"The MD-BPO Bridge"

"The MD-BPO Bridge"

 by: 

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

Life has put me in one of those situations. The kind where you have to choose just one path and when you do the path going back will be harder. I am one of those people who have an MD attached to their surnames though I don’t have the license to back it up. I am also one of those people who work in the BPO industry. And I am blessed to have friends in both industries.

Recently I have been reading about doctors complaining that some of those working in the industry are treating them like secretaries because they want them to put in dates for when they were sick. I have also read one person say that they don’t feel like giving out medical certificates people who are just acting really sick. Having been in both industries gives me a unique perspective I believe. Doctors are an overworked bunch and so are people in the BPO industry. That is always a given. Some Doctors have private practice or have associated themselves to the HMO’s like Maxicare and Coco Life just to name a couple. When it comes to Maxicare affiliated doctors or clinics a big bulk of their business now comes from the BPO and Call Center Companies.

At the ER doctors are often annoyed by faux English accent types that accompany their friends and act like that they know what they are talking about especially if they start questioning the doctor’s good judgment. Admittedly not everyone can be pleasant to hear in the call center industry and people tend to speak English in a very outlandish manner despite the best efforts of Communication coaches on the matter.

On the other hand people who work the night shift tend to be mistrusting of doctors , there is a culture of mistrust especially if it is the first time that you would meet someone. The call center agents and TL’s who make the bulk of people who see doctors in Maxicare affiliated clinics usually are really sick , becoming sick or just plain tired of the job. The burn our rate is much faster than people would like to know. 2 years and you would start feeling it. I know what a 36 hour duty means for doctors , call center agents have 8 hours shifts but their job isn’t that easy either. A doctor knows how to deal with cranky , unruly patients , the same applies for people working the phones. A doctor knows politics in play at the hospital , the call center agent knows and experiences it too.

Im writing this because we don’t have to put on airs and it goes for both sides. Ask your doctor nicely if you want something done like a date written or a diagnosis explained and they will gladly do it , tone down on the accent and talk like someone who lives in the Philippines. Drop the English and british accents , it doesn’t impress someone who has probably been there before. For Doctors , let’s be more understanding . There are people who aren’t really sick but burned out by constantly talking to people who have tried to blame them for things that they haven’t done like why is my internet connection not working or why are my bills too high. Believe me , it is stressful enough to talk to people like this in a day in , day out basis , it is even more difficult to deal with all the metrics that you have to meet , you have to perform or you get booted out and that money that you give to your family will be gone in an instant. Doctors and BPO people are all human. Lets just try to understand each other and get along.