Paging Dr. SRC

Or not. I got an iPhone 3 weeks ago and today, I uncovered the most disconcerting drawback yet - no numeric paging!

Some may ask, “why even bother with numeric paging?” (you like that set up for the rest of my post? I learned that strawman argument from watching good ol’ GW)

Well, I use my cell phone as my business line and my paging system. My current patients page me when they need a crisis call and new business or other calls leave a voicemail. It’s worked perfectly up until now. The number from which a patient called is automatically filled in as the call back number (they can, of course, leave a different number), it comes through as a free text message to my phone and I can just call directly from my SMS program. My other calls, I triage during business hours.

If my patients can’t leave me a numeric page, they have to leave me a voicemail, meaning I have to check my voicemail outside of business hours. Quite the pain.

Anyway, the point of this post has been met. Getting the word out about no numeric paging on the iPhone’s - or AT&T’s omission of them from the iPhone’s voicemail system. I even called to find out if I needed to set something up differently. AT&T told me to call Apple. Apple told me to call AT&T. Fun times.