Patients at This Practice Just Seem to Get Weirder and Weirder

“HEY KRISTY!” LYNN whispered to the technician as she signaled with her eyes to go talk around the corner.

Concerned, Kristy walked around the corner to meet Lynn. “What’s with the look?”

“I don’t know what to do with the patient who’s waiting in the lobby,” Lynn said with angry eyebrows. “The woman just took a yoga mat out of her purse, rolled it out on the floor and is doing full-on yoga in the reception area.”

“What the hell — are there other patients out there?” Kristy questioned.

“Yes, she’s not necessarily in the way of anyone, but it’s super awkward — I don’t even know what to say,” Lynn stopped mid-sentence.

Kristy responded, “I mean, I guess if they aren’t causing any harm, then no big deal?”

“This is a doctor’s office, not a zoo!” Lynn added, “Whenever things like this happen and I tell Dr. Mark, he chalks it up to be a one-off weird instance — plus, he’s always in the exam room so he never sees it happen.”

“Maybe it’s a full moon! Yesterday, while I was reading a patient’s glasses on the auto-lensometer, they stood up and started organizing everything on the counter at my station — they lined up all the dropper bottles in height order!” Kristy added, “Oh, and no joke, the patient after that brought in all of their previous prescription glasses in a bucket from the hardware store — went through all of pretest and exam with a neon orange bucket full of glasses.”

“For real? I don’t know which one is weirder — I mean — I guess people are just weird?” Lynn added, “Well, now that we are aware these kinds of things also happen to other people in the office, let’s keep our eyes and ears open and we can bring it up to Dr. Mark if things keep happening.”

A couple of days later, Lynn found Kristy again. “Hey, there are some kids in the waiting area climbing and jumping on the chairs like a gymnasium!” Lynn continued, “Their mom was taken back for her exam, but they haven’t been yet — can you take them back now?”

“Yeah, sure,” Kristy answered. “The weird isn’t going away — let’s talk to Dr. Mark at the end of the day.”

After Lynn and Kristy told Dr. Mark about their experiences with the yoga patient, the OCD dropper organizer, bucket person, and the unsupervised kids, Dr. Mark chuckled and looked down at the floor. “I’ve been so busy, I haven’t had a chance to tell you guys this — sometime earlier this week, I walked into an exam room to see my next patient and they were sitting in the exam chair eating a sandwich.” Dr. Mark shook his head, “And had a lunch cooler on their lap full of beer!”

Rick R.
Girard, PA

1. In their private conversation, I would say they are not overreacting — every office I’ve been in does the same exact thing. It’s human nature to discuss the quirkiness of some patients. I suppose, depending on your location, the assumption of such behaviors varies greatly and is, unfortunately, the nature of the beast. No pun intended. 2. The only one I can justify saying anything to would be the kids. First, they could get hurt and second, they could destroy office property. We’ve said as much in our office. 3. Every situation would have to be judged separately. Unless you’re addressing harm to self, property, or others, saying anything could jeopardize patient relations.

Whitney H.
Missoula, MT

The staff is not overreacting. Uncivil, impolite, or obnoxious behavior is not the price of doing business, though it has become more ubiquitous since the pandemic. In this case, the staff should have said something to some of the patients behaving questionably. The medication re-organizer, the waiting-room yogi, and out-of-control children should have something said to them. These kinds of conversations should be had in a private place to not humiliate the patient, but to address the behaviors.

In the case of the re-organizer, a simple “Thanks for doing that, but we have those in a particular order for a reason,” would probably suffice. The office yogi could be taken quietly aside and simply told that her behavior was making staff and patients uncomfortable, so please stop. Unsupervised children running amok are a problem for which we do have a protocol.

Jill C.
Port Orchard, WA

I have worked in eyecare for over 30 years and could write a book about the oddities I’ve seen!

The lady with the yoga mat is actually something that we had to deal with on a regular basis. Our patient was a local psychologist, and she would consistently do Tai Chi while in the waiting area. She was never intrusive to the other patients, so we let her do it.

As far as the unsupervised and uncontrolled children left in the waiting room while their mother was having an exam — that would not be tolerated. We would ask the mother to keep her children with her or reschedule her exam to a time that someone else could care for them. We have a clinic policy that each patient seen can only have one other person with them.