I write this from an OB/Gyn waiting room. My wait time has breached the one hour mark. Two people in front of me, and I came early for my appointment. Not a new patient either.
How long is too long to wait for a doctor’s appointment? Is it unreasonable for me to expect a doctor to stick to their appointment time. I understand that sometimes, things happen, people run late. But this is my mom’s OB as well and she has had even longer wait times.
How long do I have to wait before I have reason to be pissed? I can wait 20 min. 30 min even, I can understand. More than an hour? Unacceptable, might as well be a first come, first serve basis.
I’m not a doctor. I think one hour is too long, and I think you should say something to the receptionist (if you haven’t already).
I go to way too many doctors and an hour is way, way longer than you should wait (unless you’re in an urgent care or after hours clinic type thing).
Have you gone up to the receptionist at all? It’s happened to me a few times that the staff literally just forgot I was there. (I don’t have those doctors anymore.)
I just asked the receptionist and she told me that there are two people ahead of me. This appointment has been set for weeks and I don’t know why our time isn’t being respected. Just wanted to know if I was being unfair. Good to know that I’m not.
Even if you checked in with the receptionist, chances are they forgot to mark you in the calendar. Got distracted, whatever. It happens.
I once waited for 2 hours in an otherwise empty ER - the lady who was checking people in forgot to click on a box in the computer.
My OB/GYN (well, his office staff) would always tell us if the wait was going to be longer than ~30 minutes, and offer to reschedule. More than some specialties, they can have things come up. But they should deal with it proactively and not just let people sit and wait for an hour or more.
You should be kept posted about what to expect and an option to reschedule that gives your some priority
When I worked for a govt facility they routinely had me either overbooked, on call in the ER at the same time I had office patients, or just booked wrong. The more I complained the more I got on the wrong side of staff who were following other orders. There were many times that I was not notified the patient was there or the patient went to the restroom and I thought they were not there. H’s eye exam in private practice was 2 hours late last month. We walked around the hall outside, messed with our iphone, read magazines. Obgyn in my experience is late a lot due to deliveries. Waiting for a new doctor and new appointment is more hassle. IMHO, these tend to be doctors who spend a lot of time with patients and refuse to be rushed which I think is a good thing.
I recently waited 2 hours for my wife’s appointment before I walked to the counter and stated we were leaving because they obviously were disrespecting us. The doctor called the next day and sorted it all out with my wife via face time and was very sorry.
30 minutes I can understand, but over an hour is unprofessional.
Trust me, this OB isn’t delivering babies lol. We aren’t in a hospital. We’re in an office. I saw a story where a woman once charged the office for a long wait time based on the hourly wage she was missing. The office agreed to reduce the amount she had to pay.
An hour is too long. If the delay is that much, they could have called to warn you. I’ve left appointments when I’ve had to wait too long.
Obgyn can be really busy, and also regular dermatology. Still, that’s no excuse. I won’t risk a parking ticket or being late for my kids carpool because of a mismanaged office.
I left a lab appointment once that made me wait more than 45 minutes for a flu shot. There must have been some melt down but still - I went straight to Costco and got it there with no wait. It cost me $20 and it was money well spent!
Yes, absolutely emergencies come up. But then you tell the patient and offer to reschedule. You don’t make them wait for an hour+.
My PCP is notoriously late. His office manager gave me a 230 appointment but told me to call an hour ahead to see if the dr. Is running late that day. He is a dr. In a single practice who is extremely thorough and will take time to answer all questions. He also called our house personally at 7 pm last night to see if my husband is responding to the latest antibiotic. I am willing to wait for him.
A doctor that is consistently late needs to figure out what is causing the delays and do something to correct the problems. In the UPMC system (Pittsburgh’s near monopoly health care network), there are signs in the waiting rooms that say if you are kept waiting longer than 30 minutes (I think that is the time), notify the desk or maybe call a central number. Sorry, I am kind of hazy on the details because I have never had to do it. The point is that UPMC is making a concerted effort to keep their doctors within a reasonable schedule. My dr. Is not part of the UPMC system.
I hope at this point you have been seen. 
You did mention that you arrived early for your appointment - did you factor that into your waiting time? Because arriving early is your option, but the countdown for them doesn’t/shouldn’t start until your actual appointment time.
I say this because I work with pediatric offices and one front desk staff member at an office told me this morning that she got reamed out by a parent who arrived at 9am for a 9:30am appointment and was furious that they wouldn’t see her early. Great you got there early lady, but other people WERE scheduled for 9am!!!
The only thing worse than waiting in a waiting room is waiting for long periods in the exam room - like solitary confinement!!
Final wait time: 1hr 41 min post appointment start time.
Holy $@$&*. Wow. Unacceptable.
My H is an ob-gyn and he would not accept that in his office unless there were a true emergency. Some of those have happened - a patient gets on the monitor, heart tones are bad, he rushes her to the hospital and obviously can’t see the other patients scheduled - but that’s evident to everybody that there is an emergency going on and the office then reschedules everybody.
I think 10-15 mins is ok to wait and then beyond that you have a right to say something.
Aside from those days where there are emergencies, what’s the cause of those doctors that are just perpetually late? I can’t imagine they’re just sitting around…
I would be absolutely furious. I have left practices where I felt the wait time was too long. To minimize my wait times I try to schedule all my appointments for right after the offices lunch hour. That way I am usually the first to be seen. 1pm is the typical time I schedule for.
I have had to wait at for my OBGYN to get back from the hospital but they always ask if I want to wait or reschedule. Babies happen.