What's the point of making a doctor's appointment if they never see you at that specific time?

According to doctors. they are often dealing with emergencies, etc. I get that, but I still feel like our time as patients is less valued than theirs.

It’s a necessary evil – they do it just to know how many people they’ll see that day but these days doctors have to see so many patients to make their most money that it’s ridiculous…with my second pregnancy I was stuck with a bad insurance doctor and I knew that though my appointment was at 9 am and I was there then, that I’d get to see him around noon…

The excuse I’ve heard is that they can’t accurately anticipate how long they will spend with each patient. People will make an appointment for a sore throat, then while they’re there they will ask about their cholesterol, that weird mole, their depression medication…

Bite the bullet and bring a book or some work to do. Consider yourself lucky that the doctor will see you at all this month and not in February. Or check with the receptionist about how late the Doc. is running. Maybe there is time for a brisk walk or a cup of tea.

Aren’t we the customers? We pay them.

I’m the first appointment. BTW, I just got seated in a room.

I have had three doctors that generally take me ontime or within 10 minutes of the appointment. The rest it could be up to 2 hours waiting. One of the docs who takes me on time, well I do not go to that doc anymore because I am out of state, would make you reschedule if you showed up 20 minutes or more late he was a GP. The other two docs that take me on-time don’t take insurance, have practices that rarely have emergencies, are specialists, and schedule appointments for 30 minutes to an hour, depending on your situation.

They’re busy.

I have changed doctors many times, due to inattentiveness (I shouldn’t have to remind them of what I’m there for every 2 minutes) overbooking (don’t need to see them that often) and just not seeming to care enough to do their job. I mean is it really neccessary to check my heart,lungs, blood pressure, and send me on my way every time? I have had to ASK a doctor to look at a wound , or even just do a basic exam- rather than just talk and herd me out. I’m getting a new one this time because the current one falls into all the aforementioned categories.

also, if a Doc examines something personal, 2 taps is not an “exam” its more like counting. LAME!

@gottamakeart One thing about standard checks….when I finally got insurance, after going 4 years without, the first thing I did was make an appointment for a basic check up. I’d never had any problems, but a routine check of my BP showed it was bad, BAD! Normal is 120/75 or so. Mine was 225/125. They couldn’t believe I was still alive! I’m just glad I get to see a doctor if I need to, now.

Some doctors are better managers than others. The kicker is that they spend years and years in school and in training to be doctors, but no one ever teaches them along the way how to run a medical practice. If your doctor is consistently running behind you may need to find another doctor.

Part of the problem is I think the vast majority of people waiting to see the doctor are there for non-issues. A cough or a cold or some little thing that will clear up on its own, given a little time.

I’m thankful that we have free health care here (Canada). Usually, I have to wait a bit, but, I don’t mind. When scheduling an appointment, I take the wait into consideration and will make the appt. when I’m not in a hurry to do something else or go somewhere. If I have an emergency, I’ll go to a walk-in clinic or up to emerg. I usually get in right away.

@Darwin can I just pick up on your point. Many of them don’t give a damn about customer service, and they don’t care if their staff has a high level of service. I get better service, am treated with more courtesy, when I buy a dress at Bloomingdale’s then when I am worried about my health. Pisses me off. I think many doctors don’t think of it like they are dealing with the public, but more like the patient is at the mercy of their services.

@tinyfaery: I dare you to ask your doctor why you had to wait so long….

Apparently a certain percentage of people don’t show up to appointments. When scheduling patients, doctors will overbook by this percentage and hope that it’s accurate. Unfortunately this makes for long waits. I’m sure there are emergencies but I think this accounts for most of the delays.

They might be doing paperwork/tests/seeing another patient.

They are most likely screwing around though. Doing crosswords or cryptograms, checking their Myspaces, text messaging their wives (or friends), engaging in sexual activity somewhere, etc. Who knows? Bring your iPod and make yourself comfortable.

I do my best to take my patients on time, and will even start early if possible. However, there are occasions when the schedule gets messed up, and I can’t help it. The worst is when the first patient of the day comes in late, doesn’t have their referral and insurance in order, etc. because that backs up the whole day. Also, my patients know that when I am with them, they have my undivided attention and I won’t rush, but check to make sure I’ve addressed every concern. Sometimes that takes more than half-an-hour that’s been booked. So they don’t mind waiting, because they understand that I am busy helping someone else.

Like you, I recently scheduled an 8:30 appointment to be the first of the day, I got there early to complete the paperwork, and I still had to wait. The Dr. didn’t get to the office until 20 minutes late, and then I sat several more minutes before he called us back. I was very annoyed, because it wasn’t the type of Doctor that has surgeries or many emergencies – and even if there was a rare emergency – the staff should have informed me. I always tell patients if I’m running behind and apologize for it.

first come first serve (unless there is an emergency)
few things are more aggravating than someone who came in after you getting treated first.

@JLeslie – It used to be that doctors got no training in customer service or considering the feelings of their patients, but medical schools are trying to address that these days. However, you need to always remember this: What do you call someone who graduates last in his class at medical school? Doctor.

Sometimes the solution is to change doctors.

We lucked into a truly marvelous nephrologist a few years back when my husband was suddenly hospitalized. Since then we have asked him for names of doctors he respects and admires in other fields as we have needed those specialists, and as a result the majority of the doctors my husband sees are brilliant, caring and organized people, including his opthalmic surgeon, his cardiologist, his cardiac surgeon, his pulmonologist, his hand surgeon, his neurologist, and his internist.

However, there is one ENT clinic we will never go back to. Although it was a pediatric specialty clinic there was equipment and files stored all over the waiting room, no place for kids to play, and many signs telling parents not to let children touch anything. Waits at that clinic were typically two to three hours past appointment time and the staff never offered any explanation. So we voted with our feet.

OTOH, there was one doctor I used to go to who, while typically pretty much on time, sometimes was very behind schedule. The reason in his case, however, was that he had a large number of elderly patients who often keeled over with heart problems or strokes, or who simply took a sudden turn for the worse. He would have to run to their bedsides suddenly, which, of course, would play havoc with his office schedule. However, I have recommended that my parents consider him as their PCM (Primary Care Manager) because he never neglects his hospitalized patients.

My mother had to be re-hospitalized over the weekend on an emergency basis. She has Parkinson’s dementia, which gets incredibly bad when she is ill. The staff had her chart and were told this, yet when my father came the next morning to see her, someone had put her in a chair in just a hospital gown with no blanket and she was shivering, because hospitals are kept cold to limit infection. In addition, she was not slated to get lunch because she was unable to write her choices on the menu slip. She was in essence invisible.

Well, the doctor I referred to in the previous paragraph has no invisible patients. That is why he is sometimes held up at the hospital. His staff always explains in full what is going on and offers to reschedule anyone who needs to leave, and then he also re-explains once he arrives and he apologizes. The only reason I stopped going to him was that when I left my job to take care of my husband I had to switch from my insurance to my husband’s, and this doctor wasn’t on their “list.”

@ragingloli: There are different reasons for that. Sometimes there is more than one professional in the office. Sometimes they are there for a procedure that requires a bit of preparation or a different room.

Also, if my 10:30 patient comes in at 9:45, but my 10:00 patient comes in right on time, who should I see first? I take the 10:00, because that is their time – the later patient chose to get there extremely early (trust me – it happens!).

So first come, first served just doesn’t in most cases.

@jmah YAY! I’ve been looking for someone from Canada to weigh in! The media here in the US keeps recycling some medical horror story from one woman in Canada that had a bad experience, and hold that up as the failing of the overall Health system in Canada. Like, we don’t have our share of mishaps and accidents!

@hearkat one doctor i have who always runs very late, I usually call the office ahead to see if they are running on time, so I don;t rush just to wait. His office tells me he is on time, and then I wait 2 hours. I was pissed one time, because when I first got to the office the waiting room was full, and I asked a few pt’s their appointment time, they were all before me up to an hour before me. I asked the receptionist why she lied, not in those words, and she said she thought they would catch up. So my question to you is, if you are running way behind would you bother to have your office call and let pts who are scheduled later that day know?

We tend to arrive early for doctor appointments simply because it is better to be there in case the previous patient has canceled and we can get called in early. We also find doctors, as human beings, appreciate it when patients consider their needs. That means we are less invisible and may even get a few more minutes of the doctor’s time.

@JLeslie Wow…I am SO sorry to hear about your mother. My Mom had dementia and a crappy doctor, and as a result none of her complaints were ever taken seriously. She almost died when they refused to see her once when she told them she was sick. Four days later she was in the ER. May I ask where you live?

I’m also thinking that the better doctors spend the time with their patients as needed, rather than just hustling them through. As a result, visits that may have been scheduled for 15 minutes runs over several times a day, putting everyone behind. But, when you’re on the receiving end of the over-and-above care, you’re not likely to complain, even if it’s running the other patients late!

@JLeslie: My schedule is different, because I have larger blocks of time: half-hours, hours and even 90-minute appointments, so I can usually catch up somehow. Our ENT physicians’ schedules have about 8 patients booked per hour… and yes, if they get very behind from an emergency, our staff does call to inform patients and offer to reschedule.

I am very fortunate with my clerical staff at the office where I am on most days, because they are very efficient and conscientious. Some of our other locations have staff members that are unmotivated and/or clueless, and I get very frustrated with them. And I know as a patient how big a difference it makes dealing with rude receptionists.

@Val123 – Perhaps you meant to direct your comment to me, @Darwin? If so, we are in Texas. My parents are in Austin, Texas, but are planning on moving to Corpus Christi where I live so I can help keep them from becoming invisible.

@hearkat Thanks.

@hearkat – We have an excellent podiatric surgeon. He is great with patients and with procedures but…the man seems to be completely clueless about how to hire decent staff. He goes through staff like others change their socks. In other words, every time we go to his office he has a whole new staff, most of whom are totally clueless. Since he is a perfectionist as many surgeons seem to be he has no patience with foul ups so he fires folks. A lot.

We keep hoping he will go into partnership with someone who is better able to hire good people and keep them.

The problem is that,they just as you, want the Doctors undivided attention.
You want to be coddled and told all will be well. Talking about your kids and where you went on vacation.

That is fine and dandy. Except for the people waiting for your stroking session to end.

@Darwin Sorry! “Invisible…” Yes. That’s a good word for it. It’s heartbreaking,and I’m really glad you’re going to be able to take care of them.

My mother has senile dementia; my sis and I have instructed all the nurses at her Docs’ offices to call us for any changes or questions. My sister had to the wit to verify an app’t with the cardiologist for this coming Mon. “Oh,” the nurse said. “We’ve changed that. The doctor will be at school. I called your mother and left a message.”

Luckily, we caught the app’t change. (And the doc is going to Shul for Yom Kippur and the nurse got annoyed when we told her my mother never picks up the phone.)

@gailcalled – I just give the doctor’s offices my cell phone number and no other number. That way they have to call me and let me know when things are changed. They never asked whose number it was, and I just neglected to tell them.

My husband either doesn’t answer the phone or forgets the message as soon as he hangs up.

@gailcalled That is annoying. Either they don’t check notes in the chart or never put the correct note there to call you. I would get rid of every trace of your mothers phone number if possible from her chart. I live in Memphis, and it seems here they still think of phone numbers in 7 digits. I have a local phone number for my land line, and my cell is still out of state. If I give both they will always call my local number even though I have marked the cell as the one to call. This has happened many time by different office, and now I just don’t give the local number anymore. Memphis boarders two other states, so two other area codes and they still can’t get their brains around it, drives me crazy.

It was the first appointment and they had you waiting?! Ugh, I let it slide when I have a late appointment, because I know they squeeze people in with emergencies…and I try to be understanding since I may very well be someone that needs to be squeezed in one day.

At my last gyno, they had me wait 4 hours to be seen. It was the longest I’ve ever waited, but it took months to even get the appointment so I had to stick it out.

Was the doctor even in yet? Ugh. I’d be pissed. I’ve asked them what took so long before, I find since they are billing me so much that I have the right to ask.

@Darwin: Here in the beautiful hill country, neither my sis or I have cell phone reception at home, (unless I happen to be standing on the roof of my car).

@gailcalled They called and left a message for your mother?? Things like that bring everything about the doctors into question. Really shakes your confidence.

When I worked for a local company that was hospitals, health insurance and a medical group, they instituted a formal scheduling and paneling process that was designed to keep doctors’ panels full of patients and to keep appointments on schedule. You may want to look for something similar, likely from one of the larger medical
groups in your area.

The upside was that appointments did go on time. The downside was that appointment times were short (15–30 minutes for primary care), and the interactions were relatively scripted. During my last appointment with my PCP, it was obvious he was running slightly behind and he totally whipped through the script. While he said the words about asking if I had any more questions, the pace and tone sort of threw me off guard enough that I felt like I also needed to hurry up and finish the appointment.

So there’s pros and cons. If you get a doc like that, they are likely to have a sizeable panel of patients to ensure they stay busy, and your interactions may become more rote, which is good for 90% of prevention, but not as good probably for individualized care.

@gailcalled – Then tell the doc that your mom has a new phone number and give them one she can’t answer and that has an answering machine on it, at either your place or your sister’s.

The cardiologist is kind, thorough and gentle with my mother. He assumes that his nurses and receptionists will do their jobs. When my sis is there on Tues., she will rattle some cages, yet again.

I am willing to wait for a doctor I like, especially if he is patient with me once I get into the office with him, but I think the staff should let you know he is running behind when you check in or if you call. In Memphis they also have “no cell phones” posted in every medical waiting room. In FL they provide phones in the waiting rooms. I gotta move.

I like to think that appointment times are sort of an outline, a suggestion, or a goal that they try to follow. I know they have a lot to do. Doctors have big responsibility. Some do a really great job. My old obgyn, though… I was often her first appointment and I’d be waiting for an hour and a half just for her to get her ass to the building. Even when I wasn’t waiting in the morning, she took forever once I got in the exam room. It couldn’t have been because she was busy with someone else because she never spent more than 3 minutes in the room with me during a visit. I should’ve left her much earlier than I did. She proved to be very inconsiderate much more than just running late.

@ubersiren Ugh, that’s the worst…getting your hopes up because you get taken back to the exam room only to wait forever! I hate that.

I switched to a midwifery practice and I get in to see my practitioner right at my appointment time (+/- a few minutes) each time I’ve gone (yes, sometimes they’re even early).

My primary care physician, however, often runs late. She is extremely thorough and takes her time with patients in crisis (believe me, I’ve been one of them). I have been with her for a long time, and fully trust and respect her, so I just plan on waiting.

I got to the doctor at 8am. I was out of the doctor’s office at 9:08am. Then I waited for lab work for 50min. I was at the doctor for 2 hours. I spent a total of about 15 minutes (maybe) with the health care staff. Damn. Our medical system is broken.

@casheroo – That happened to me once literally. I was at a new allergist’s office. They took me back to the exam room and I waited, and waited, and waited, and then I waited some more, until I fell asleep.

Turns out they forgot I was there. Fortunately, they found me when they came it to turn off the lights before going home. Needless to say, I have never been back to that practice.

Background: I’m a medical receptionist, and have worked with several types of specialists in a few areas of the US.

@JLeslie We do try to call people scheduled for later in the day when the docs are running late, but this is difficult because we are already given more than enough work for each day. I can’t fall behind on things like checking people in, verifying benefits, mailing our evaluations and collecting copays, and in a large enough practice such things take up all your time. Hiring more people somehow never seems to help. Also, while we try to check notes every time, sometimes it becomes a matter of simply calling and leaving a message on a particular number because we’re required to. If my boss doesn’t see “LM – my initials” next to an appointment he knows needs to be rescheduled, I get in trouble. And again, it comes down to a time crunch – I’ll call and leave a message at the home number just in order to get that note on the chart, and then come back and keep trying to get ahold of a live person on another number if I have time later. As far as your doc’s office prioritizing the local number, even after you told them to prioritize a different one…that’s just stupid and lazy. I hate working with people like that; makes so much more work for me.

@all Don’t put up with shoddy service from receptionists – tell the doc that the receptionist is treating you less than kindly, or that you were lied to. I would beg my patients to tell on my coworkers if it wouldn’t look unprofessional all around. Lazy coworkers make my life harder, and I can’t stand it when receptionists act bored or oblivious. We’re here to help suffering people who are paying good money for our service, and most of us get paid a good deal to do it. There’s no reason you should feel anything less than pampered. Even if emergencies happen, part of what we’re there for is to apologize thoroughly for the emergency.

It gets hard, though, when a doc is dependent on a particular receptionist who isn’t so great with patient relations. Then there’s nothing to do but switch docs. When picking a new doc, ask how long they have each patient blocked for, and whether they reserve blank blocks in their schedules for catching-up time and emergency visits.

Some words on being a good patient: try really hard not to be a patent who calls at the last minute to be squeezed in – even though these are always important appointments, and we do our best to accommodate you because the doc wants to see you, too, this is what usually gets schedules off-kilter. Ask how long, on average, your doc gets booked up in advance, and be sure to call for future appointments well before that period of time begins to elapse.

@tinyfaery We have an especially hard time calling you first appointments to warn you the doc’s running late, because the doc can’t usually let us know this in advance as we are all supposed to get to the office at the same time and only very shortly before you do. I’d actually recommend going for the first appointment following the doc’s lunch break if possible, especially if you can find a nervous skinny person who obviously lives only on Dr. Pepper and Fruit Loop marshmallow squares, like my favorite doc at work. Sometimes I feel like I’m helping a 5-year-old who happens to give epidurals.

Just the act of being late is disrespectful. I’m there on time, early actually. I can understand a true emergency, but being late to work should be a rarity. And what doctor doesn’t have a cell phone?

@tinyfaery Of course it’s disrespectful, and should be a rarity. No argument there. And for sure, they have cell phones. But if we’re all three of us on our way to arrive near-simultaneously at the office, and he wants to call my cell to ask me to call you and tell you he’s running late, there are several problems involved. I am not yet on the clock, for one. But even if I wanted to help, as I sometimes do after hours inasmuch as I can, I don’t have access to the schedule through my cell phone or laptop, and I don’t tend to memorize which patient is coming in first the next day. Even if I did, I couldn’t possibly get that first patient’s number until I get to the office. The doc, generally speaking, will also encounter these problems if he tried to call you directly – though some keep access to the scheduler on their home computers to try to allay this problem and stay on top of their sh*t. I’m just saying, as a matter of practicality, that if a doc is running late there’s not much we can do about it for the first person of the day. This factor is somewhat mitigated for people scheduled later in the day.

I get your point, but don’t you agree that what you are describing happens very infrequently? The amount of time I have spent waiting for doctors cannot be due to reasons you described above.

True. Hm, why it happens…a subtle question, that. OK, a theory: I see two contributing factors. First, there’s the general human tendency to focus on what’s in front of us, which is, of course, no excuse, but is perhaps an underlying reason for lateness in general. But more so, I think that maybe one reason it’s so prevalent in doctors’ offices is because of the stress involved in working in a doctor’s office. I find that in order to not become completely shell-shocked and overwhelmed by the amount of people who want me to do things for them, all of whom are in dire and immediate need, I have to ignore most of them at any given point in time. And many simple tasks in the medical world are quite time-consuming. For example, at least once a day I have someone call who’s in great pain, waiting at the pharmacy just for us to fax over a script, and there’s like 6 steps involved in getting that to happen. All I can do is to forcibly shut all concerns out of my mind except for the next one in line. I know that the docs feel this, but more so. My dad’s a pediatric neurologist, and a few years ago I worked for another peds neuro. Both these people sacrificed almost all family time because the patients just never stop coming at you; it’s a constant bombardment of intense need. So I guess I’m thinking that the tendency towards lateness may be a psychological defense mechanism for doctors to be able to interact with patients and not become overwhelmed – an extension of the first reason I mentioned above, the human tendency to lock onto one thing at a time.

But then again, the doc I spoke about above, and many others, don’t take that many patients and practice only a few days a week, and are still chronically late. I would guess that inconsiderateness, and overvaluation of their own abilities, must have some involvement in these cases.

@wildpotato Thanks for your thorough reply.

When I lived in FL I complained to a doctor once about his staff, I was not angry, but frustrated and was telling my doc to inform him of what had happened. He immediately thanked me and said he will be sure to address it. I lived there 14 years, and only felt compelled to complain once, even though there were small frustrations, I understand there might be, this one I was very annoyed with.

In Memphis in 4 years I have complained 2 times. One time I actually wrote the Better Business Bureau about how a billing discrepancy was handled (they had already one mark from the BBB on their record I later found out). They sent me to collections after 60 days and I was in contact with them, I was not ignoring them. I had made calls to my insurance, I was trying to resolve it. I pay EVERYTHING I owe. I have no debt, no mortgage, cars owned outright. I have paid thousands to doctors out of network. This was a $200 bill that I felt was incorrect, because I had had the same procedure done previously at a nother doctor and had paid $30. I REALLY liked the NP I had seen at that office during my appointment, I was not happy when she would not return my calls regarding my billing frustration; I kept speaking to her nurse and the person in billing, and because of how the whole thing escalated I cannot go back there again. The office manager wrote in her reply that I should have come to her. Um, I did not even know she existed?! Everyone kept telling me to talk to the same person in billing, and that woman never turned it over to her office manager.

The other example a receptionist hung up on me! At my appointment a couple of weeks later I mentioned the incident to the doctor and she said to me, “yes, you are getting a reputation here.” I explained to her what had transpired, and she said she would talk to the staff. F$@K her! I am getting a reputation? Listen to my GD side first, bring that bitch who hung up on me into the room also so she can explain her side—I bet she wouldn’t do it. I stopped going to see that doctor.

When I “complain” I am actually informing the doctor of somethng I believe he would want to be aware of. I worked as a retail manager for years, and if a customer was unhappy I wanted to know, so I could address it. The first response to a complaint is “thank you.” And, if a customer/pt seems unhappy the staff member should get someone higher up to address the issue if he/she seems unable to handle it. I find health care to generally be punitive to their staff, and discourage supportive staff to admit when they are having trouble handling a situation.