My Back Office Blunder: People piddle in exam room 1

Back Office Blunders are true tales of unusual client encounters in the back office-and beyond. We recommend discussing this scenario at your next team meeting. Then discuss how you might handle this challenging client encounter.

One afternoon a nicely dressed older lady came in with a tiny 4- to 6-week-old kitten. I escorted her into the exam room and the doctor went in to perform her exam. After several minutes had passed, the doctor poked her head out of the exam room and asked me to bring up the mop bucket to do a clean up. I went into the exam room to find this huge puddle on the floor. I looked at the kitten, then at the floor, then back at the kitten, wondering how it could have made such a mess. Shrugging, I mopped it up and left.

Minutes after the client left the doctor came out shaking her head and explained what happened. The puddle came not from the kitten, but the owner. She spread her legs a bit and just let loose! After doing her business, she looked straight at our doctor and said, “Well, at least I wasn't wearing nylons today.”

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