{"id":530638,"date":"2026-04-14T17:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T17:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/530638\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T17:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T17:15:15","slug":"why-its-so-hard-to-reach-your-doctor-and-how-to-actually-get-a-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/530638\/","title":{"rendered":"Why It\u2019s So Hard to Reach Your Doctor\u2014and How to Actually Get a Response"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year, Olivia Mannion had one thing on her to-do list: schedule a six-month follow-up scan. She\u2019s been in remission from Stage IV Hodgkin lymphoma<\/a> for nearly four years, and while MRIs<\/a> are always nerve-wracking, booking one was supposed to be the easy part.<\/p>\n

What followed instead: 12 phone calls, 16 MyChart messages, a day off of work, and a call to her therapist\u2014not because of her cancer<\/a>, but because of the scheduling chaos surrounding it. At one point, she sent a message through the patient portal apologizing for being a pest. \u201cAll I was trying to do was advocate for myself<\/a>,\u201d says Mannion, 29, who lives in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. \u201cAnd I truly felt like I was being an inconvenience to the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not long ago, calling your doctor meant actually talking to your doctor. Someone answered the phone, and if you needed a call back, you usually got one that day. While that scenario hasn\u2019t entirely disappeared, it\u2019s become unrecognizable for many patients. They call and reach an automated system that can’t understand them, or they send portal messages that go unanswered for days. \u201c\u2018I just wanted you to hear my voice,\u2019\u201d Mannion wrote to her care team through the portal after weeks of messaging back and forth. \u201c\u2018I want you to hear me as a person.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Mannion’s experience isn\u2019t unusual. \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is the culmination of a number of still-ongoing changes in our health care delivery system,\u201d says Dr. Gary Price, president of the Physicians Foundation<\/a>, a nonprofit focused on physician well-being and health care system improvement. \u201cIt\u2019s very real\u2014and it\u2019s getting worse.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why reaching your doctor has become so hard<\/p>\n

Dr. Scott Titus, an internal medicine physician at a busy private practice in Annapolis, Md., says Monday mornings often bring a surge of activity at his clinic and many others like it. Before the phone lines even open, dozens of messages might be waiting. Once calls begin coming in, demand quickly spikes. \u201cYou can easily have 25 to 30 people trying to reach you all at once,\u201d he says. \u201cIt peaks, and it\u2019s very difficult to staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tara Gentry, a front-office manager at a family practice in Lexington, Ky., sees the same pressures from the other side of the desk. Doctors, she says, are managing large patient loads, and the demand for care often exceeds the time they have in a day. While they\u2019re seeing scheduled patients, messages are coming in from every direction\u2014phone calls, portal requests, questions from staff, even patients who walk in unscheduled. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot on their plates,\u201d she says. \u201cWe haven\u2019t forgotten about people\u2014we\u2019re working on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Juliana Parker, a registered nurse and founder of Nurse Corps Triage<\/a>, an after-hours triage service for ob-gyn practices, has a front-row seat to just how overwhelming that volume has become. Her service handles calls at odd hours so that ob-gyns\u2014many of whom work full days in the office and then spend nights on call delivering babies\u2014can get some rest. She keeps track: Of every 1,000 calls her clients receive after hours, she handles 670 without contacting a doctor. \u201cSometimes they might get 14 calls a night,\u201d she says of the physicians she works with. \u201cDoctors will work all day, and then spend their weekends returning messages because there\u2019s so much incoming.\u201d<\/p>\n

While patients wait, physicians are often squeezing in phone calls and portal responses wherever they can\u2014between appointments or late at night, for example. Parker says nurses keep an eye on the hallway between exam rooms, waiting for a doctor to step out so they can catch them for 30 seconds with an urgent question.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The problem isn\u2019t just volume. It\u2019s structure. Stephanie Broussard, director of social work at Thyme Care<\/a>, a company that provides clinical support to cancer patients, says that in most practices today, a verbal or written message from a patient travels through multiple layers before it ever reaches a physician. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s that doctors don\u2019t want to talk to their patients,\u201d she says. \u201cThey want to be available. But in a fee-for-service world where they\u2019re asked to see so many patients a day and maneuver so quickly, it can be very difficult for them to get on the phone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Triage nurses, nurse navigators, medical assistants, and physician\u2019s assistants all serve as filters\u2014not to obstruct patients, but because the demand on any individual doctor\u2019s time so vastly exceeds what\u2019s available. \u201cProviders understand that their patients want to get to them,\u201d Broussard adds. \u201cThere are multilayers of support to try to triage, route, and answer questions earlier on, so the things that actually need to be escalated to the provider get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Primary care in particular is under growing strain<\/a>, Price says. More physicians are now employed by large hospital systems, a shift that\u2019s added layers of staff, systems, and scheduling between patients and their doctors. And less than 5%<\/a> of total U.S. health care spending\u2014across insurers, government programs, and out-of-pocket costs\u2014goes to primary care, even though it plays a key role in preventing costly complications. Plus, a growing physician shortage means doctors are responsible for more patients, with less time and control over their schedules.<\/p>\n

Titus\u2019 practice, meanwhile, recently implemented an AI-powered phone triage system\u2014they named it Aimee\u2014to manage the bottleneck of incoming calls. The tool handles routine requests like scheduling appointments and routing calls to the right department so staff are free to handle more complex or urgent matters. \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to replace humans,\u201d he says. \u201cWe want technology to carve out the tasks that are repetitive and automatable, and let the humans do what they do best.\u201d It works well when the technology is thoughtfully implemented, Titus has found. But for many patients, automated phone systems can still feel frustrating or confusing<\/a>\u2014especially when they\u2019re trying to reach a real person.<\/p>\n

The cost of not getting through<\/p>\n

When patients can\u2019t reach their care team, the consequences range from frustrating to dangerous. Broussard describes what she sees most often: patients who turn to Google or AI chatbots for answers that should come from a clinician. \u201cAI is a great asset,\u201d she says, \u201cbut it\u2019s best when paired with clinical judgment. It doesn\u2019t create space for the nuances\u2014your predispositions, your other conditions\u2014that could impact what the best course of action would be for you.\u201d She worries most about patients who, unable to reach anyone, simply wait. \u201cPeople don\u2019t want to be a bother,\u201d she says. \u201cSo they sit and wait until symptoms are too severe\u2014when it could have been something appropriately managed at the office level\u2014and they end up in the ER<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Mannion, the patient in remission, the cost was as emotional as it was logistical. Having to spend weeks fighting through a scheduling maze on top of scanxiety<\/a> was, she says, \u201ca weight on my shoulders.\u201d When she finally saw her provider, he apologized for the weeks of back-and-forth she’d had to endure.<\/p>\n

“It really takes the empathy and the humanity out of health care,\u201d Mannion says. \u201cThis is my provider’s job, and that is just one part of who that person is. But for me, this is my entire life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

What you can do<\/p>\n

Patients aren\u2019t helpless. By better understanding the complex system they\u2019re navigating, they can approach it strategically. Here\u2019s what experts and experienced patients recommend.<\/p>\n

Ask a crucial question at your first appointment<\/p>\n

Catherine Hicks, 50, has lived with cerebral palsy, rheumatoid arthritis, and epilepsy since childhood, so she knows firsthand how frustrating navigating health care can be. She\u2019s found that the single most useful thing you can do happens at your very first appointment with a new doctor: Ask them directly how to reach them in an urgent situation. But choosing the right words is critical.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t ask what the best way is to reach them,\u201d she says. \u201cAsk what the most expedited way is.\u201d The distinction is significant\u2014\u201cbest\u201d might get you punted to a general voicemail, while \u201cexpedited\u201d signals that you\u2019re asking specifically about urgency. Some doctors, when asked this way, have given Hicks their cell phone number. Others have told her which staff member to ask for, or which hours the portal is most reliably checked. Whatever the answer, you want it before you\u2019re in a crisis, not during one.<\/p>\n

Leave a message that grabs their attention<\/p>\n

A surprising amount of patient frustration is self-inflicted, Parker says\u2014not because patients are doing anything wrong, but because they don\u2019t realize how their messages land on the other end. Calling to say \u201cHi, it\u2019s Mary, can you call me back?\u201d creates too much work for office staff. A triage nurse receiving that message has to figure out which Mary called, call back just to find out what she needs, and then potentially call back again with an answer\u2014doubling or tripling the number of interactions. \u201cIf you give very specific information,\u201d Parker says, \u201cit makes it so much easier, because I can go and talk to the doctor before I even call you back and hopefully get your solution taken care of in one call.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That means providing your full name, date of birth, and callback number first in your voicemail. Then, state your symptoms\u2014not your self-diagnosis. Don\u2019t call and say, \u201cI have a UTI<\/a>,\u201d Parker cautions. Describe exactly what you\u2019re experiencing and how long it\u2019s been going on, because those details determine how urgently your message gets escalated.<\/p>\n

Caitlin Donovan, senior director of the Patient Advocate Foundation<\/a>, has navigated the health care system both professionally and personally\u2014including recently helping her aging father change neurologists because of chronic communication failures. She stresses that doctors are trained as scientists and respond to data. \u201cThink about not just \u2018I have a problem,\u2019 but here\u2019s the problem, here\u2019s how it\u2019s affecting me, here\u2019s how often it\u2019s happening, here\u2019s how critical it is,\u201d she says. \u201cYou\u2019re giving them the information they need to triage you properly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t be vague about what you want from the communication. If you\u2019re calling to find out whether you should come in, say that explicitly.<\/p>\n

Use the portal strategically<\/p>\n

The patient portal is best suited for questions that can wait 24 to 48 hours, Titus says. For anything you\u2019d describe as urgent, a phone call is still the more reliable channel\u2014because calls can be triaged in real time in a way that portal messages often can\u2019t. Broussard recommends starting with the portal for non-urgent questions, then following up by phone if you haven\u2019t heard back within a reasonable window, or sooner if things are escalating.<\/p>\n

Hicks adds a particularly useful trick: If you\u2019ve sent a portal message about something important, call the office and let them know. \u201cI\u2019ve had them say, \u2018Oh, wait a minute, I can have a look at that right now,\u2019\u201d she says. That double-tap\u2014portal message plus phone flag\u2014can dramatically speed up response time.<\/p>\n

One caution from Titus that most patients don\u2019t think about: Check your spam filter. Doctors\u2019 offices often call back from numbers patients don\u2019t recognize, and if your phone is set to silence unknown callers, you may be inadvertently blocking the response you\u2019ve been waiting for.<\/p>\n

Be willing to work with the whole team<\/p>\n

One of the most common sources of patient frustration, Broussard says, is insisting on speaking only to the physician when a nurse practitioner, physician assistant (PA), or triage nurse could answer the question just as well\u2014and far more quickly. \u201cThe days of always expecting to talk to your physician for answers unfortunately don\u2019t exist as much anymore,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re moving to an interdisciplinary approach, and that may mean the person giving you your answers is a PA, or a triage nurse relaying guidance from the doctor.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Building relationships with the broader care team, not just the physician, can make a meaningful difference in how quickly you get what you need.<\/p>\n

Know when and how to escalate<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve left a message and haven\u2019t heard back within 24 hours, it\u2019s reasonable to call again, Donovan says. The key is how you do it. Using clinical language\u2014not aggressively, but in a way that signals you understand your situation\u2014can shift how seriously you\u2019re taken. When Donovan called her ob-gyn\u2019s office about an unusual symptom and was told by the receptionist to \u201cgo to urgent care if you think something\u2019s wrong,\u201d she pushed back\u2014not on the advice itself, but on being asked to make that call on her own, without a clinician\u2019s input. \u201cI said, \u2018I feel like you\u2019re asking me to self-diagnose,\u2019\u201d she recalls. The response was immediate\u2014she was connected to a PA within minutes and soon got an appointment scheduled. Similarly, knowing who the office manager is, and being willing to ask for them when things have gone sideways, gives you an escalation path beyond just calling and getting nowhere.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t stress about being a bother<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most important thing, Broussard says, is to remind yourself that you\u2019re not being a burden by calling. The triage lines, portal, and patient navigators exist because practices want to hear from you before symptoms become serious. \u201cYou matter,\u201d she says, \u201cand it\u2019s important that you advocate for yourself and see that you\u2019re worthy of the time and attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mannion puts it more bluntly. After nearly four years of navigating cancer care\u2014and fighting just to get a routine scan on the calendar\u2014she\u2019s arrived at a clear-eyed conclusion about what it takes to survive the system. \u201cIt\u2019s better to be persistent and perceived as a pest than to be dead,\u201d she says. She thinks often about people who are less assertive than she is, or less comfortable with technology. \u201cPatients can slip through the cracks,\u201d she says. \u201cYou need to advocate for yourself as best you can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this year, Olivia Mannion had one thing on her to-do list: schedule a six-month follow-up scan. She\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[402,102,3247,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-530638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-evergreen","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-health-care","11":"tag-healthcare","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}