After you call your psychiatrist to address issues with the medication you have, how long should you expect until they respond? i left a message this morning and haven't received a response yet. just wondering how long does it typically take?

Most : Most clinics have their own policies regarding how long it may take to get a response from a physician. For instance, at the clinic where i work there is a posted policy that it could take up to 48 working hours to have routine medication refills/ questions responded to. However, that is actually the outside boundary of when our doctors respond. We try to respond more promptly than that. The majority of the time, we are able to return the call the same working day. Unless, a telephoned issue is urgent, i normally make my priority seeing scheduled and emergency patients, and then i return phone calls when i get the time. I have noticed some clinics that post, it may take up to 72 hours for a routine call back. I worked at one facility, where the psychiatrist's behavioral health technician returned the calls to obtain all the necessary information for the psychiatrist. With that having been said, if there is an urgent matter, make sure to make that clear with any message you leave for your psychiatrist. If you might be having an allergic medication reaction, you need to make that clear. If you think you are having a serious allergic reaction, you might need to go to the emergency room to get expedited emergency help. I recommend that you ask your psychiatrist or his/ her staff what their policy is regarding, how long it normally takes to respond to routine phone calls about medications. Each provider and facility has a different policy. I hope that this was helpful.

MD call return: A psychiatrist would be expected to return a voicemail message regarding a general medication question within 24 hours. Some psychiatrists have office staff, technician or nurse answer such questions.

Response to request: If want same day response & it is not an emergency, it is best to call during office hours & leave message to be called back before doctor leaves office or between patients, or maybe the nurse practitioner can respond sooner.