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Why does it matter if you are home? Many have to take off a half a day of work to sit around for a delivery or repair. And for many people that is lost income.</p>
<p>Well, you need to pick a day that works for you. If you’re never home it would be an inconvenience. But, I agree those windows are annoying. I’d still rather sit at home and wait than sit for 4 hours in a doctor’s office, though. Others may disagree. But, I doubt it.</p>
<p>My point is that its not any better in many cases to sit at home than in a waiting room, if it requires missing time from work. For people who work 5 days/week, there is often no particular day that “works for them:”.How many of us have sat at car dealerships waiting for a repair that was “supposed” to take only an hour or 90 minutes so they wouldn’t give you a loaner car and your office is too far for them to courtesy drive/pick you up. But you end up sitting for sometimes twice that long.</p>
<p>I think that’'s why they’re annoyed by the wait. They also have a schedule that is not being respected by the misleading promise of an appointed time. I’m pretty flexible and have had all of these experiences. My dentist calls me if I’m 2 minutes late and he’s staring at an empty chair. It’s the other extreme.</p>
<p>Most everyone gets annoyed by a wait. Heck, in this day and age many get annoyed if their computer doesn’t boot up fast enough. But when it isn’t often the Drs. fault, why get annoyed and start threads demanding an explanation and apology? </p>
<p>
Because I expect basic courtesy from everyone, just like my momma taught me, and I want to know why I so often don’t get it in this context. And I disagree that it “isn’t often” the doctor’s fault. If they are shoehorning in too many patients to see most of them on time, then it’s certainly their fault. As I said, better scheduling can be done by building in extra time between patients to account for unexpected delays–which are in fact entirely expected. We don’t routinely tolerate disrespectful treatment from anyone else, just medical providers. </p>
<p>But “fault” is not really the issue. If my cab is stuck in traffic due to an accident and I’m late to a meeting, I still offer an apology and an explanation, even though it isn’t my fault. That demonstrates that I have respect for peoples’ time and convenience and understand that my own time and convenience is not more important than theirs. It’s a simple thing, really.</p>
<p>And let’s keep in mind that the office visit that prompted this thread was the FIRST TIME I had ever seen this doctor. Certainly an initial appointment should call for even more than the usual niceties. </p>
<p>You are assuming the Drs are in charge of making their own schedule, which rarely they are. Calling an overworked, physician who may be trying to make the best use of little time “disrespectful” is a serious overgeneralization, especially when, as others have said, he/she probably has no clue what time your appt was or how long you have been sitting in the exam room. </p>
<p>Last week, I waited 36 hours for my cable guy to fix my internet. If I can wait 36 hours, I won’t have a problem waiting ten times as long to get service for something much more important: My health.</p>
<p>Thanks God none of my doctors are as slow as the cable guy, or the mechanic who pulled my car in, put it on the rack and 30 minutes later tells me that it won’t be fixed today.</p>
<p>The human body is the most complex system in the universe. Some scientists believe that the human brain is more complex than the Galaxy. The big guy who has eternal life and endless power created this system. How do you expect a human being with 10+ years of education be precise on the time frame it takes to fix or examine when your system breaks down? You’re waiting because there are patients who came in before you… </p>
<p>Just wait and stop looking for an apology. I am sure there are more things doctors have to worry about than whether or not he apologized to you. </p>
<p>How many of you here are willing to touch a stranger a day. I mean really touch them, their hands, face, look in their ears, down their throat, stand so close that you can catch their cold, and get coughed on?
How about 20 strangers a day? All sickly and some are just ewwww.</p>
<p>Doctor coming into the room and put his hands on your body, stand close enough to smell your breath, looking down your throat, touching your hairy back is an apology enough.</p>
<p>And if you say that’s his career choice.
How about that? Someone who has committed his life to saving the lives of strangers.
You sure you still want an apology?</p>
<p>:-O </p>
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</p>
<p>I think several people here have said that many, if not most doctors no longer work for themselves… they work for a corporation that dictates how many patients need to be seen in a day and how long they can spend with each patient. But it’s an unrealistic model. These doctor’s job security is being determined by some corporation who wants to see how quickly you can get people in and out. That’s why the offices schedule patients for such short time periods which leave little room for various circumstances that arise.</p>
<p>Again, if this is such an issue for you, get a concierge doctor. </p>
<p>I had an interesting experience this week at an ER (nothing too serious - a bad reaction from an antibiotic I’d been prescribed for an infected finger). The ER doc came in with a ‘transcriber’ - someone who had a laptop and took notes as the doctor asked me questions, examined me, and I answered questions/added information. Now that’s a way to shave some time off of the doctor’s time so she/he can see more patients - they don’t need to take time to chart after every question they ask you. I’m sure these transcribers are trained to type very fast. I wonder if this is a trend that will catch on. But again, these people work for a corporation, who is probably trying this model out to see if it it makes the physicians more efficient. Didn’t bother me one bit. </p>
<p>Here’s a thought (please turn your sarcasm detectors on before reading further). Lets put timers on the lights in the exam rooms, or meters on the medical equipment. Appt time is up when the light goes out. Time’s up. Next!!</p>
<p>When a patient calls in for a routine appointment or an illness or a follow-up for something, the staff usually discerns which appt to schedule them for (many are time-based for routine vs, say complex visits and they are given different time lengths on the schedule). Many patients may come in for a routine visit and then list a litany of concerns, some of which could be acutely significant. Or something is found during the exam that requires immediate attention. You want the meter to stop, the lights to go out and the patient to be told to reschedule for a longer appointment? Well, if you happen to be a malpractice attorney looking for business you might like that procedure, but otherwise, not so much.</p>
<p>And as for common courtesy, if one has an appointment at the end of the day and the Dr is running behind, how about greeting the Dr. with “wow- busy day, huh?” or express some concern for the Dr, not just your 20-30 minutes of your valuable time.</p>
<p>Exactly jym626 - when I was at my internist’s office yesterday for a follow up visit so he could examine my infected finger, I mentioned to him that, when I was at the ER on Wednesday and they did blood work, I was found to be low in potassium. So he decided after he saw me that he wanted the nurse to come back in and draw blood. Now I know she was getting ready to take back another patient for a physical, who now had to wait. And by the nurse being delayed in taking that patient back, the doctor was going to be delayed in getting in to see them. Multiply that times the number of times something like that might happen in a day, and all of a sudden, you might be running 20 minutes behind by the end of the day. But if it had been, “Well, your time is up - lights out in this room - tough nouggies; you’ll have to come back another time,” then I would not have been a happy camper. </p>
<p>“I never hear a pilot apologizing…or a cable installer…or anybody in customer service that has kept me waiting for 93 minutes.”</p>
<p>Actually pilots apologize all the time, explain the delay, and say they’re going to do their best to make up time. You might just not have heard it over the intercom.</p>
<p>Most of the doctors I go to don’t end up having a long wait. My dentist sometimes even gets me in early. I do have one doctor that always seems to make me wait at least 45 minutes, which is actually ridiculous because she spends less than two minutes with me. But I just expect it, it’s the norm for her. She sees way too many patients, then again, she will see me on short notice so it’s worth the wait.</p>
<p>I didn’t read most of the posts but I have a strong disagreement with your sense of “basic courtesy” “like my momma taught me”. Just erased a lot of my post. I disagree wholeheartedly with you. You perhaps were raised in the South with the layer of mannerisms that doesn’t exist elsewhere. Notions of “courtesy”, “respect” et al are not done the way you think. I dislike superficial manners when underneath so much wrong has traditionally existed. </p>
<p>You are trying to apply the business world mode to health care. Your expectations are wrong. YOU are not the center of the world- did you apologize for making your appointment on the same day someone with more need than you did? Why didn’t you schedule your illness to accommodate everyone else’s? Did you consider the physician’s time for lunch and being human?</p>
<p>What does respect have to do with it? I am so tired of people thinking respect doesn’t need to be earned. Or should one say things one doesn’t mean just to sound nice???</p>
<p>btw- I’m a long retired anesthesiologist. I remember when physicians, not businesses controlled health care. Complain to your insurance company about how they require office appointment scheduling because they are profit, not patient, driven. We do not have enough physicians. Perhaps you would have been more pleased to have a guaranteed time several days (or weeks) later, or be told you can’t be seen by the practice because the optimal number of patients to be seen on time always has been reached.</p>
<p>Bottom line. Was the result of the visit what it needed to be? Did you get the care you needed? If not- go elsewhere. btw- those extra niceties you request could be a reason medical personnel get behind. We are there to fulfill medical, not social needs.</p>
<p>Just be patience and courteous especially towards the people who are trying to take care of your health. If I were a doctor and my patient comes to me with that attitude, all hot because she didn’t get an apology. I was 30 minutes late because I had a room full of sick patients to see before her. I’ll give her cough drop for whatever illness she has:</p>
<p>Migraine headache for a week?
Cough drops!</p>
<p>Constipated for 2 weeks?
Cough drops!</p>
<p>LOLs </p>
<p>As amusing as that sounds Lana, that also sounds like malpractice.</p>
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</p>
<p>
Lana,
I think the correct treatment for the patient you describe is an enema ;)</p>
<p>I know and that’s why I included a “LOLs”. @jym626 @busdriver11 ( I was joking)</p>
<p>:)) </p>
<p>I knew you were joking :)</p>
<p>“An enema”?
How appropriate @jym626 .</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Okay, the laughing face gets the point across. I have a mental block about LOLs. They irritate me, so I don’t see them.</p>
<p>I guess you could always prescribe cough drops to be used in the same way as an enema. A new and experimental treatment.</p>