If you have been waiting for 20+ minutes tell them you want to reschedule For me this moves me to the top of the list. I’ve only done it around 4 times but it worked for all 4. They don’t want to reschedule.
Well, I’m going to disagree. I am on the other side of that equation and we’ll re-schedule your ass in a heartbeat.
mmm
I’ve never had to wait long for a scheduled doctor’s appointment, but if I were kept waiting more than 15 minutes or so I’d go up and tell the receptionist they were losing me as a patient, then I’d follow through.
The receptionist does not care, trust me.
mmm
Fine, but my time has value. If I make an appointment for 2 pm, I expect to be seen at 2 pm unless there’s one helluva excuse.
ETA: I’m telling her to be polite, instead of just walking out.
My Dr’s office has a sign instructing patients to speak to the receptionist if they’ve waited more than 15minutes. I’ve never had to, and I’ve never seen anyone else do so either.
I understand. Also, the lateness is often due to overbooking rather than some emergency going on. When they overbook they count on some folks not showing up. When everyone does come, everyone waits.
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By “waiting,” do you mean waiting in the reception area, until they escort you to an exam room? Or, including the extra waiting in the exam room?
They learned this trick from Disneyland.
So, you want the doc to work on a strict, inflexible, pre-determined schedule? And if the next patient’s appointment time arrives while you’re still discussing something, it’s ok with you if the doc just gets up and walks out?
For any medical appointment of procedure, I always ask for the first appointment in the day.
I’ve a doctor who is frequently late to appointments because the practice tends to schedule one every 15 minutes; but this doctor genuinely listens and asks questions to figure out what is going on, so it usually takes more than 15 minutes. They also don’t gaslight patients, which is a lovely thing. (Friend of a friend is currently dying, quickly, of stage 4 cancer of some sort. Had been to see a doctor multiple times only to be told it was just indigestion or something equally innocuous. By the time they did real tests, it was too late.)
Anyway, I will wait for this doctor because having a doctor who cares enough to take as much time as necessary to figure out what’s going on is worth a whole lot to me.
Ditto. That was going to be my advice, too.
It’s like getting stuck in traffic. A little delay here, a little delay there, and pretty soon you are stuck in the back of the pack. Even if a doctor is just going a few minutes over for each patient it might mean that a person being seen in the late afternoon has a significant wait. Get ahead of that by being at the front of the queue!
This. I will wait for my ob/gyn because she listens, is an excellent doc and often schedules her surgery for morning and appts in the afternoon. I have been one of the patients who’s unexpectedly-complicated surgeries made her late to afternoon appointments. I will wait over an hour for her if necessary.
First appointment after lunch is also a pretty good time.
This would get you rescheduled in our office, too.
~Max
I select doctors who spend as much time with each patient as the patient wants. So if there’s nothing much, my appointment is quick, but if I have weird uncomfortable whatever, the doctor takes the time to listen to me and answer my questions.
My doctors always run late. I assume the two are related. I just plan for my appointment with my GP will take longer than booked. I’m always pleasantly surprised when I see an eye doctor or something and they are running on-time.
(And yes, if my schedule is tight, I try for the first appointment of the morning.)
My doctor’s assistant or nurse will escort me immediately into the examination room. Then I often wait 15-20 minutes for the doctor. I’d rather wait in the waiting room, it’s warmer there. This happens when I am the first appointment, or the first one after lunch, or at any other time. I’ve never complained, and I have no idea what he’s doing or why it takes so long to get him into the room with me. I have apparently accepted this as normal.
My brother once, after waiting in reception a very long time for a very late appointment, responded when called to see the doctor, “Sorry, I just started reading a really interesting article in this magazine. You go back to your room and wait and I’ll come and see you when I’m finished.” Some of the other patients applauded.
So you won’t mind sitting in the exam room for an extra half hour or more because the doctor overbooked?
If you’re in the emergency room you’ll get in faster if you’re bleeding. So take a knife with you in case it’s crowded.