I go to a very big clinic. If I wait more than 15 minutes for a GP it is rare. I get my INR measured every month, and that wait is usually less than five minutes.
The longest wait we’ve had is when my wife’s retina detached, and we got an emergency appointment for the first time at a specialist. That was probably two hours, but they told us it would be a long time. When she has to wait a little longer now for regular visits she doesn’t mind, since she no doubt caused someone else to have to wait when she needed to push her way in.
We wait because there is an artificial shortage of doctors in America. They augment the shortage with foreign doctors who probably make less money and are less trained.
Two of them were ER visits (both times I had been sent there BY my regular doctor, once with STAT orders. Both waits were over 6 hours long).
The third time was an emergency (not a sick emergency). I had been told by a judge to see my surgeon for a followup but I had driven 5 hours for that stupid hearing and was about to drive back home. My surgeon was nice enough to add me in before I left for home. I waited 2 hours for a 5 minute appointment but it saved me having to drive back later. I would have waited 5 hours or more without complaining for that exam.
I also had a two 1-hour delays in because of other people’s emergencies but both times I was told right from the start that there would be a long wait.
I have been very very lucky.
Interesting. According to the WHO the USA has more doctors per capita than the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, although we have less than many other European countries.
Do you think people in all the other English speaking countries spend more time in their doctors’ waiting rooms?
I took my daughter to the ER a few years back with…ummm…something, don’t remember. We were in the waiting room for maybe 20 minutes. It wasn’t busy at all. They brought us back to an examining room where we sat for well over an hour. I went out and complained to one of the nurses. She told me it would be a little longer. I looked at her and told her that if it was any longer we’d leave. There’s really no other patients in here, no one’s even come in to check on us and you guys are all sitting at the nurses station chit chatting, can’t someone come in and take a look at her. She again told me that it would be a little longer. At that point I threatened to leave.
“Well, then where are you going to go?”
“I’ll take her to Children’s Hosp”
“You’ll have to wait even longer there ya know”
“Fine, then I’ll take her to the real St Lukes”
“Ummm, errr, someone will be right there”
I’m not sure why that got under her skin, but we had someone in the room within a few minutes of that comment.
There are two St Lukes Hospitals in my area. I took her to the little one because it’s a few blocks from my house. They must not like losing patients to the bigger one even though they’re both owned by the same group.
Primary Physicians don’t get paid as much as specialists, so there are fewer of them. They have to see more patients in a day to get the money they want, and so only get a few minutes time with each.
Some of them are ridiculous about RXs, though. There’s no reason that a pharmacy should have to send a refill request for a week straight without a response. Just sign the freakin’ thing and send it back. Oh, and don’t forget to actually put extra refills on so we don’t have to go through the same thing next month.
Both those waits were pretty awful. The first one was bad only partly because of the pain. I was so dehydrated I was barely able to hold myself in a sitting position. They finally took me in after my boyfriend told them he thought I was hallucinating.
For the second visit, I was in so much pain that sitting and standing were equally horrible. Lying down in a slightly fetal position was the only thing I could tolerate. In addition, I was (again) severely dehydrated and this time I WAS hallucinating. I had a lot of fun after they gave me the morphine though. I was still hallucinating but at least it was funny.
In their defense, both times the ER was amazingly busy with walk-in and ambulance patients.
I’ve been made to wait way longer than I think is reasonable (what good are appointments if you are going to ridiculously overbook every day?), but never 4 hours.
I was too. I was venting more then anything when I said it. It was a few years ago, but IIRC she told me I would still get a bill and think I replied that if I got one, I’d call their billing department and explain what happened. That may have had more to do with it.
Afterwords I was talking to my (ex)FIL and told him the story. He works at a different hospital within the same group and told me that they take complaints very seriously. He said every. single. complaint. is followed up on. Maybe that’s what they were worried about. They truly were doing nothing at all out there. Just chit chatting. I suppose it’s possible they had been in trouble for it before.
That is only typical if I am a work in–but that is usually what I am. It’s the reason I no longer go to the doctor unless I have to. And I’m going to talk to him about how much anxiety it produces waiting around in the office, and maybe get the same treatment one other patient did–being called when it is close to time that they will be called.
I put up with it for two reasons. One, this type of scheduling is the norm around here. Two, while he is an older doctor, he stays 100% up on the research. So I get the best of both worlds there–the experience and the knowledge. Every other doctor I’ve ever met of his age is behind the times, while the young doctors tend to miss things that are obvious to him from experience.
Plus, I could call the fact that he actually listens to me as a third reason, but I tend to lump it in with the second one. His experience says that I know what the heck I’m talking about. Sure, he’s not going to give me unnecessary medication, but he will listen when I tell him something isn’t quite right, and, if I have looked up anything online, he will gladly allow me to fax it to him so he can check it and see if it’s valid for our situation.
It’s just the time thing that is bad. I’d say he spends half his day running to the hospital. I’ve tried to get him to thus schedule more time for appointments, but he won’t–even if he’s still there at 8:00 when the last appointment time is at four.
That said, I will go to the “Medi-Quick” for minor problems. My insurance will cover it as long as my PCP is not open. The longest anything has ever taken is 30 minutes, and that’s when they are extremely busy. It helps to have multiple doctors and nurse practitioners.
I can tell you how the GP practice I work in books their patients.
Each doc has twelve 10minute slots per half day session.
There will be on average 8 slots filled with named patients.
2 are blocked out to allow the doc to catch up on paperwork, appointments that run over, or to make and return phone calls.
The other 2 slots will be either “book on day” for walk-ins, or a double appointment.
Docs often add in “extras” during the week (say you want to see a rash in 3 days to check if it is getting better), so there may be 3 patients booked for a single 10 minute time if the doc expects them to be quick appointments and knows they need seen that day.
Then you have to add in the vagaries of the patients: people who show up an hour early and expect to be seen out of turn; people who turn up an hour late and expect to be seen immediately; people who don’t cancel in advance; people who cancel and change their minds and turn up- we have it all.
With all of that, patients rarely have to wait more than 15-20 mins if they are on time.
My GP is great - I am rarely in that chair for more than ten minutes, same with my daughter’s pediatrician.
The only times I have run into wait, is the ER and with a specialist. The ER can be a long wait, depending on why I am there. I have learned a few things.
If it’s an ear infection that my daughter has woken up with in the middle of the night I DO NOT take her to the children’s hospital, because honestly, they are used to the sound of a child crying and will leave her waiting for a long time. If I take her to a smaller, community one they will hurry since they feel badly for her.
A migraine will get you right in, pretty much.
If I am going to see a specialist that I know is bad for running behind (like my neuro), I’ll call first and ask. The last time he was two and a half hours behind. He’s very thorough and everything, but if I know that ahead of time then I will wait and come in in two hours. I am still “in line” since it’s sorted by appointment time.