The thing is, having an hour in the middle of the day where you don’t see patients does not necessarily inconvenience them. Personally, I find it most convenient to schedule appointments either first thing or last thing in the day. So if a doctor takes an hour lunch and thus has an hour more to see patients either first thing in the morning or late in the day, that will probably help me out. I’d rather have a a 5pm or 7 am appointment than one at noon.
Calicash --are you still in the waiting room?
Do they do room service?
I’m so jealous of those posters who are seen in a timely manner.
We have a real doctor shortage here, and most doctors literally do not care how long patients have to wait. If a patient gets upset and chooses to find a new practice, the old practice knows it will replace that patient within a day or so. They don’t even try to hide the fact that they double and even triple book appointments. Most doctors don’t work at all on Fridays and close completely from 12 to 1:30 or 2:00. Waiting an hour is expected, and it’s not abnormal to wait an hour in the waiting room and another hour in the exam room. I’ve read entire books waiting to be seen.
We have only one dermatology practice (5 doctors) in a city of over 200,000. One. It is a half day adventure to go to the dermatologist at best. They make appointments 9 months to 1 year out, even if you have an abnormal mole or other serious concern. Getting your PCP to call will get you an appointment in about 6 months. The waiting room is huge and still often standing room only.
@Pizzagirl, your husband sounds like the first GYN I had. I had serious problems and starting seeing him at 13 (he was also my mom’s GYN). He also saw patients in his office before and after the exam. He had the kindest, gentlest nature and always put his patients first. I haven’t been able to find a doctor (in any field) who comes close. I hope his patients know how fortunate they are.
Most of the time I get into an appointment with a wait under 1/2 hour. But an hour wait isn’t unheard of for some, unfortunately. Like a few others already mentioned, I try to make the appointment first thing in the morning or right after lunch.
And, yes, it’s pretty normal around here for a doctor’s office to be closed for an hour or two. It’s never bothered me though sometimes it’s annoying when I try to make a call when they are closed. (Of course, if it’s an emergency one can get through.)
My Denver pulmo is my favorite doc–hands down. He is world renown as a researcher, but he is also the most thoughtful and brilliant person I’ve ever met. He is the chief of medicine, an endowed chair, runs two research labs and sees a few patients. He still is always kind AND nearly always very punctual. I saw him 4 times in the 10 days I was in Denver. He was usually waiting for me! He takes an active interest in each of his patients and his staff. He has repurposed several administrative staff who were going to quit due to intolerable working conditions (when they worked for other docs) and had them work for him instead, finding them niches where they were/are productive and happy. 
He has set a very high bar. I’ve enlisted his help in getting me a new doc for when he retires because I haven’t met anyone that has the scientific knowledge and interest in handling unusual cases like me. I do have other docs who are kind, with whom I get along well, but I really need the knowledge base as well. Due to health issues, I prefer a doc at sea level, which narrows the field slightly as well. [-O<
Drs offices have real emergencies that can disrupt a day. Everyone in my family has been a complex emergent situation on one occasion or another. This makes my empathy for their offices running behind quite high, IF they communicate with patients in the waiting room.
Once, I sat dressed in paper in a cold exam room at my ob-gyn office for over an hour. He had been called to check on an admitted patient. Not sure if or when he’d be back. Really? When did he leave? 45 minutes ago. Sheesh- just tell me so we can work it out. Another time, sat in waiting room for an hour. Asked about my appointment and got the brush off “as soon as possible.” 15 minutes later go to different desk to inquire- he was called to a hospital-wide meeting of department heads with an unknown ending time. May I ask why I am sitting here? I do expect Doc’s to have respect for their patients and implement office procedures with reliable staff. When I am left hanging, I assume it reflects the priorities of the office. Twice was too much.
They may not be closed, but that’s the time they catch up from the morning appointments running over, when the doctors may run to the hospitals to check on any patients, when the office staff may have things THEY have to do, just like all of you are saying you want to go to the dentist at noon. I had an eye doctor who was ALWAYS late. I had a recurring infection so had to go there a lot. I finally figured out that Fridays were ‘old people day’ and asked not to be scheduled then. It turns out this doctor did surgeries on Tues, so Fridays were post op day, and they’d bring patients from the nursing homes by bus on Fridays. Sometimes even with the one hour lunch, they were still seeing morning patients in the afternoon. The patients were older, some needed more time, some moved slowly.
We finally left the pediatric practice after S was 1.5 years old. We would bring S in for well baby (infant) check first spot in the morning and invariably, they would schedule all the sick kids before our S so he’d always get sick from being in the room with all the sick kids and wait hours in the waiting room. H would end up missing more than half a day waiting for S to be seen! We should have fired him much sooner but H’s buddies all thought the pediatrician was so great–maybe a few decades prior but not when we were trying to use him. (The doc also only talked to H, even though I stayed home 24/7 with S. He never spoke to me or S. Infuriating!)
I am a NP in primary care. I work really hard to be on time, it is a signature of my practice. I feel if people make an appointment and trust me with their health, I should at least be respectful of their time. I have a very full practice and am the busiest provider in my group practice. However, I rarely have awareness from the patient that there are other patients with scheduled times. They think that: “and another thing” “while I am here” “while I have you” “something else I wanted to bring up” is no big deal and there is no awareness I need to move on to the next patient. When I ask if they can reschedule to discuss at another time so I can move on, it gets met with complaints.
Tell me patients, what can I do?
State law usually requires lunch breaks for hourly workers, which many reception/office staff are. If it isn’t possible to stagger the breaks, the office closes for lunch. That’s normal in many practices.
@oregon101 Haha!!! I can gladly say I made it home.
What’s really interesting is that my mom went for an X-Ray yesterday that doesn’t book appointments. It’s just a first come first serve basis. We got there after 6 and she was in and out before 7.
When we had only one front office person, they put the phone on voicemail/answering service during the lunch hour. She is entitled to a break. Even with that, there were still patients checking in/out and the professionals in the office often needed something during the lunch break time. I rarely took lunch (used the time for phonecalls or reviewing test data or such) but that doesn’t mean others want to work the same way. We have 2 front office staff now and they stagger their lunch break, but still, IMO it’s ok if calls go to the AS or VM during that time. we are all pretty trained to expect an automated system with most businesses.
@gtalum:
If a patient starts bringing up things not related to the appointment, then explain to them you would like to talk to them about it but that you havve other patients to see, and that if they want to do a follow up with you you would gladly see them then. I realize that patients can be a pain in the neck, but unless your practice works differently then the one I go to, the PA who checks the patient first usually asks what they are in for, the symptoms or whatnot. I am not surprised patients do that, I have friends who are doctors and they tell me all kinds of stories about what people do, the person who asks him about what could be bothering aunt sally, the person who comes in complaining of a chest cold but then is asking about every ache and pain they ever had, and what they tell me is they have to be polite but firm, and deal with what they came in with, and if the person has other concerns that are not immediate come back for a follow on once the current condition is done.
It seems, to, the larger the group the worse it gets, I can understand a single doctor office getting backed up, but the practice I go to is one of those practices part of a larger health care group, with a number of doctors and NP’s, and it routinely is you get in well after your appointment time.
Some patients may not accept that they cannot bring up other things and are causing the Dr to fall behind schedule. Instead, they may grouse that they only get 15 minutes, that the Dr is rushing them, and just wants them to schedule another appointment so they can bill for another visit. You (generic you) can’t win.
I always ask for the first appointment of the day. I bring work or a book. Only the surgeons seem to have a 1-2 hour wait.
My son’s pediatric endocrinologist was great, but she worked in a large children’s hospital. The wait was always more than an hour. We came prepared with snacks and homework, then stop by Burger King for fries and a shake for the long car ride home.
I think @HImom hit the nail on the head. Consistently poor office management is a medical risk. A significant number of medical malpractice cases stem from failure to communicate and or document by non-medical providers.
If you see a sloppy staff who are not patient-centered, your healthcare may not be in the best hands.
A recent office visit: I arrived 10 minutes early. 45 minutes later, I’m in room and my doctor walks in. She states that because I was late, some items on my list to discuss would have to be at another appointment. Uh, no…I was not late. She leaves room to check with front desk…and comes back to apologize profusely. She asked why I didn’t complain earlier. I told her I always expect to wait a bit. I didn’t fess up that I was reading a really good book on my kindle and really didn’t mind the delay 
As her practice is getting more automated all the time, I book online and can indicate all the items I wish to discuss with her. Helpful for both her and me to have a list. And I never go to any medical or dental appointment without something to do while waiting: a kindle or some reading material, letter to write, iphone to delete pictures or emails.
Keeps stress level down…I’d go nuts waiting with nothing but a 3 year old National Geographic to read…
Music parent - my H really makes a point to keep the office hopping and on time as I’ve mentioned, but if a patient starts crying to him that she’s overwhelmed caring for her new baby and worries about harming the baby, or has a stress in her life that is causing her mental health to be an issue, he can’t just say that’s nice, schedule an appointment with me 2 weeks from now to discuss it. It can mean - let’s talk about it for 10 minutes now, and I will call you at home tonight with some referrals to a psych or whatever the appropriate next step is. It’s a real skill to be able to make the patients feel heard, while at the same time not losing the day.
I once was left waiting to see a surgeon (in an office in a gown) for over an hour and a half. I could hear nurses/assistants outside the door having a great time. I was having issues with mastitis and as uncomfortable as I was, and with a nursing infant waiting for me at home, I finally got dressed and left. I told the receptionist on the way out that I simply couldn’t wait any longer.
I received a lovely apology from the surgeon, even offering to reimburse me for parking, and explaining to me that she had had an emergency. I understand that, but if only ONE person had come in and explained to me what was going on, or even given me an estimate of when she would be available, I would have been much more patient. I was more upset with her staff than I was with her.
When I lived in LA, it was absolutely common to wait an hour for the OB/GYN, sometimes delays for others, too. It got so I grabbed magazine or brought a book, planned my time accordingly.
Then I discovered the problem was afternoons. Seriously, as the day goes on, the little delays snowball. I started booking “first thing” in the morning. At the OB/GYN, that meant sitting there with all the pregnant women (who got am priority.) But the wait went down to about 20-30 minutes.
Then I moved to the northeast. True story. First time, I sat down with my magazine and my name was called. Never warmed the seat, never opened the mag. I thought it was a fluke, but it repeated. Yeah, sometimes I’d wait a bit, but not enough to get into an article. Not just that practice, either.
It’s changed a bit over 20 years here, but it depends very much on the medical specialty and time of day. Now, I never book mid-afternoon, always ask for early, unless I’m desperate. Second choice: first appt after lunch, because (in theory) they’ve had that catch up time.
I think some states have a regulation that any delay more than 30 minutes, they have to inform the patient and offer an alternative. And I don’t blame the staff.