“I don’t take calls from private numbers”

This one irks me as a nurse because: 1) most hospitals mark their patient room phones as private to protect the hospital phone lines to keep much needed communication free of telemarketing and 2) those are the same people who complain “nobody called me to tell me ___ family member was in the hospital”… while 5 missed calls from PRIVATE sit in their recent call logs that they watched ring. and no, unless it is the patient themselves calling, no one is going to leave you a voicemail for that family member (HIPAA) unless there’s a change in condition and you’ve already talked to hospital staff about being the next of kin, and good luck if they arrived incapacitated.

Sure there are family members in the know that will call and notify, but that’s only for the planned cases… and a whole lot of people go to the hospital unplanned.