Paging -- Necessary, but not benign

I am frequently involved in battles with staff about the appropriateness of pages. In the end, many people say -- "Why does it bother you? We just want to give you information".

This is a valid argument on it's face. What could be bad about information? I've made this very argument to people who ask why I will talk to pharmaceutical representatives. I like information. It's what you do with it that is important. If I don't need that information or recommendation, I can just chuck it. (We'll leave turf wars and condescension out of it for now.)

The problem is that every page distracts you from something else, and it can be dangerous. This evening, I have an example I can share, because it doesn't involve patients. I left the hospital a bit before 5, and I hate going to the gym at peak hour. So I came home, cleaned up a bit, watched Countdown (without Keith tonight), and prepared to hit the gym at 6. At 5:40, I was packing my bag with magazines, my lock, and a towel.

At 5:41, my pager went off. I spent the next 40 minutes on the phone answering pages about a possible transfer. The only ones I deem "bad pages" were the ones to numbers that didn't exist, but hey, I've made that mistake. By 6:30 I had tied up the situation, picked up my bag, and went to the gym. When I got there, I realized I had grabbed my work bag, not my gym bag. Since I didn't have a towel, and my cash was in the other bag, I had to bail.

The only things harmed this time were my dreams of ripped abs, but that's not always the case. Sometimes, there's a slightly more imporant decision on the line than which bag to take to the gym. In those instances, I usually check my plan twice. But I make mistakes, especially when I'm distracted. (Sometimes, like at Lei Lounge, what distracts me becomes the mistake, but that's a different story.)

In short, the benefits of the page need to outweigh the risk of distracting me. Pages that are not likely to be beneficial are therefore mostly just risky. So next time I'm venting about being paged for normal lab values, it's not (entirely) because I'm a prickly egomaniac -- I'm just trying to keep myself, or someone else, healthy.