I often get calls requesting a medication for a recurrent problem, like a sinus infection or UTI. And sometimes, after I send something in and my nurse calls the patient to tell them I did, they say, “That never works,” or “It took two rounds to lick it last time.”

I wish patients didn’t expect me to remember such things or that — between my old electronic medical records (EMR) system and my new EMR — I had enough slack in my clinic schedule to research those things.

Everyone should know that phone calls and messages are not allocated specific time in doctors’ schedules. They are handled on the fly: short-changing patients with appointments and cutting into lunch hours and quitting time in today’s healthcare environment.

When calling your doctor, if you know what you need, please say so. Whether you get sulfa or ciprofloxacin or nitrofurantoin makes little difference to me, so just tell me; they’re all good choices.