable to get through. In a past life, I was responsible for putting together population health campaigns that were broadcast to large segments of our health system’s population, and you can bet we had a “two sets of eyes” policy on everything that went out to large cohorts of patients.

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to attend a presentation given by colleagues at the local academic medical center. Unfortunately, the presentation was marred by blatant sexism. It was a panel discussion, and the moderator habitually referred to the male members of the panel as “Dr. Surname” while referring to the female member of the panel by her first name. All three of the panelists were fully introduced, including their credentials as medical doctors and professors at the institution, so it’s not like there was any confusion about her status as a physician.

Even if she had asked to be called by her first name, which she assured me she didn’t, the thing that made it worse was that neither of the male panelists tried to rectify the situation. When referring to their colleague, it would have been easy for them to refer to her as Dr. Jones to make it clear to the moderator that his address was not appropriate, but instead they joined in. There are numerous published studies about the fact that women physicians are more likely to be addressed by their first names rather than being addressed as Doctor. It was sad to see this at what was supposed to be a progressive institution. Had there been a continuing education evaluation form, I would have commented, but unfortunately there wasn’t.

From a travel standpoint, except for the impacts of COVID, I’ve been a road warrior for more than a decade. This week I had one of the worst travel-related days in recent memory, and none of it had anything to do with the airlines, flight delays, or weather. The first issue involved a parent who insisted on lifting her stroller (including the accompanying strapped-in toddler) onto the parking shuttle rather than folding the stroller and carrying on the toddler. She was snapping at the shuttle attendant  — who in my opinion shouldn’t be responsible for loading a human — and demanding help while not even using two hands to load her child because her other hand was tied up with not only her phone, but also a Starbucks cup. She also snapped at other customers who tried to help, so it wasn’t a good opportunity to fulfill the slogan to do a good turn daily. I know that for some people coffee is life, but it felt like there may have been some misplaced priorities. Ultimately the driver was frazzled, which is never good.

Once I made it through the blissfully quick security checkpoint and arrived at the gate, I ended up in the boarding line in front of a woman who was facilitating a video-enabled conference call on her phone. Other passengers were trying to talk to her to figure out boarding positions and she was ignoring them. Of course, when it came time for her to scan her boarding pass, she was still on the call, and plenty of fumbling ensued. Props to the gate agent who sidelined her and let others through while she tried to get her act together. That’s always preferred to letting one person hold up the whole line.

We also had issues on the plane with passengers failing to follow crew member instructions, with infractions ranging to baggage issues to one gent sitting in the exit row who insisted on trying to lay out his jacket in the overhead bin on a full flight, refused to close his laptop, refused to properly stow it, and then became sassy when asked to fasten his seat belt. I was across the aisle from him just hoping it wasn’t going to turn into an incident where they would have to call security onboard to forcibly deplane him. Eventually he got with the program, but not without causing delays. The flight crew did a good job with service recovery, however, and I enjoyed my complimentary premium beverage, but it was just so unnecessary for him to act that way.

Due to an availability issue, I wasn’t able to use my usual rental car agency and ended up going through Costco Travel to book with Budget, so I wasn’t familiar with the processes at my destination. After waiting in line at the rental counter as instructed by the email I received, I was told, “You have Fastbreak and you’re in the wrong place” and was redirected outside. I was assisted there by a lovely agent who was in training, only to have her supervisor stop her in the middle of processing my rental and tell her to give me a different car from Avis, which is also owned by Avis Budget Group. When I got to the Avis lot, the neighboring vehicle was parked so close that I couldn’t get into it, and neither could the rep when I went back to the counter for help. They had to move two cars to liberate my assigned vehicle. Note to the folks parking cars – if it’s so tight that you have to fold the mirrors in so the cars don’t hit, it’s probably too close for a person to get in the car.

The next annoyance was a badly striped and signed parking lot, where following the exit sign and arrows led me to a dead end and a multi-point turn to get back on track. I mentioned it to the agent at the exit gate, who admitted, “Yeah, we changed that a while ago, we should probably change those signs.” Yes, indeed. He then asked me to show my license for the fourth time in 10 minutes, and finally I was on my way. The rest of the trip included wild drivers, erratic speeds, and the usual highway fun.

I finally made it to my hotel, where I was greeted with a digital key that didn’t work. I went to the desk and got a new key, which was handed over just by saying my room number and without providing ID, which is a safety concern. From there, I went back up to my room, only to find someone in it with the door propped open. It turned out to be the housekeeper, who just let me walk in without unlocking the door or proving it was actually my room. Not the safest feeling, but by this point I was in full “it is what it is” mode and just wanted to get settled so I could attend some conference calls. That’s what multiple layers of security locks are for, I guess.

They say travel is broadening, and I generally enjoy it. Still, let’s hope for less eventful transit next week as I head to Chicago for HIMSS.

What are your wildest stories from recent travel? Leave a comment or email me.

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