All of the doctors I work for (four of them) get pissed when their schedule is not full. Underbooking is not an option.
And yes, Susie, you absolutely should have been seen before the 3:15, and you should have said something. Unless that was your first appointment, and you were asked to be there 20 minutes early for paperwork, but you got there only 5 minutes early instead.
I’m going to write a letter. It will be polite, professional, and to the point. It may get more attention than a phone call.
Then again, the office manager may read it, roll her eyes, and toss it.
It was definitely not my first visit, as I was about eight months along at that point. And at the time I really wasn’t sure whether it was the usual thing to do, so I bit my tongue. I will now feel a little retroactive anger (grrr) and vindication (ahh). Thanks!
Just yesterday I had an appointment at the eye doctor. My appointment was at 11:30 and I arrived 15 minutes early to fill out papers. After an hour (12:30) of waiting in a totally empty waiting room, I grabbed a scurrying receptionist and asked what was going on.
“Oh, doctor is behind”
Me: “And why wasnt I told this when I checked in? I took 2 hours off of work to get my basic eye exam- that should have been more than enoug time.”
She apologized, took me back and did the basic eye tests, then had me wait in a room. Where I waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, 45 minutes later the doctor walks in and does my exam- without even an apology.
Then I find out that they wanted $250 for my super light, basic prescription and that they’d need my glasses for two weeks to fill it.
Yeah, I wont be going back.
I’ve seen all kinds of doctors…
My obstetrician (who I saw when I was pregnant, and needed an obstetrician) was in practice by himself. I liked this, because then I knew exactly what doctor would be in the delivery room with me, unlike the large OB practice that had 10 different doctors who might be on call at any given time of the day or night. Sure, it meant I had to wait to see the doctor if he was delivering someone else’s baby, but the receptionist was very good at letting me know ahead of time if she could, and rescheduling me at a convenient time if I couldn’t wait. The only time I had to wait more than 15 minutes to see him was if I chose to wait for him to get back from the hospital.
Our kids’ pediatrician office is also very good at getting us in fairly close to the scheduled time, as is the ENT and the endocrinologist.
The only real problems we have are with the psychiatrists. My daughter’s psychiatrist is absolutely the worst. When we have an appointment with him, we generally bring a bag full of books to read while we wait–we once had to wait three hours to see him! Rescheduling is not an option, since he has at least a three-month waiting list. I generally schedule appointments later in the day, just so I don’t have to feel terribly rushed, but I wish they would at least give out beepers like restaurants use, so I can run a couple of errands at nearby stores while we wait.
Changing doctors is not really an option either. We can’t find any other psychiatrists in the area that are taking new patients and that our daughter is willing to see, and her meds are literally life-and-death at this point.
The upside is that the main reason the wait time is so long is because the doctor really does want to talk to his patients. He does take time to listen to our concerns, and discuss problems with us, and we never feel like he is trying to rush us out of his office so he can see the next patient. His nurse may schedule patients only ten minutes apart, but he will spend as much time as he needs to with each of those patients.
Oh yeah! I did once get “forgotten” at my GYN’s office. I checked in about five minutes before my appointment time, then saw them calling back two or three women who arrived after me. I went up to the desk and politely asked how much longer I might have to wait (rather than accusing them of making me wait). They had apparently misplaced my chart, but I was the next one called back to the examination area. They even made a note on my chart that I had been “forgotten,” and the result was that I got through the mammogram faster, too.
I agree with the necessity to tell people the facts of the situation.
I’ve had a number of experiences with this kind of thing.
Once I had to take time off from work for a doctor’s appointment that had taken a week or so to set up, so I called ahead and asked if the schedule was running slow or on time. I was assured I’d be seen at the appointed time. When I arrived, I asked the same question, with the same answer. A very long time later, at least a half hour, this was repeated. By this time, I was expecting that my children would be returning from school to an unexpectedly empty house. I asked to use the office’s phone to make a local call to my neighbor and was told to go out into the street and use the pay phone. When I was eventually seen, over an hour and a half after my orginal appt. time, I pointed out that I wished I had been told originally that appointments were running late so that I could make adjustments in my own schedule. I was then told that this was “impossible” to determine. Nonsense! You can’t see that the person you just called in to the exam room at 4:30 had a 3:00 appointment? Wouldn’t this kind of tell you that the person with the 4:15 appointment is going to be waiting a while?
My main issue was that they were not telling me the truth.
I’ve had this happen with a gynocologist (whom I also no longer see) – the office staff had the attitude that no woman had anything better to do than sit & wait for the MD. I pointed out that I would like to send them the bill for the hourly wages I’d forfeited by having to wait unncessarily because they lied to me. “Hmmph!” sniffed the nurse/receptionist. “You must make more per hour than I do!” “Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. And you just cost me $xxx.”
Again, I have no problem if I show up (or call) and am told, “The doctor <had an emergency occur/is running late/is delayed at another site/whatever>. Would you like to wait, or would you prefer to reschedule?”
It’s a matter of realistic scheduling. I don’t buy the “We *have * to book X patients per hour.” If you schedule, say, 10 patients per hour for exams and/or treatments that take more than 6 minutes, it is obvious that you will not be able to keep that schedule. Instead of treating 50 patients in five hours you will treat those 50 patients in six, seven, or even eight hours. So why not originally spread these appointments over the 6, 7 or 8 hours? You will be working past the projected end time of your work day anyhow. I can understand that the person doing the scheduling pads it by a little bit to allow for a *few * no-shows. I can also understand doctors who send bills for complete no-shows that don’t notify him/her in advance.
Incidentally, I’ve been going to the same dentist for decades. I’ve NEVER had to wait more than about 5 minutes for my appointment. He handles emergencies, too. Somehow, he manages and flourishes. He also charges a “no-show” fee unles notified in advance of an appt. you can’t make. When he gets notified by someone who can’t make a scheduled visit, the staff calls everyone who has an appointment later that day, or within the next few days, or who has said their needs are urgent, if they’d like to come in earlier.
Until just recently I worked for a neurologist. She doesn’t double book - return patient visit were scheduled for 15 minutes, new patient visits got 30 minutes. We even left a couple open spots during the day as catch up time. However, she consistantly runs late. For the most part it’s because she gives every patient as much time as they want or need. She’s not one to pop in and pop out. However, she’s very easily side-tracked and will just get behind. Her patients know this and seem to be very understanding about it. We explain that just as she doesn’t rush them, she doesn’t rush her other patients. Generally, they’re glad to get real personal attention from a doctor and are willing to put up with the wait as a trade-off.
StG
My family doctor always has at least an hour’s waiting time. He’s very popular. He won’t take any new patients, but families always expand and such, so his part of the waiting room is always full. However, he has been my family’s physician for over twenty years. My parents were transferred to him when he first started his practice. He was supposed to have delivered me, but he was on vacation. This guy knows as much about me as my parents. I’m willing to deal with the wait because he’s such a good doctor. Plus he is one of the few in the city that actually isn’t foreign. Not a bash against foreign doctors, but often their accents are too hard for me to understand, and the one I did have to see hadn’t even heard of the medication I needed refilled. I had to repeat the name several times and tell him how to spell it (it was the product name, not the actual complicated compound name). Sadly, this was such a common drug that the brand name is almost used as a catch-all for the type of pill (like Kleenex for tissue).