It’s common practice here in the United States though. There are sound reasons for it, and it can be a good thing, so long as the doctor does remember that they will need to pause at times to fully assess a patient before moving on. Doctors in the U.S.A. see so many patients in one day, even five minutes can throw their appointment schedules out of whack, not to mention the time it usually takes for the nurse to take your vitals, ask you why you are here, and for you to get undressed if needed. This is why it is so very important to know how to be your own advocate in this country, to be sure all the issues are addressed properly. Since they have to balance between giving proper care to patients, and seeing them all in a timely manner, they can fall behind which means the patient may have a longer wait. I expect up to half an hour’s wait or more if I’m not called on time. Sometimes it’s for an emergency patient (who of course takes priority) and I don’t mind. In general though, I’m called on time and seen in a timely manner. I remember a doctor I had as a young teen who only had one exam room. It took forever to be seen by him. Comparing the two, I prefer multiple exam rooms. (So long as the doctor isn’t perputually in a rush, so much so that they don’t listen.)
It happens here sometimes in instances where there are lots of patients all coming for some kind of standartized examination. For instance check-ups, radiology, preventive medecine, etc…
But when you see a regular doctor or specialist, you just enter his cabinet where he’s waiting for you and leave when he’s finished.
I think I really wouldn’t like a set - up similar to what is described in the OP. I would feel like I’m on an assembly line. That’s ok for a standart exam made by an anonymous doctor but in the case of a family doctor, the kind of patient-doctor relationship I’m expecting would fly out of the window.
Not really, (in my current case at least) I go to a clinic, and I know my doctor’s nurse by name, and she knows me by name. I know she love beads, and has pet dogs. It is possible to still have a good doctor patient relationship, even with multiple exam rooms.
I agree, I haven’t seen a problem with the relationship with the doctor - it depends far more on the doctor him-/herself (and staff) rather than the setup. I get my health care done at the hospital I work at, and my neurologist recognizes me on the few occasions we run into each other in the halls/elevators. On the opposite side of it, I chat with our patients about things we’d discussed at previous visits (vacations, charity work, cooking, whatever), and do my utmost to ensure that their visits go as smoothly as possible with as little sitting-around time as I can manage.
Meanwhile, I know doctors in the same practice who vary widely on how efficient they are at dealing with patients. For instance, two are both very personable, but one tends to putter around needlessly, be kind of scatterbrained, and just slow overall. For him, I tend to start telling him ASAP about what is up with the patient from my interview, just to knock off excess time whenever possible. (Otherwise he’ll skip over my handwritten notes until later The other is nearly hyperactive and is good at getting information from patients quickly yet in a friendly manner.
Multiple exam rooms are also more common at higher-volume clinics. If you’re at a small doctor’s office, or a place where multiple doctors are seeing patients at once but in a small area, the/each doctor may only have one available exam room. For the last couple decades I’ve had all of my health care done at large medical centers so I’m used to the multiple room setup.
There are several advantages to multiple rooms, and a few disadvantages. I’d agree three rooms is an ideal number for a busy medical practice where patients can be seen quickly. I work in a small emergency department which has around ten beds.
Advantages:
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Patients can spend a lot of time dressing and undressing, taking off boots, etc. which adds up when extended over a large number of patients.
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Rooms can be cleaned more efficently after the patient leaves. If the patient “surprises” you with an abcess that stinks up the room for an hour once drained, or a highly infectious disease the room can be closed temporarily and cleaned extensively. And you can still work.
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Some patients come to the doctor seeking narcotics they may not need, treatment for diagnoses they do not have, are rude or unpleasant, etc. This is a minority of patients. Being able to leave these patients and continue to work may be occasionally necessary for the doctor’s sanity. This sounds harsher than it is – but if an addict seeking Percocets for badly-acted back pain wants to cause a fuss, “he” could tie up one room for a long time in an effort to manipulate the doctor. (I am aware most back pain is genuine, and like most doctors place a high emphasis on treating pain. You’d be surprised what we see sometimes.) A doctor named Corrigan made an office with a secret room where he could hide from patients!
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Taking blood, putting on casts, stitching, minor procedures, waiting for people to pee – these things take time to set up and time to clean up which could be used to see other patients.
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Slightly increases the patient’s privacy with a few people on the go.
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Allows the nurse/assistant to do easy but time consuming things like taking vital signs, weigh babies or give vaccinations while the doctor does other things. Important things. Saving lives. Drinking coffee.
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It DOES allow you to consult books, Internet or specialists for the occasional confusing thing without needlessly alarming the patient. Some patients genuinely think (I handle our departmental complaints) any doctor who opens any book for any reason is automatically incompetent. (Surely you should know and reliably remember the 21 subtle types of ankle fractures, doctor? Or what percentage of patients who take doxycycline get dizziness compared to placebo?)
In short, by increasing throughput you can see more patients in a day, cover overhead more easily and look after more patients in your practice.
Disadvantages are few:
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If require a lot of expensive equipment (by definition all medical stuff), you need more with multiple rooms.
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Overheads are higher, but not drastically so since you would still need a place for your receptionist, waiting area, eating area, closets and bathrooms, etc. Another two rooms isn’t a lot of additional space. Rent is not always the largest overhead cost if you employ staff.
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I like to believe patients who complain when waiting ten minutes for the doctor probably complain less when waiting two hours at the auto mechanics.
That said, in a well run practice, patients should not routinely be sitting naked in a cold room for 20 minutes waiting for someone. Apart from an occasional emergency (more so in obstetrics or my line of work than a family doctor’s office, perhaps), in a well-run practice patients can be seen efficiently without undue inconvenience. If this does happen routinely, the doctor simply does not consider your inconvenience a priority. This is occasionally a sign of a deeper problem with the doctor which would not be solved by the number of available rooms. 
Dr_Pap
In Spain, the doctor usually moves only for hospital rounds, ERs or home emergencies. And in an ER the cubicles are all in a row, so the docs are moving a few yards only (and there are more cubicles than docs on duty).
In Japan, in my experience, I went from the waiting room to a sitting room to the exam room. The doctor stays there and patients come in and out.
It seems to me you’re talking about a patient-nurse relationship, here, not about a patient-doctor relationship.
Besides, over here, I can’t remember having seen a doctor who had a nurse.
The nurse is the intermediary between the patient and doctor, they take the vitals, and also notes down things they have observed. They talk to the doctor before the doctor sees the patient. This can strengthen your relationship with the doctor. I know my doctor by first name, and she’s also got dogs and likes country music. (I’m fond of the nurse though because she’s a bead nut too is all.)
I’ve seen a variety of setups in this regard.
My own OB/GYN has her own office, two examining rooms, plus her nurse’s room. Patients are called into the nurse’s room first, for weight, B/P, urine test, etc., then moved to one of the examining rooms to undress and wait for the doctor (who is usually in the other examing room at the time). There are several many doctors on staff there, but they all seem to have their own office, two examining rooms, and a nurse’s room. Then the radiology suite is completely separate, for ultrasounds and mammograms. (I had an annual check-up last week. I waited five minutes in the waiting room, then less than five minutes in the examining room. But I waited nearly an hour in mammmography!)
Our kids go to a multi-doctor pediatric practice, where each doctor seems to have just an office and one examining room. We do have to wait there for about 15 minutes before going into an examining room, but sometimes have to wait another 15 minutes or more before the doctor comes in.
My son’s ENT has the strangest routine I’ve seen, though. It is also a multi-doctor practice, but with three different office locations. There are usually only two or three doctors at any given location on a given day, although there seem to be seven or eight doctors in the practice. The ENT always does the examininations in one particular room, with video otomicroscopes. We generally have to wait in the waiting room for 10-15 minutes, then we are moved to a general examining room with just a dentist-type chair, where we have to wait another 10-15 minutes. Then the nurse brings us into the microscope room to see the doctor when it is our turn. (If son needs a hearing test, we are then sent to a separate, smaller waiting room to wait until the audiology booth is free.) I really don’t see any advantage to being moved to an examining room while waiting to see the doctor, especially since there are no magazines and no TV (unlike the main waiting room), and my son gets bored very quickly, and ends up playing with the mechanical chair. The nurse doesn’t weigh him, and no one asks why we are there until we actually get into the doctor’s examining room. However, this doctor does do his notes dictation (using a recorder) while we are still in the examining room with him–presumably to make sure we know what he is adding to son’s chart that day, and so that I can correct him if he makes any serious errors in the dictation before I leave.