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I Should�ve Taken That Left Turn at Albuquerque |
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Hello and welcome. If you're new here, be a dear and Read my Disclaimer. My diary not good enough for you? Fine, be that way. Try these instead: plf
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2000-09-08 - 7:27pm� Words cannot describe how horrible I felt by the time I left the work today. Today had been such a good day up until about 3:15. No stress, nice old people, relaxed co-workers, and it was casual Friday to boot. But around 3:15 I get a frantic phone call from a woman who is crying hysterically and trying tell me in a mix of broken English (and what I later found out was Polish) that her driver didn't show up to take her to her doctor's appointment. She was completely inconsolible. She couldn't understand what I was telling her, all she knew was that someone was supposed to be there to help her and she was all alone. She told me that she didn't know the doctor's phone number and she didn't know what to do. I got in touch with the man who dispatches rides for her area. He told me the name of the driver that had been assigned the ride, and I tried to get in touch with the driver. I tried him at home, I tried him on his cell phone, with no response. Meanwhile, one of the other ladies at the office is talking to the woman, trying to calm her down and get any information out of her that might help us, such as her doctor's name, what kind of doctor, or the name of the person made the doctor's appointment for her. We thought about calling a cab out to take this woman to her doctor's appointment, but unfortunately for everyone, she didn't know where her doctor was. We tracked down an address for the doctor, and from there searched the phone book until we came up with a match for a medical building. Of course by now it was way too late for the woman to get to her appointment in time even if we could find a volunteer driver who could drop everything to go and get her. We called the doctor, told him the situation and they rescheduled without the normal $100 cancellation charge. We also tracked down the woman's homecare worker, who speaks Polish and would call her and explain what happened and what we did to try to fix it for her. I did eventually get in touch with the driver who was scheduled to pick her up. He claims that he was never given the call, and blamed the dispatcher. The dispatcher claims he most certainly did give him the ride, and blamed the driver. I don't know who to believe. I want to believe the dispatcher, but I know that is probably awfully trusting of me. See, the dispatcher is 88 years old. He's a volunteer for the organization, and he is the sweetest guy imaginable. He's my favorite of the volunteers. He's amazing! He is extremely capable and competant, and I hope to hell that if I live to be 88 I get there in as good as shape as this guy has. But his memory is not always 100% reliable. Let's face it, the guy is 88. When something like this happens, especially when emotions are running as high as everyone's were with this scared, sobbing woman on the phone, people start looking for someone to blame. I don't want to blame my dispatcher. I don't want to have to call him and tell him he was the one responsible for this. What the hell would it accomplish anyway? I don't what to hurt the feelings of this sweet old man, make him feel bad for screwing up. Besides, everyone makes mistakes. It's unfortunate when those mistakes impact so heavily on someone else, but what can you do? Finding someone to blame doesn't make up for this woman's fear and worry and well, loneliness. We did our best for this woman today, trying to help her and make up for the wrong that had happened somewhere along the lines. We did all we could, but I still have to wonder, was it enough for this woman? I don't think it was. Sure, we made her a new appointment but she was still upset, confused and alone. I did all I could to help this woman and it isn't enough. After it was over someone told me that I did a good job. That I handled things well. I didn't feel good about today though. I kept cool on the outside but on the inside I felt like I was going to barf. I managed to make it home before I started to cry. This job is great, but sometimes it just hits me how much impact what I do has on the lives of other people. It's a lot to shoulder to know that sometimes all your help just isn't enough. I'm glad I have the house to myself tonight. I need to relax and be mellow all alone. I need to watch tv and paint my nails and eat junk food.
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The big 3 0 - 2006-06-03 Hello again - 2006-05-03 Random stuff in place of an actual update - 2006-03-15 Pictures. Just Because. - 2006-02-23 Christmas 05 - 2005-12-26 Currently listening to: |
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