<p>Recently had a Dr appt,checked in with receptionist,was told to sit down and he’d get to me(thgis was before he even got my name) after 45 minutes i got up, went to receptionist said i was leaving, and did…Even if i was escorted to examination room,the Dr has 3, so i would likley have waited another 15 minutes…</p>
<p>What irks me is the fact i realize Dr’s can run late,people can be sick( i was having a consultation about blood work done) but this was too long…i asked for Dr to call me with results, or send them to me…this was last week,so who knows if it is in mail…Likely going to change doc, as this was out of network, but CONVENIENT…since the convenience is gone, no reason to pay out of network costs…</p>
<p>I think that when it got to be 30 minutes after my scheduled appointment time, I would have spoken to the receptionist and asked if the doctor was running late and if so, how much longer it was likely to be before I could be seen. </p>
<p>At that point, I would have made a decision either to wait longer or to reschedule the appointment, depending on what the receptionist said and on my own schedule. </p>
<p>I think you shortchanged yourself by waiting so long before speaking to the receptionist and then just leaving. You might have been able to get information about how much longer you would need to wait to be seen. Also, if you had been overlooked because somebody forgot to check your name off on a list (something that happened to me recently at a dentist’s office), the receptionist could have corrected the problem.</p>
<p>Grrr. I had a worse experience. Took D to obgyn. They took child to seperate waiting area. She waited for an hour, no one said anything. I thought she was in exam. We left and changed drs.</p>
<p>We actually ordered pizza once and had it delivered, to the laughs and cheers of those around us. The doctor kicked us out of the practice (sent us a registered letter that said the patient-doctor relationship was severly damaged), which was good for us because I then was able to have our records transferred at no cost to us.</p>
<p>^I don’t understand how the patient-doctor relationship is damaged for eating in the waiting room and, in addition to that, is there a sign that says no food or drink allowed? Maybe next time have the pizza delivered without onions and anchovies…</p>
<p>Good post, Marian. I see it from both sides as a physician, although I was never in an office practice.</p>
<p>Communication is the key- it was missing in above incidents. Something needed in the office setup. Unfortunately physicians are often required to schedule short time periods for all patients by the managment. Giving a patient the time they need can ruin a whole day. As a physician and as a patient I would rather be delayed and have needs met. Primary care physicians don’t have as much control over their practices as in years past. More physicians are employees now than self employed. Groups are run by nonphysicians as a business where productivity in seeing patients to bring in profits matters most. I know of good physicians who get in trouble because they are not productive enough, they don’t see enough patients per day.</p>
<p>I am not patient. I inquire about timing when I check in as a patient- is the physician running on time or how long should I expect to wait. When the expected time draws near I ask again. I would complain to management about being poorly treated by office staff and also tell my physician. Based on his/her response I would complain about how the practice is run or change physicians. Explanations (while still maintaining patient confidentiality) go a long way. I have had good physicians apologize to me for a delay- the kind of people who would do so for nonphysician patients as well. I have been upset with a practice where equipment failure canceled one of two eye tests (I called and found out one couldn’t be done so I chose to wait with both) and they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) fit it in sooner than after scheduled patients who weren’t affected by the downtime for repairs. The wait time was so long I figured it wasn’t that urgent to spend my time and money on the tests. I switched physicians for my next year’s exam and never needed the tests.</p>
<p>How long to wait? Depends on circumstances. Ease and convenience of rescheduling, importance of missing a task due to the appoitment taking longer than planned for et al.</p>
<p>H is an ob-gyn, and he is fanatic about keeping to his schedule - and seriously, if you have an appointment at 10 am, you are taken back no later than 10:05. If there is an extreme emergency or a doctor is running late, then the waiting room is informed of the delay and people can choose to wait or reschedule as they see fit. There’s no excuse for the delays that are common in medical offices, IMO - they are too arrogant about the value of their time versus the patients.</p>
<p>Having said that, it seems rather silly to wait 45 minutes and not do anything, and then up and leave. I wouldn’t wait longer than 15 minutes before saying something to the receptionist and finding out what the story is.</p>
<p>I’ve seen patients walk out after waiting too long. Imagine their dismay a few days later when the doc sends a “missed appointment” notice with a threat to bill them next time.</p>
<p>I changed doctors because of the idiotic way the FP I was seeing ran his practice. He scheduled all his appointments on the hour, then saw patients in the order they showed up. Everybody figured out the code, so it was common to show up 15 minutes before the hour and still be the last one in line. If you arrived 15 minutes past the hour, you were informed that your appointment had been cancelled as a no-show and you’d have to reschedule, even though there were still people with the same appointment time who had not yet been seen.</p>
<p>I finally figured out how to work around that - call and tell them you were running late, and they wouldn’t consider you a no show.</p>
<p>But the icing on the cake was what happened when a pharmaceutical rep waltzed in. The doc would see them right away, making his customers, who had already waited well past their scheduled appointment times, wait still longer while he talked to the pill pusher.</p>
<p>I asked him why he did this. He said it was because the pill pusher had other appointments s/he had to get to. I asked him why the pill pusher’s time was more valuable than his patients’ time. He said that if I didn’t like the way he ran his office, I could go elsewhere. So I did.</p>
<p>After waiting for the dental hygenist for about 20 minutes past my appointment, I said something to her about it on my way to the chair. She did not even apologize. The next time I went in, I was deliberately late by about 15 minutes, so she was waiting for me! After that I have not had any problems about being kept waiting for my appointments to have my teeth cleaned!</p>
<p>But are your teeth really clean? That’s what I’d want to know! :)</p>
<p>We’ve had this problem with kids’ eye doctor. We’ve been with her for 10 yrs. and love her but the office always runs behind with no explanation or apology. It has gotten increasingly worse at our annual appt. Possibly because she now works only one day a week? This summer’s appt. my D texted me from the examining room saying the dr. had not come in yet. It was a full 50 minutes beyond the appt time! (She’d been taken back to room late as well.) I asked at the reception desk how late the dr. was running behind. Answer: I don’t know. No offer of any help. I had to calm myself before I could ask: Well who would know that I could ask? My daughter has made the decision to go elsewhere from now on.</p>
<p>My guess,as i have not heard from Dr or staff, is that she had a ‘concierge’ patient, and that would take priority over an insured patient…also i always schedule to be an early Am appt,so 45 minutes is way too long…She was there, as i saw her walk by several times…Granted, i should have went up to receptionist/assistant, but he said he would come over to me…My mistake was taking him for his word… As a stated above, this practice was convenient,but out of network…Now i will save some money,and the wait is little if any…(i know this as my older D’s use this other practice,and i take em at times)…</p>
<p>I had a similar experience a few years ago. My local md referred me to an ENT specialist. The appointment was in a bigger city, an hour’s drive away. Of course, I had a problem and it was worth it to me.
I missed OT pay to make that appointment, but again, I was happy to do it, I needed to be seen.
I waited 2 hours in his office before I was seen. After my appt, I asked if there had been an emergency earlier that day. She answered No.
I told recep I’d pay bill on the spot. After she figured it up, I paid, but deducted what I’d have earned for the 2 hrs OT missed, and explained that I could have worked those 2 hours and still been on time for him to see me.
Never got another bill from this guy, so I assumed he accepted my payment as payment in full.
Because there is a manufactured shortage of doctors and nurses, we often forget that (like attorneys) they are our employees when we hire their service. Sometimes we know, but just aren’t in the position of expecting respect.</p>
<p>wis75… same side here…there are so many things that can throw you off schedule and the only way to catch up is to cut the next patient’s time. My H wont do that…so a patient comes in and the test result shows a tumor…does he say you get 15 minutes as per my schedule or does he sit down and discuss all the options, review the films with the patient, make a referral which can take an hour? you just cant know what a test will reveal when you book a patient for results. We were 2 hours behind on monday because H got called to the ICU…some patients rescheduled, some waited, but a few loudly complained…should he have given his time to the patient needing helicopter transfer or to the patient in the waiting room?
or you think its a simple followup…patient doesnt mention any new problems to me when i take their info but once in the room with H…suddenly have a list of 4 new complaints that need to be investigated. do you say make another appointment (which would mean another copay for them) or do you give them extra time?</p>
<p>we hate it when we run behind and feel bad for the patients but honestly there isnt many ways to avoid it (our patients are not booked all at one time as someone above posted)…</p>
<p>^^^^i would find ALL that acceptable,IF i was told of such…the lack of communication clearly tells me that my time is not worth anything to them…so, i’ll go elsewhere…</p>
<p>When my kids were little, one of them had an appt. with his pediatrician. That day the nurse explained to me that they called my home, but apprently just missed me before I left (in th days prior to being tied to a mobile phone). The doctor was in the hospital tending to a child who was dying. They told me that our doctor would not leave the child’s side until the child died. They told me that they would gladly reschedule, or I could leave and call a few hours later. It was so so sad, but at least they “communicated”.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, in more recent years, we had to change pediatricians because of changes in “in network” doctors rather than picking ANY doctor we liked. My kids still got very good medical care, but the practice was large, and the care was NOT equal to that of the first doctor (one in a million doctor, IMO). One day I waited for 2 hours with one son, but the other one needed to be picked up from a program. I told them that if I am not seen within 10 minutes we are leaving because I have another child waiting and the doctor has had us waiting for 2 hours. We were seen within that 10 minutes!!! I never waited that long again, but at times I had waited an hour. I did stick with them because they also would write RXs that my kids needed without making me show up for unnecessary visits (I could call and speak with the nurse or dr. for minor stuff), and they offered coverage on Sundays (we used that for ear infections, pink eye and such and it meant not missing work/school on Mondays).</p>
<p>To be kept waiting for more than 15 minutes with no credible explanation whatsoever is totally unacceptable. I routinely call the offices of my busiest docs before I even leave the house to see how they’re “running”. If they’re honest, they’ll tell me the truth and I time my arrival accordingly. I also expect to be told upon arrival if something unusual has transpired since my call and to be given the option to reschedule. If the office staff isn’t willing to offer this key info, I switch docs. Life’s too short to spend hours in the waiting room of a doctor who has no regard for his patients as human beings.</p>