<p>Around here I think dermatologists are the worst. So many of them are cosmetic dermatologists that don’t take insurance that there aren’t enough regular ones to go around. Saw Dr. A for a while, or tried to, and once when I had an early appt the nurse pulled me aside after I had been waiting an hour and said it would be another hour or I could see “his young, handsome son instead”. What? No hotties for my mole check, thank you - I left. Returned there a year later with D1 and not only did they take your copay first, before seeing the doc, they also switched her appt to the son without informing us! Didn’t go back.</p>
<p>Went to Dr. B, a cosmetic dermatologist, and left after waiting an hour, realizing that my parking meter was about to expire in a very fancy (expensive ticket) part of town.</p>
<p>Saw Dr. C with D2 regularly. It was so busy that people would wait in the hall since the waiting room would run out of chairs. It was definitely mismanaged with people being seen in order of when they signed in so everyone would show up early! Finally, we would ask for the last appt of the day for a more reasonable wait time and that worked better.</p>
<p>Saw Dr D. Tried to use cell phone parking method but by credit card had changed and it didn’t work. Paid for 2 hours on the meter and desperately asked the receptionist how long it would be after I had waited more than 1 1/2 hours in the office. Somehow I got out of there in time. Whew. Hope I never have to see a dermatologist again! </p>
<p>This is a bit of a ‘two-edged sword’. I know of one health care group who called in “efficiency experts”, had them follow docs around, reviewed scheduling practices, told them how to save time, and–ultimately–make the group more money. Time is money! I, for one, want my doctor to spend quality time with me, answer questions I may have and reach some kind of resolution to my issue. </p>
<p>None of this excuses them from a simple apology: “Sorry to have kept you waiting.” “We appreciate your patience.” “It’s been one of those days.”–there are lots of things they could say to make us feel better about having wasted our time sitting around their office. I find this happens most of the time with physicians I see. Maybe I’m lucky!</p>
<p>My H is an MD and it drives him nuts to keep patients waiting, he is a very punctual person and also very respectful of other people’s time. The most common reasons he gets behind are other patients showing up late, appointments taking longer than expected to adequately address a patient’s concerns, hospital rounds taking longer than expected for lots of reasons- new consults, patient with lots of issues to address- it’s difficult to 100% predict how long the hospital rounds are going to take as it varies a lot from one day to the next, and urgent phone calls. I know he always apologizes, it is one of his biggest aggravations that his schedule is often out of his control. He doesn’t overschedule.
I often wait for my Gyn, but she never rushes through my appointments and if she is running really late the staff will inform me when I arrive and allow me to reschedule or wait, my choice. My kids Pediatrician is always running late because she spends so much time with everyone- she is fabulous and I don’t mind waiting though a few years ago my S saw her and we had to wait an excessive amount of time for his appt. When she finally saw him she was doing a teen suicide screening with him and she asked “do you ever have any suicidal thoughts?” He told me later he wanted to say
“Only when I was waiting for an hour in your waiting room for my appt!”</p>
<p>My doctors usually always apologize if they make me wait even a few minutes.</p>
<p>The one time I got really annoyed was at the pediatrician’s office. I ALWAYS had to wait for him, and with three little kids, that was tough. But one time I had written down the time wrong and showed up 20 minutes late for an infant’s appointment. In Maine, in the winter. But they said that since I was late, the doctor couldn’t fit me in! I was steamed.</p>
<p>Local drs seem to often overbook.
My " favorite" is when you are waiting in the waiting room for 30 minutes, then get ushered into an examining room, told to put on a gown, & freeze for an hour before a nurse even comes to see you.</p>
<p>^^^^It’s annoying, but I agree with above. If I storm out, I’ve got to come back or find a new doctor. That’s a lot more time involved than just waiting it out.</p>
<p>I haven’t had too much of a problem with waiting, but occasionally it’s a bit much.</p>
<p>I know that Dr.s offices OFTEN overbook. One doc I knew complained that his office manager was triple booking him. I told him not to complain to me, to just tell her to stop. He said she was basically under orders from the founding partners to do so and he was just a newbie to the practice. I later heard he switched practices, but I don’t know anything about the circumstances.</p>
<p>I always try to get an appointment early in the morning, or as soon after lunch as possible, which prevents the problem. If I can’t avoid a late morning or late afternoon appointment, I just assume I’ll be there for a while, If they’re on time, it’s a pleasant surprise, but I don’t expect it.</p>
<p>You guys do know that doctors have to document each visit in the patient’s file. These things take time. Also, no two patients have the identical medical issue. For example, you take your child to see her pediatrician for a cough. It turns out, your child condition is so bad that she was given a breathing treatment and steroid right on the spot. Then the doctor has to come back in the room to re-examine the child before writing prescriptions for the nurse to call in.</p>
<p>And the older the patient, the more they talk and talk and talk about their illness, grand kids, weather, pets, the mail man…blah, blah, blah…And you know the doctor is not going to say: “I am sorry Mrs. Smith, but you have 10 minutes. I have other patients to see.”</p>
<p>Just be thankful that there are people who care enough to put themselves through years of schooling and a huge debt to take care of you. Doctors waited 10+ years to get a degree and license to take care of you. You guys are going to tell me you can’t wait an extra 30-90 minutes to let him do his job- taking care of YOU and people like you!</p>
<p>And don’t forget to thank the good Lord that you have a good doctor. After all, you are here posting because you are healthy enough to do so. </p>
<p>Would choosing first thing in the morning appointments avoid this type of delays (similar to how early morning airline flights tend to have fewer delays than those in the afternoon)?</p>
<p>lol…this is so true. And it can be more difficult to get pertinent info from older patients. We had to have a sibling accompany my parents to their appts just to provide info. My parents would go off on some tangent or provide inadequate/wrong info, and we’d have to set the records straight.</p>
<p>BTW…my sister would update a Word.doc after each parent’s doctor visit. The documents listed every surgery/procedure each parents had had, including dates. Included all “incidents”: strokes, etc. Included all Dx’s and included all current Rx’s and dosages. Included all their doctors’ names, specialties, and phone numbers.</p>
<p>Then she would date it and email it to each of us. We would bring a copy to each appt…and it was great to have when we would find ourselves in the ER with mom or dad. </p>
<p>Hmmm, the examining room in a newish medical building that I last went into seemed to have the heat turned up much higher than the rest of the building. They seemed to be assuming that people would want that after taking off most of their clothes, but they seemed to be overdoing it.</p>
<p>And you know the doctor is not going to say: "I am sorry Mrs. Smith, but you have 10 minutes. I have other patients to see</p>
<p>I see a naturopath for most of my health care. She isn’t covered on my insurance anymore, but I have at least an hour for each visit and I only have to wait a few minutes.</p>
<p>I wish everyone would do that. I’ll be checking in patients for their procedure. They take 20 meds but don’t know all the names. “Well, it’s for blood pressure and it’s blue.” They tell you past surgeries but when the CRNA comes by and asks them “so you’ve only had a hysterectomy and and a bunion removal, right?” they reply “yeah, that’s right. And of course, the quadruple bypass. I mentioned that, right?” “Have you had a pacemaker placed or a defibrillator?” “Yes, but that’s not a surgery. You asked about surgeries.”</p>
<p>Yes, UCB, I learned to schedule my kids appts. with the Pediatrician either 1st morning or afternoon apt. and it has helped a lot. I also stopped having them go together. I’m more willing to wait if they apologize and seem conscious of my time than if it is a chronic problem and not acknowledged that I have waited. My own personal pet peeve is Dr’s and Dentists that don’t introduce themselves when they enter the room. Had to see a slew of new dentists for my D last spring and we didn’t go back to one who didn’t introduce himself to either me or my D and also only addressed me despite the fact that my D is 18 and I was just there for support. Seemed very rude and arrogant. One of the other ones we went to sat in the waiting room and chatted with my D while we waited for his secretary to print up some info.</p>
<p>I expect delays at my doctor’s office but I do wonder how he can have an accurate measurement of my blood pressure as I sit there with my mind churning over all the things I have still to do! I find the delays at my hair dresser worse…and less understandable since no emergency hair cut needs to take place!</p>
<p>Seems like electronic medical records are intended to address this problem, but they won’t help if the patient goes to different unconnected providers and does not tell the different providers about the others.</p>
<p>Twenty different drugs does seem like a very large number, even by US standards.</p>