Ever wonder why you have to wait hours to see a doctor?

[AFJF]

Because when people make their doctors appointments they are usually told to show up so many minutes early so that the medical assistant has time to get your vital signs and medical history. Then, for legal purposes the medical assistant has go to enter that information (and about a half dozen other things) in to whatever computer system they may use. With an "easy" patient this could take five minutes. With a more complex patient with a long history and riddiculous number of medications they're taking (that they often can't remember the names of) it could take anywhere from 10-30 minutes to get all of this information loaded in to the system before the record can be brought back to the doctor.

THEN...there are a high percentage of patients that absolutely LOVE to bring up additional medical issues to the doctor once he's in the room with them. Issues that the appointment is not for. Once the patient has told the doctor about this additional ailment, any doctor is going to have to spend some time addressing it.

So now you've got a patient who was told to be at their appontment 15-20 minutes early for the screening process. They choose to show up 2 minutes early, right on the dot, or a few minutes late and still demand to be seen. So at the time that the doctor is supposed to be in the room with the patient, the whole screening in process is only beginning. So while YOU (the patient who actually did show up when told to do so) are waiting to be seen, the guy in front of you who has now turned a 15 minute appointment in to an hour plus appointment is the reason why patients are sitting there asking "why does this doctor always take so long to get to me".

I too used to bitch and moan about waiting times in a doctors office until I started working behind the scenes.

That's all

[wildthing2022000]

Wrong forum much?

[AFJF]

Wrong forum much?

No, not much. Only on days where I'm better off venting on here than I would be if i did it elsewhere and got myself in to a world of ****....my bad.

[Sperm Edwards]

No offense, but what a bunch of crap.

They over-book like airlines, expecting a certain amount of no-shows, and a certain amount of people to take less time than anticipated. The plan is to never have any down-time for the doctor, even if it creates down-time for every single one of their patients.

A 9:00 appointment is supposed to be a 9:00 appointment. Not "show up at 8:40 for your 9:00 appointment -- or every goddamn person for the rest of the day will suffer the consequences. And by the way, if you have an 11:30 appointment, we command you to show up at 11:10 to fill out paper work. But because the 9:00 person can't follow instructions, and we didn't have any no-shows, and the doctor gives 30-minute appointments a 15-minute time slot, your 11:30 appt has now been pushed back to 12:30 or 12:45. But we know this and STILL want you to show up 20 minutes early because you are a worthless piece of sh*t to us and we don't care how much of your time we waste."

I'm not paying the other patients to make sure the day flows well. That is for the doctor to figure out & the doctor is the one I'm paying. These ancillary tasks should be factored in to the appointment. If you want someone to show up at 11:00, don't tell them their appointment is for 11:15 or 11:30 but please come in at 11:00 for the good of all the other patients in the office.

There is NO WAY they anticipate ANY day where patients get seen on time after the first appointment. They simply do not give a crap. And this disrespect for the patients' time flows from the top to the bottom. The doctor doesn't care about the patients' time & it shows; that flows down through assistants to office managers to receptionists, depending on the size of the practice.

So many doctors - too many - really do believe it is a privilege for the patients to see them instead of the other way around. These types truly have a God complex & they learn this disrespect for patients' time working ER slave labor; seeing countless thousands of people wait & wait & wait, never leave, and still come back time & time again for still more. They ALL think they're underpaid, no matter how rich many become. And none of them accept that (ultimately) their malpractice insurance has skyrocketed is because they & their brethren commit so much malpractice. But it's easier to blame "the lawyers" instead of spending more time on individual patients; instead of jumping as quickly as possible to the next one who was frankly one of three or more with the same appointment slot.

They make up for the items in their practice's "loss" column by over-booking their appointments, each and every day. The doctor feels he is "owed" this. I doubt for a second that if it was truly important to a doctor that this does not happen daily, hourly, etc. that something would be done in his own office. Scheduling is hardly more difficult than the job he does in the exam room & am quite certain it would gain appropriate attention if it wouldn't cut his profits down in the end.

Cry me a f'ing river. Sure. Blame the patients. The patients don't book multiple appointments in the same slot with the same doctor & rarely (if ever) realize that others were booked at the same time they were. The office does that; which is to say, the doctor does that.

[AFJF]

No offense, but what a bunch of crap.

They over-book like airlines, expecting a certain amount of no-shows, and a certain amount of people to take less time than anticipated. The plan is to never have any down-time for the doctor, even if it creates down-time for every single one of their patients.

A 9:00 appointment is supposed to be a 9:00 appointment. Not "show up at 8:40 for your 9:00 appointment -- or every goddamn person for the rest of the day will suffer the consequences. And by the way, if you have an 11:30 appointment, we command you to show up at 11:10 to fill out paper work. But because the 9:00 person can't follow instructions, and we didn't have any no-shows, and the doctor gives 30-minute appointments a 15-minute time slot, your 11:30 appt has now been pushed back to 12:30 or 12:45. But we know this and STILL want you to show up 20 minutes early because you are a worthless piece of sh*t to us and we don't care how much of your time we waste."

I'm not paying the other patients to make sure the day flows well. That is for the doctor to figure out & the doctor is the one I'm paying. These ancillary tasks should be factored in to the appointment. If you want someone to show up at 11:00, don't tell them their appointment is for 11:15 or 11:30 but please come in at 11:00 for the good of all the other patients in the office.

There is NO WAY they anticipate ANY day where patients get seen on time after the first appointment. They simply do not give a crap. And this disrespect for the patients' time flows from the top to the bottom. The doctor doesn't care about the patients' time & it shows; that flows down through assistants to office managers to receptionists, depending on the size of the practice.

So many doctors - too many - really do believe it is a privilege for the patients to see them instead of the other way around. These types truly have a God complex & they learn this disrespect for patients' time working ER slave labor; seeing countless thousands of people wait & wait & wait, never leave, and still come back time & time again for still more. They ALL think they're underpaid, no matter how rich many become. And none of them accept that (ultimately) their malpractice insurance has skyrocketed is because they & their brethren commit so much malpractice. But it's easier to blame "the lawyers" instead of spending more time on individual patients; instead of jumping as quickly as possible to the next one who was frankly one of three or more with the same appointment slot.

They make up for the items in their practice's "loss" column by over-booking their appointments, each and every day. The doctor feels he is "owed" this. I doubt for a second that if it was truly important to a doctor that this does not happen daily, hourly, etc. that something would be done in his own office. Scheduling is hardly more difficult than the job he does in the exam room & am quite certain it would gain appropriate attention if it wouldn't cut his profits down in the end.

Cry me a f'ing river. Sure. Blame the patients. The patients don't book multiple appointments in the same slot with the same doctor & rarely (if ever) realize that others were booked at the same time they were. The office does that; which is to say, the doctor does that.

Sorry Sperm, but grown ups should be held accountable. When you make an appointment and they tell you "your appointment with the doctor is at 9:00 but please be here early so we can get your screening done" and the patient just comes waltzing in at the appointment time, knowing they have to be screened in....again, I'm just a believer in holding people accountable. You make the appointment. You're told what time to be there and you choose to ignore the time you're given and bitch that you had to wait. DUH. You were given a time to be there for a reason...not for ****s and giggles.

[AFJF]

No offense, but what a bunch of crap.

They over-book like airlines, expecting a certain amount of no-shows, and a certain amount of people to take less time than anticipated. The plan is to never have any down-time for the doctor, even if it creates down-time for every single one of their patients.

A 9:00 appointment is supposed to be a 9:00 appointment. Not "show up at 8:40 for your 9:00 appointment -- or every goddamn person for the rest of the day will suffer the consequences. And by the way, if you have an 11:30 appointment, we command you to show up at 11:10 to fill out paper work. But because the 9:00 person can't follow instructions, and we didn't have any no-shows, and the doctor gives 30-minute appointments a 15-minute time slot, your 11:30 appt has now been pushed back to 12:30 or 12:45. But we know this and STILL want you to show up 20 minutes early because you are a worthless piece of sh*t to us and we don't care how much of your time we waste."

I'm not paying the other patients to make sure the day flows well. That is for the doctor to figure out & the doctor is the one I'm paying. These ancillary tasks should be factored in to the appointment. If you want someone to show up at 11:00, don't tell them their appointment is for 11:15 or 11:30 but please come in at 11:00 for the good of all the other patients in the office.

There is NO WAY they anticipate ANY day where patients get seen on time after the first appointment. They simply do not give a crap. And this disrespect for the patients' time flows from the top to the bottom. The doctor doesn't care about the patients' time & it shows; that flows down through assistants to office managers to receptionists, depending on the size of the practice.

So many doctors - too many - really do believe it is a privilege for the patients to see them instead of the other way around. These types truly have a God complex & they learn this disrespect for patients' time working ER slave labor; seeing countless thousands of people wait & wait & wait, never leave, and still come back time & time again for still more. They ALL think they're underpaid, no matter how rich many become. And none of them accept that (ultimately) their malpractice insurance has skyrocketed is because they & their brethren commit so much malpractice. But it's easier to blame "the lawyers" instead of spending more time on individual patients; instead of jumping as quickly as possible to the next one who was frankly one of three or more with the same appointment slot.

They make up for the items in their practice's "loss" column by over-booking their appointments, each and every day. The doctor feels he is "owed" this. I doubt for a second that if it was truly important to a doctor that this does not happen daily, hourly, etc. that something would be done in his own office. Scheduling is hardly more difficult than the job he does in the exam room & am quite certain it would gain appropriate attention if it wouldn't cut his profits down in the end.

Cry me a f'ing river. Sure. Blame the patients. The patients don't book multiple appointments in the same slot with the same doctor & rarely (if ever) realize that others were booked at the same time they were. The office does that; which is to say, the doctor does that.[/QUOTE]

Not where I work. Double booking is not authorized and it makes no difference.

I work in a clinic where over 95% of surveyed patients are "extremely happy" with the care they get because the docs spend adequate time with them and they're checked in promptly which basically means everyone has to run around at 100 MPH all day because the patients are too lazy to leave the house 15 minutes earlier.

[Sperm Edwards]

The patients are the customers and the doctors are the merchants.

The merchants serve the customers, not the other way around.

And if every one there is moving around at 100mph, it's because they're too cheap to hire an appropriate number of workers.

And you are in the minority of busy offices where they do not double-book. I worked in an office years ago where booking 4 patients every 15 minutes - for 2 doctors (one being a resident who only saw maybe 20-30% of the patients) was not at all uncommon. And that was usually to start the day just to make sure there was always a patient to examine. Sometimes it was as many as 6 patients.

So yes:

9:00 - 6 appts

9:15 - 4 appts

9:30 - 5 appts

9:45 - 3 appts

10:00 - 4 appts

etc.

Some were full exams and some were follow-up's. And this wasn't some medicaid clinic where it's all poor people who have little to no choice.

Then as the day went on, there would be "only" 2-3 appts every 15 minutes. It was far from the only place I'd worked in, and the policy was very similar in dozens of other offices/clinics.

They simply do not care how long the patients spend there. Even more so if the patients are elderly. They will let old people sit there for hours b/c the very elderly simply cannot "shop around" for doctor services nearly the same.

When you have an office policy, and that policy is not being adhered to, do you:

a. change the policy to something that works better?

b. continue to do the same thing over & over?

Next - ask yourself this:

What is the average time a patient spends in the room with the doctor he came to see? About 15-30 minutes? Yeah, sometimes someone will keep them in there for 45+ minutes, but a bunch are also 5 minutes or less.

And then ask yourself:

What is the average amount of time you REALISTICALLY expect that patient to be in the office, from the pre-appointment time until they pay? About 1 hr for 15 minute visits and 2 hrs for 30 min visits?

And as a paying customer, you have to sit there like a prisoner. You think that is appropriate?

We would have, quite commonly, patients literally spend 2 hours between the waiting room to an intermediate screening room, to the eventual exam room, and spend 5 minutes with a screening nurse/intern and 3-4 minutes with the doctor. 2 hours of your day for less than 10 minutes of medical attention - and I'm not talking about emergency care. These are appointments made days, weeks, and sometimes months in advance.

They're a**holes. Pretty much all of them.

And blaming the very people who are paying everyone's salary is hardly moving.

[AFJF]

The patients are the customers and the doctors are the merchants.

The merchants serve the customers, not the other way around.

And if every one there is moving around at 100mph, it's because they're too cheap to hire an appropriate number of workers.

And you are in the minority of busy offices where they do not double-book. I worked in an office years ago where booking 4 patients every 15 minutes - for 2 doctors (one being a resident who only saw maybe 20-30% of the patients) was not at all uncommon. And that was usually to start the day just to make sure there was always a patient to examine. Sometimes it was as many as 6 patients.

So yes:

9:00 - 6 appts

9:15 - 4 appts

9:30 - 5 appts

9:45 - 3 appts

10:00 - 4 appts

etc.

Some were full exams and some were follow-up's. And this wasn't some medicaid clinic where it's all poor people who have little to no choice.

Then as the day went on, there would be "only" 2-3 appts every 15 minutes. It was far from the only place I'd worked in, and the policy was very similar in dozens of other offices/clinics.

They simply do not care how long the patients spend there. Even more so if the patients are elderly. They will let old people sit there for hours b/c the very elderly simply cannot "shop around" for doctor services nearly the same.

When you have an office policy, and that policy is not being adhered to, do you:

a. change the policy to something that works better?

b. continue to do the same thing over & over?

Next - ask yourself this:

What is the average time a patient spends in the room with the doctor he came to see? About 15-30 minutes? Yeah, sometimes someone will keep them in there for 45+ minutes, but a bunch are also 5 minutes or less.

And then ask yourself:

What is the average amount of time you REALISTICALLY expect that patient to be in the office, from the pre-appointment time until they pay? About 1 hr for 15 minute visits and 2 hrs for 30 min visits?

And as a paying customer, you have to sit there like a prisoner. You think that is appropriate?

We would have, quite commonly, patients literally spend 2 hours between the waiting room to an intermediate screening room, to the eventual exam room, and spend 5 minutes with a screening nurse/intern and 3-4 minutes with the doctor. 2 hours of your day for less than 10 minutes of medical attention - and I'm not talking about emergency care. These are appointments made days, weeks, and sometimes months in advance.

They're a**holes. Pretty much all of them.

And blaming the very people who are paying everyone's salary is hardly moving.

A lot of what you said does pertain to my original post so perhaps I should have been more specific as to what irks me so much about the situation. I don't pay for my medical care and neither do the patients I see. It's free and they're treated like they pay a million dollars per visit despite the fact that they do nothing but make it harder on the staff to get them seen.

You and I have both seen it from each side of the fence. All I can say is that on the rare occassion that I have to see a civilian doctor I don't piss and moan if I"m waiting well beyond my appointment time because I know there's a good chance the doctor is tied up with a patient who booked an appointment for a runny nose and then blurted out "oh yeah, and I've been having chest pain for a few days too".

[joewilly]

finished my last app for a total physical yesterday. my app was @ 4 pm & it was estimated to take 1 hr. included cardio on a treadmill etc. I arrived at 3:58 & left at 5:03. I was impressed. My wifes doctor is always a 45 minute wait before seeing her.

the best news is I rec'd a clean bill of health with good blood pressure, good colesterol etc from bloodwork and a strong ticker.

[Sperm Edwards]

finished my last app for a total physical yesterday. my app was @ 4 pm & it was estimated to take 1 hr. included cardio on a treadmill etc. I arrived at 3:58 & left at 5:03. I was impressed. My wifes doctor is always a 45 minute wait before seeing her.

the best news is I rec'd a clean bill of health with good blood pressure, good colesterol etc from bloodwork and a strong ticker.

I think in the end, that's why people don't get as infuriated. Because of the news in the end. Either:

1. Good news, which makes you happy.

2. Bad news, which makes you believe wasting 2 hrs of your day was a necessary evil.

Case in point: your wife hasn't changed doctors.

I've done it plenty. I insist:

1. Assure me that absolutely no one will have my appointment time.

2. I am the first appointment of the day. If that means waiting a month or more for the appt, I'm ok with that. Highlight my name in the appointment book if you have to, but I go first if I book an appt that far in advance.

3. Fax or email me any paperwork I need to fill out in advance, at my leisure.

Particularly for primary care and certain fields (cardiology, dermatology, ophthalmology, and several other -ologies) where there is absolutely no shortage of outstanding specialists. If they won't agree to all of the above, it's easy enough to find a outstanding doctor whose office will happily agree to it.

And AFJF, VA's are just run differently than private offices. I've actually never worked in one.

[Green DNA]

finished my last app for a total physical yesterday. my app was @ 4 pm & it was estimated to take 1 hr. included cardio on a treadmill etc. I arrived at 3:58 & left at 5:03. I was impressed. My wifes doctor is always a 45 minute wait before seeing her.

the best news is I rec'd a clean bill of health with good blood pressure, good colesterol etc from bloodwork and a strong ticker.

What about that erection issue you were telling me about?

[joewilly]

I think in the end, that's why people don't get as infuriated. Because of the news in the end. Either:

1. Good news, which makes you happy.

2. Bad news, which makes you believe wasting 2 hrs of your day was a necessary evil.

Case in point: your wife hasn't changed doctors.

I've done it plenty. I insist:

1. Assure me that absolutely no one will have my appointment time.

2. I am the first appointment of the day. If that means waiting a month or more for the appt, I'm ok with that. Highlight my name in the appointment book if you have to, but I go first if I book an appt that far in advance.

3. Fax or email me any paperwork I need to fill out in advance, at my leisure.

Particularly for primary care and certain fields (cardiology, dermatology, ophthalmology, and several other -ologies) where there is absolutely no shortage of outstanding specialists. If they won't agree to all of the above, it's easy enough to find a outstanding doctor whose office will happily agree to it.

And AFJF, VA's are just run differently than private offices. I've actually never worked in one.

sorry sperm but we base our choices strictly on the quality of care we recieve. we do not place convenience and time spent in the waiting room as a factor

[Sperm Edwards]

sorry sperm but we base our choices strictly on the quality of care we recieve. we do not place convenience and time spent in the waiting room as a factor

I don't see how they are related. It doesn't take away from the doctor's competence to not wait around so long. Also we have a lot more choice up here.

Anyway, I was merely objecting to the premise that it's the fault lies with the patients instead of simply booking fewer appointments, offering to fax/email forms to fill out in advance, etc. And I was speaking from experience. If you have a good one, then good for you. But an enormous percentage of physicians have neither concern nor respect for their patients' time.

When an office is running over an hour behind, how often has anyone here received a phone call that your appointment - scheduled for a couple of hours from now - will be running behind by 60-90 minutes? They don't give a crap. Let 'em wait is the policy, out of fear that they'll get a couple of no-shows in between. But if everyone shows up, it's all good to them.

[joewilly]

I don't see how they are related. It doesn't take away from the doctor's competence to not wait around so long. Also we have a lot more choice up here.

Anyway, I was merely objecting to the premise that it's the fault lies with the patients instead of simply booking fewer appointments, offering to fax/email forms to fill out in advance, etc. And I was speaking from experience. If you have a good one, then good for you. But an enormous percentage of physicians have neither concern nor respect for their patients' time.

When an office is running over an hour behind, how often has anyone here received a phone call that your appointment - scheduled for a couple of hours from now - will be running behind by 60-90 minutes? They don't give a crap. Let 'em wait is the policy, out of fear that they'll get a couple of no-shows in between. But if everyone shows up, it's all good to them.

good point and yeah your right about limited choices on an island but I must say health care here is very good.

[BP]

Waiting in a Doctor's office only bothered me one time, back in the 80's. I had torn cartilage in my knee, and the orthopedic Doctor I was seeing was the only Doctor in his office. it was not a group. my appointment would be for 2pm and he wouldn't even show up until 2:30pm sometimes. the entire office would be packed waiting to see one Doctor. it really sucked, I would have to plan to be there for at least 4-5 hours.

Fortunately, no Doctor I've gone to since has pulled crap like this.

[Sperm Edwards]

Waiting in a Doctor's office only bothered me one time, back in the 80's. I had torn cartilage in my knee, and the orthopedic Doctor I was seeing was the only Doctor in his office. it was not a group. my appointment would be for 2pm and he wouldn't even show up until 2:30pm sometimes. the entire office would be packed waiting to see one Doctor. it really sucked, I would have to plan to be there for at least 4-5 hours.

Fortunately, no Doctor I've gone to since has pulled crap like this.

Was it after that injury that you started swinging exclusively from your arms?

[BP]

Was it after that injury that you started swinging exclusively from your arms?

Dick!

Yes, it was to ease the burden on my weakened knee.