Use of the on-call physician

keagirl gives an example of an inappropriate call:

Do patients think that on-call physicians stay up all night long by the phone in clinic, eagerly awaiting the next page? (and for free for that matter since we don’t bill for any of our telephone calls). Do they not realize that when calling late at night, you are waking someone who has a full work schedule the next day, and that it has better be an emergent, or at least urgent situation.