{"id":8433,"date":"2017-08-27T09:17:14","date_gmt":"2017-08-27T13:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/?p=8433"},"modified":"2019-11-21T06:13:45","modified_gmt":"2019-11-21T11:13:45","slug":"whos-likely-leave-office-message-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/whos-likely-leave-office-message-service\/2017\/08\/27\/","title":{"rendered":"Who’s Most Likely to Leave an Out-of-Office Message While on Service?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Once upon a time, I used being\u00a0on service\u00a0as a convenient excuse for not writing very much — or certainly, not writing very much of importance — on this site.<\/p>\n

The on-service time\u00a0also allowed me to poke gentle fun<\/a> at my colleagues, several of whom always turn on\u00a0an “out-of-office” message when they attend on the inpatient ID consultation service.<\/p>\n

I’m talking about this thing that responds\u00a0instantly when you email them:<\/p>\n

I am currently attending on the inpatient consult service. During this busy time, I may not be able to respond to email in a timely fashion. If you need to reach me urgently, please page me by calling xxx-xxx-xxxx, or leave a non-urgent message here and I will respond shortly.
\nThank you,
\nRudolph<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Reminding me of this\u00a0post, my\u00a0friend Carlos Del Rio sent me this email earlier this year:<\/p>\n

Going on service April 1st. Should I put my “Rudolph” message up?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’d advised Carlos to check Emory’s\u00a0Policies and Procedures<\/a>\u00a0— am sure it’s in there somewhere.<\/p>\n

Now, having just completed a couple of weeks doing inpatient ID consults — and falling behind on emails — I thought it time to add a few additional observations about this practice:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Who is most likely to do it?<\/strong>\u00a0Let’s call people who do this “OOODS.” (Pronounced like the first syllable of “noodle,” and standing for “out-of-office during service” types.) My anecdotal impression is that OOODS\u00a0are predominantly academic physicians, people who know patient care is important but don’t do it on a day-to-day basis. Hence they want to “clear the decks” of other pressing responsibilities. A minority might be full-time outpatient clinicians who only rarely do inpatient work.<\/li>\n
  2. When not on service, they are generally very<\/em> responsive to email.<\/strong>\u00a0OOODS are\u00a0often “inbox zero” types who wouldn’t think of allowing the sun to set\u00a0on a critical research or administrative query. So when busy consult days happen, and the long hours on the wards\u00a0make it impossible for them to keep up, they want to reassure their colleagues and friends that\u00a0they haven’t suddenly decided to abandon\u00a0academic medicine for more frivolous activities. Imagine the speculation!
    \n

    “Hey, I emailed Dr. Smith 12 hours ago, and he hasn’t \u00a0gotten back to me yet — that’s weird, he’s usually so quick to respond. Plus, no out-office-message.”<\/p>\n

    “Yes, that’s weird. But he’s a pretty big\u00a0Phish Phan<\/a> —\u00a0maybe seeing all their summer concerts?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n

  3. They’re generally pretty important.<\/strong> Many exceptions to this rule, but the academic rank and productivity of OOODS is impressive. One study found that the number of citations for\u00a0papers published by OOODS was significantly higher than non-OOODS, even when controlling for total RVUs generated on the consult service. NIH grant dollars and the impact factor of their published papers were\u00a0also significantly higher. If you don’t believe me,\u00a0the published paper can be found here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  4. One person\u00a0who inspired the original post identified herself almost immediately.<\/strong> Shortly after I wrote it, I received this email:
    \n

    Hey, I’m Rudolph aren’t I??? Is that a bad thing?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    First, let the record show that this OOODS person\u00a0who emailed me was only one of several people who sent me a similar query, as I adapted the sample out-of-office message from a bunch of different ones used by\u00a0friends and colleagues.<\/p>\n

    Second, it is by no means<\/em> a bad thing — it’s just a thing some people choose to do; others don’t (I don’t) — as evidenced by the fact that this particular OOODS person was most deservedly just appointed an extremely important leadership position<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Congratulations, Rochelle!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Once upon a time, I used being\u00a0on service\u00a0as a convenient excuse for not writing very much — or certainly, not writing very much of importance — on this site. The on-service time\u00a0also allowed me to poke gentle fun at my colleagues, several of whom always turn on\u00a0an “out-of-office” message when they attend on the inpatient […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}