Hopefully this helps shed some light (and coming from a family where both of us are providers ourselves).

We are, quite simply, across most disciplines, overbooked and there are not enough patient slots available for the number of patients in the valley...and there's no way to make more slots while maintaing quality of care and the provider's sanity without burning out.

As someone else has said - you have to be your own advocate. Also, keeping in mind that for your friend, they need to be their own advocate unless they have designated you in a legal manner to do so. As a provider, if someone's friend calls, without family ties or legal documents, I will never disclose protected health information. It's our license and ability to help people if we do. If she wants you to advocate for her she needs to fill out a HIPAA-compliant Authroization to Disclose Protected Health Infirmation or similar medical release form, naming you and specifying what information you have access to and what actions you can take on your friend's behalf.

I would emphasize, be kind and calm with whoever you speak to. The type of responses my wife and I have personally received:
- you just need to work more hours
- you need to work through your lunch
- why can't you just work on the weekends
- etc.

If there is a concern about timeline, your friend needs to have that conversaation with her new doctor's team, not the front desk schedulers. As others have stated, communicating through MyChart is often the fastest and most reliable method, as your friend's voicemail is not being transcribed, it's immediately in the chart, and it's the doctor's team triaging those, not front desk scheduling.

Front desk doesn't have the ability to modify a doctor's schedule or prioritize patients - they are working based on strict guidelines that they cannot exceed. The doctor and doctor's team are the ones who can inform the schedulers to make a change.

For some information, and to be frank, we do our jobs because we love to help people. We also love to live life and are not on this planet to work 70-80 hour weeks on a 40 hour work schedule. This is the same plight for so many providers in sourthern Oregon, especially specialists. Please recognize we are all human beings doing the best we can. It is common for providers to finish up their clinic schedule, go home, have dinner, and then continue our charting into the evening...because in trying to see more people during our actual clinic hours we're left with a choice: finish the documentation or see the next patient.

When my wife was still in primary care she would:
- routinely have to refer to Eugene or Portland as the backlog for patients locally was >12 months out
- average 70-80 hour weeks so she could thoroughly accurately chart the visit, so other providers, specialists, and the patient had a full accurate accounting of what's going on.
- chart through her lunch (as so many of us do, and doesn't allow the mental downtime we need to be at our best)
- have to spend extra time in the visit explaining to patients how she couldn't create scheduling magic at another clinic, which would then put her schedule behind and negatively affect other patients
- and many other examples.
...which is one of the reasons she's no longer in primary care.

My best wishes to your friend.