Awemahgawd I’m tired of waiting……

[airchitect]

For the friggin doctor. Is there any other profession allowed to waste their client’s/customer’s time to such an immense degree?? I mean how many hours can I actually stare at the infamous “The Digestive System” poster? And did you know there are supposedly 5 reasons for stomach troubles?


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[Atone]

i have left doctor's waiting rooms numerous times. it's ridiculous.

[TheVTCGuy]

The part that gets me, being latrophobic (having a fear of doctors and medical procedures in general) is the posters and displays of body parts they have in the waiting room. I am sitting in my urologist office yesterday, and all around me are drawings of all the things that go wrong in urology; Stones, retention, leakage, damaged kidneys ETC! No wonder my blood pressure is sky-high by the time I get to see
the Doctor!!!

[THC]

paging Dr Brian .. Report to TRF, STAT

[SWS65SM]

The struggle on this front is real, I feel you.

Whenever scheduling visits we usually try to take the earliest appointment available on a given day to lessen the chances of prolonged wait time, as doctors run into all kinds of stuff that easily bogs down their days, and it just gets worse as the day goes on...

[yoast]

It's not the doctor's fault, it's the numerous latecomers before you. Just schedule the next appointment early in the morning and you won't be waiting.

[ltmgeller]

It is the Drs fault. they overbook. Send them a bill for your time. They bill you if you waste their time, return the favor.

[Chester01]

Originally Posted by airchitect

For the friggin doctor. Is there any other profession allowed to waste their client’s/customer’s time to such an immense degree?? I mean how many hours can I actually stare at the infamous “The Digestive System” poster? And did you know there are supposedly 5 reasons for stomach troubles?


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So, yes its a problem and I agree. But having been on the other side, depending on the specialty or clinics they often have a a fair no-show problem and so to make sure folks get seen timely, many clinics over book/double book intentionally. Now, days that 15% dont show, things may go more smoothly, but days when you have 99% show, you are waiting and waiting a great deal. Throw one emergency situation at 9:30am, and that snowball adds up and by the time you get to the 2:30 patient, they are really behind. Likewise, folks call the clinic, say Im coming in for x, then they get in for x, and failed to mention y (inset serious issue here).

[Pw92676]

At least the wait is shorter than for a steel Rolex

[beshannon]

Originally Posted by Atone

i have left doctor's waiting rooms numerous times. it's ridiculous.

Agreed, I have as well

[Rashid.bk]

Mechanics, doctors and lawyers. We’re at their mercy. One thing to consider that’s a factor in your wait is the other people before you who come late and pushes the time to overlap into your slot.
You’d be surprise how many folks roll up late, except for the elderly as they’re usually always early. People with kids are normally running behind but not always.

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by TheVTCGuy

The part that gets me, being latrophobic (having a fear of doctors and medical procedures in general) is the posters and displays of body parts they have in the waiting room. I am sitting in my urologist office yesterday, and all around me are drawings of all the things that go wrong in urology; Stones, retention, leakage, damaged kidneys ETC! No wonder my blood pressure is sky-high by the time I get to see
the Doctor!!!

Paul, you need to use my doctor, they have a huge aquarium in the center of the waiting room … very calming

[Pw92676]

There is a lack of many specialists in many areas. So often the issue over overbooking is not to squeeze every cent out of the system but it’s because we have to in order to take care od the patient volume. As such, patients sometimes wait. The other issue, for me, is emergencies.

For routine healthy well checkups in an area saturated with general docs, i think anything over 1 hour door to door is a bit much.

[Rock]

I would refute the suggestion that the cause of the 'appointment slippage' is "latecomers".
In my experience (50 years worth) it is the fact that the practice managers insist on booking appointments 10 minutes apart when they should know that the doctor takes at least 20 minutes with every appointment and very few fail to attend.
I try to book the earliest appointment available and then check with the receptionist every 30 minutes as to how far behind my GP is (usually about 1 - 2 hours)
I still usually end up waiting an hour but that is OK - I take a book with me.
My GP never spends less than a half hour with me and sometimes more so I am not about to complain.

[uscmatt99]

Many reasons for the delays, but so far for me it's never been laziness on the part of the providers, so I don't take it out on them. If anything, a few kinds words empathizing with their situation can go a long way towards getting them through the grind.

It would be nice if there were systems in place to message patients when their appointments are going to be delayed, similar to flight delays which are also unpleasant and happen for a variety of reasons. With enough warning, it would decrease time sitting in the waiting room.

[AzPaul]

It would be nice if as you walked into the office, there was a screen, like at the airport, showing the updated, anticipated arrival time of each appointment. So if your 11:00 was now expected to arrive at 12:30, you could check in, then go run an errand or two.

[Blansky]

Originally Posted by airchitect

For the friggin doctor. Is there any other profession allowed to waste their client’s/customer’s time to such an immense degree?? I mean how many hours can I actually stare at the infamous “The Digestive System” poster? And did you know there are supposedly 5 reasons for stomach troubles?

Consider yourself lucky. I dream of getting that far.

I have to sit in the waiting room with the corpses and the old magazines, and the ones put out by the drug companies so the hypochondriacs can think of some new disease they have so they can ask for another prescription, until finally the lady with the clipboard comes out to tell me the doctor went to play golf (was called out on an emergency) and would I like to make another appointment sometime next year.

[airchitect]

Well my issue yesterday was I drove 70miles to my appt, was told the time was now different (3pm instead of 9am), spent the day driving around looking for properties while on calls and ran a few errands, get back to the office at 2:40 for my now 3:00 appointment….taken to the room around 3:30……wait in the room until 4:40 when he finally comes in…… The only remark for all of that? “Sorry to keep you waiting”. No other profession can get away with that garbage. Show up to a meeting 1.5hrs late and you’ve either lost a client or your job.


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[Brew]

Time to start applying performance metrics to these Hippocratic lollygaggers!

[Blansky]

Originally Posted by Brew

Time to start applying performance metrics to these Hippocratic lollygaggers!

And put the patches (like race car drivers) on their white coats that show who all their sponsors are.

[101031-28]

Very fortunate to experience very little wait time, where I live now. Can't say the same for when I lived in FL: literally walked out on more than one occasion!

[uscmatt99]

Originally Posted by Brew

Time to start applying performance metrics to these Hippocratic lollygaggers!

Be careful what you wish for! I'm sure you're joking, but it's almost the equivalent of judging teachers based on student test scores. Once the metric is what matters, it takes precedence.

Case 1. Patient satisfaction surveys. Outcome is to treat the patient's dissatisfaction, more important than treating their diseases.

Case 2. Turnaround times. When timestamps are all that matter, you can always work faster, but quality of work will suffer.

In both cases, non-care-providing administrators make up the metrics, then make a bunch of graphs, schedule a bunch of inefficient and time-consuming meetings, and everyone wrings their hands striving for ways to make the graphs go in the right direction next month. It reminds me of The Wire and the way the city applied useless metrics to the police force, and how they responded.

[Brew]

Can we at least measure and monitor stethoscope temperature?


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[Blansky]

Originally Posted by Brew

Can we at least measure and monitor stethoscope temperature?

And ultrasound wands.

And operating room temperatures. Really, my surgeon is wearing a ski jacket.

[Brew]

Originally Posted by Blansky

And operating room temperatures. Really, my surgeon is wearing a ski jacket.

I would have thought that with all the computers they're keeping cool, there would be at least one showing the time so OP's doc could keep pace.

The insurance companies will fix this; either via metrics or money (as if there's a difference).

[Ferdelious]

I think private insurance can be partly to blame as well. Most small practices have little room to negotiate and usually get reimbursed less than Medicare in the US. Therefore Dr's must book a full schedule and specialist will even do extra testing to boost the reimbursement amount per patient.

[JakeK]

Originally Posted by Ferdelious

I think private insurance can be partly to blame as well. Most small practices have little room to negotiate and usually get reimbursed less than Medicare in the US. Therefore Dr's must book a full schedule and specialist will even do extra testing to boost the reimbursement amount per patient.

This, and the piece on extra testing is a sour point for me.

Did my biometric screening for "free" with my employer. Needed to re-up my rx and the doctor says, you need to come in for an assessment before i can re-up your rx, the same rx i have been on for the last 14 years.

I go in, doctor does a routine check, says ok, i can refill your rx, but i also need to schedule you for a biometric screening, bloodwork, etc. I said i did that with my employer, here is all the information, and doctor says, i can't accept that because our official testing facility wasn't used. I say ok, they take a blood sample.

2 weeks later, $78 bill for the doctor to say you are healthy i can refill your rx and a $442 bill for blood work.

New doctor. 3rd in 4 years.

[Blansky]

Originally Posted by JakeK

This, and the piece on extra testing is a sour point for me.

Did my biometric screening for "free" with my employer. Needed to re-up my rx and the doctor says, you need to come in for an assessment before i can re-up your rx, the same rx i have been on for the last 14 years.

I go in, doctor does a routine check, says ok, i can refill your rx, but i also need to schedule you for a biometric screening, bloodwork, etc. I said i did that with my employer, here is all the information, and doctor says, i can't accept that because our official testing facility wasn't used. I say ok, they take a blood sample.

2 weeks later, $78 bill for the doctor to say you are healthy i can refill your rx and a $442 bill for blood work.

New doctor. 3rd in 4 years.

Pretty soon they're gonna tell us we need undercoating too, and there is a special on that today for $599.

[77T]

So…
Is this the right time to bring up…ahem…”difficult patients”???

To put a fine point on it, I’ve never waited more than 5-10 minutes after the nurses do their prelims - but…then again, I’m N O T “difficult”…



…ahem…


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[airchitect]

Originally Posted by 77T

So…
Is this the right time to bring up…ahem…”difficult patients”???

To put a fine point on it, I’ve never waited more than 5-10 minutes after the nurses do their prelims - but…then again, I’m N O T “difficult”…



…ahem…


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But is the doc a Delicate Genius?


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