memes

Airports work like this. You arrive two hours before takeoff only to find out like half an hour before takeoff that the flight is delayed because there's no plane.

At one point I setup an appt with a doctor, 3 weeks set date, and to be the first one in the morning, like 9AM, he cannot be late, right? I left at 11:30AM without seeing him.

The last time I took my daughter to the doctor's, we had the 8:30am appointment. First of the day.

I was feeling pretty optimistic that we would be in and out by 8:45.

So we arrive at 8:20 and take our seats in the waiting room. 8:30 rolls around, no call. 8:40, no call. 8:50 no call. At 8:55 a side door opens and 8 doctors stroll out with coffees in hand and make their way to their individual consulting rooms.

At 9:10 we got the call to go in.

I get that they might need to have a morning meeting to get setup for the day, but 8 doctors each wasting 40 minutes, and the entire appointment book playing catch-up for the rest of the day, seems like a colossal piss take.

Why not, like, have your meeting earlier.....?

Because every patient before you was 10-30 minutes late for their appointment so now you have to wait an hour.

Their time is actually more important than yours

I think veterinary offices are the only places I can understand. Everyone there is underpaid, working hard, enduring trauma, and doing it because they love animals. Although I've never seen them get upset at someone for being late!

Reading the comments in this thread just indicates to me that we need more doctors. The supply of doctors is definitely artificially restricted

I had this happen when I was at my Dr's appt. I needed a script for oxygen. Prior to that, I watched several people walk in, get called to go to one of the examination rooms almost immediately. The thing is that each one of the other patients was obviously in far worse shape. When I finally was seen, my Dr started apologizing profusely. I told her that I know what triage means and to not worry about it. Stuff happens. If I was one of the others, I would want relief too.

Our patient visits are set as 15 minute slots standard.

This isn’t enough time to practice good medicine for anything much more than something like a flu or strep throat. How does one squeeze in an entire rooming process followed by a solid HPI, physical, poc testing and then plan review with pt in 15 minutes?

They don’t.

But with how medicine works (in the US) it’s the how clinics make enough money to stay open.

For clarity: I work at a Federally Qualified Health Center, not a for profit clinic.

The best way to fix this is to cancel the appointment if they make you wait. If enough people did this the clinic loses money which should cause change. Unfortunately, patients are largely a captive clientele, having already waited months and canceled work and with few if any alternative providers.

The next best thing is much more realistic. Plaster the internet with reviews complaining of the wait. If your doctor (or more likely your doctor's employer) does not respect your time, let everyone know.

Many of the other comments are also correct. I have worked in clinics in government, military, academic centers, venture capital, physician owned, and even free community health centers, all in the USA. Doctors running late is going to happen. I've kept patients waiting while in the operating room, while telling someone they have cancer or are losing a limb, and by my burnt out underpaid government scheduler incompetently overbooking. I will also tell you that when I have at least a little control over my own schedule, I've never made a patient wait an hour, even with the above happening. It can be done, it just isn't because for decades timeliness has not been a financial incentive.

Make it one. Name and shame on google, yelp, zoc doc, wherever. Do it gracefully and sensitively, recognizing that there is a high chance the delay is not the doctor or nurse's fault. Done right, you'll do them a favor when their employer feels the sting of lost patients.

Don't forget waiting for hours, going to the toilet for a leak and returning to see you've been skipped

I had this discussion recently and my friend pointed out that this also happens with utility workers on in-house visits, I guess cause of the demand there is on their work. At least where I live.

But I can't take it with doctors man. Also it's the only business where you can pay to get insulted or diminished, yet not diagnosed, repeatedly from different specialists (true story)

Try 3 hours, it's the reason I bought a miyoo mini plus, just to take it to doctor's offices.

I told my wife, the day I see an actual fucking doctor when my appointment time is, I'll either die of shock or but a lottery ticket.

In my experience you're lucky if some not-an-MD is checking your weight and blood pressure within half an hour, but if you're five minutes late they're sending you a bill for them doing literally nothing and canceling you entirely. I've never seen anybody so high on their own fucking importance while at the same time showing not the slightest smidgen of respect for the time of anyone else unfortunate enough to have to interact with them.

I wish I had a job where I could fuck up the timing of every single task every single day that consistently and still be employed. Not that I would, because I recognize that other people's time matters.

How many other businesses would be fine with operating like this

The Apple Store, for starters.

Ticketmaster, also, too.

Went to my appointment Friday, was told my primary stopped working Fridays 2 months ago. They were the one who scheduled the appointment 3 months ago

Last time i was a the doctors office, my appointment was at 11. At 11:45 i was still waiting and i heard them laugh in the break room 😑...

My favorite was my psychologist who knows I'm autistic and routine and schedule is everything to me. Then doesn't show up for 30 minutes and then call me saying their previous appointment went on longer than expected... this happened almost every other appointment. Eventually i quit because it gave me more anxiety and stress than the trauma's i was dealing with. 🤦🏻

"My time is important, your time is unimportant".