A patient calls to schedule an appointment with their provider but they are out of the office. The patient is not happy. What do you do?

You may know that the Dr. is playing golf in Hawaii but you don't need to let your patients know that. Cheerfully explaining that the provider is unavailable but that Dr. XXX is seeing his patients while he is away will hopefully calm the storm. You can always offer the soonest available appointment with the originally requested Dr. but chances are they won't want to wait that long. You can always put the patient's mind at ease by saying some kind words about the stand in provider.