We Don't Want Nobody That Nobody Sent!

A key question in Chicago politics has always been, “Who sent you?” The classic phrase, “we don’t want nobody that nobody sent,” is from an anecdote related by Judge Abner Mikva. “One of the stories that is told about my start in politics is that on the way home from law school one night in 1948, I stopped by the ward headquarters in the ward where I lived. There was a street-front, and the name Timothy O'Sullivan, Ward Committeeman, was painted on the front window. I walked in and I said ‘Id like to volunteer to work for Stevenson and Douglas.’ his quintessential Chicago ward committeeman took the cigar out of his mouth and glared at me and said, ‘Who sent you?’ I said, ‘Nobody sent me.’ He put the cigar back in his mouth and he said, ‘We don't want nobody that nobody sent.’ This was the beginning of my political career in Chicago.” So if somebody does not send you, then you are basically no one. The same theory of exclusivity holds for getting in to see a new doctor. If nobody sent you, you will never get an appointment with a fabulous practitioner because they will be booked for weeks. If a new doctor can see you right away, you almost become suspicious wondering how they can possibly be available at a moment’s notice. Of course, if somebody sent you, then you can get in. An on-line doctor appointment booking service just went live for Chicagoans; www.zocdoc.com. This free service started in New York City in 2007 and also covers doctors in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. It is very simple and works just like the restaurant reservation website Open Table. I tried booking a Saturday night table at Toplobampo, Graham Elliot or Capital Grille and I felt the web site was laughing at me when it reported, “No tables available within 2.5 hours of your request.” Now if I personally called Capital Grille, I could get in. But the computer does not know who I am; so it rejects me. So who would want to see the type of doctor that is immediately accessible by a computer appointment? How pathetic does that doctor have to be that they are not booked up weeks in advance? And ZocDoc does not just have general practitioners on their site; there are even cardiologists listed! The company bragged in a story in the Sun Times that it has 200,000 appointments available in Chicago at any given time. I did not realize there were that many substandard doctors in the area.

In my blog of July 27, 2009, “Having People,” I wrote that Bobbie the scheduler for my vascular surgeon was an important person in my life. That was proven again this past May when I called her from my cell phone when I was walking down the street and told her something was not right. She told me to come in right away and I had surgery a few days later on Memorial Day. If a stranger who nobody had sent had called her, they probably would still be waiting for an appointment! My surgeon is the best, so you can’t get an appointment like at a second-rate restaurant listed on a web site! I went to www.zocdoc.com and there are hundreds of doctors that a patient can get in to see immediately. But how good a doctor can they be when they see patients that “nobody sent?” I only want to see doctors that nobody can get into to see; those are the best doctors!