Ugh, had an appointment at 9 and now it's 10 and I'm still waiting. At least I'm in a room and not the waiting area but still. It's taking up my whole morning. Grrr.
Just venting. Anyone else wait?
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i hate that...it seems to happen all the time to me...i have wanted to tell them i am going to start to bill them for their tardiness...considering they would bill me for a no show...
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Way too often. I'm usually in the waiting room at least 10 minutes past my appt time (often closer to 15 or 20) and 10+ minutes in the exam room. There was one time that I waited over an hour total! I understand how you're feeling! It stinks! Thank goodness I SAH, otherwise my employer would be furious!
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I always had to wait but never an hour though. But I hate waiting
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Wow that is insane! I have never waited more than 10 minutes total (waiting room plus patient room), so sorry it took them so dang long!
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I used to get really pissed. Until the day I delivered... In the middle of business hours. I knew people were being made to wait at the office while my doc came to the hospital to deliver me. It was a big deal to me that my primary doctor delivered me so now I try to be more understanding.
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If my doctor delivered or went to the hospital I would understand. But she doesn't. It is just frustrating. At least it was a quick appointment when she finally got in.
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I'm sure this is common knowledge to most people, but I never really thought about it until I started working in Doctor's offices. The waits are almost always caused by other patients! The Doctors/nurses aren't just sitting around back there making small talk while we twittle our thumbs in the waiting room (this is totally what I pictured, haha!)
In my experience it's caused by 3 things: 1) Patients earlier in the day arriving late for their appointments pushing everything back, 2) Patients with LOTS of questions or issues that the Dr's weren't anticipating and didn't build enough time for in the visit, but want to be thorough in answering, 3) Procedures that don't go as planned etc.
I can only speak for myself and for our office but we feel REALLY bad when there is a delay.. and we will apologize for it even when it's not our fault. The worst part about it is getting attitude from patients when there is nothing we can do about it.
Hint: shortest wait times are ALWAYS first thing in the morning and first thing after lunch- no people in front of you to slow the Doctors up!
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Not baby-related, but I once waited 55 minutes IN the room (like you!) for the surgeon to come perform a wide local excision for a melanoma check. I got checked in by the nurse who said the doctor would "be right in." Almost an hour later...he was (then on top of it, he seemed rushed the whole time). Not cool.
Ugh. Sorry, lady.
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I almost always wait at least an hour for my OB, even when I try to get the first appt. of the day. It's frustrating, but I love the OB and the office amenities too much to raise a ruckus about it.
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No waiting is the one thing I love about my doctors office. I have gone to two specialist where I have waited over two hours for a less then 10 min appointment. I never went back.
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I hate that!! What's the point of an appointment if you're not going to see me until 2 hours later?! And the consultation is less than 5 minutes. Arg. I understand emergencies come up but they should at least inform us how far behind they are so we can make more use of our time and come back a lil later?
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@MamaMoose: I'm with you on this. I used to get really angry until the doctor who checked me in at 2:30am then delivered my baby at 2:30pm. I know he had appointments, b/c I had one with him at 3 that day had I not gone into labor. I definitely try to be more understanding.
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@MamaMoose: Our primary prenatal caregiver was a midwife who didn't have delivery privileges at our hospital, so she didn't have that excuse, lol.
BUT the bulk of our waits seemed to be caused by other patients having questions/problems, so I never minded too much, because she would sit and answer every damn question I had, no matter how long it took.
I think the longest we ever had to wait was an hour and a half, about half of it in the exam room.
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That is really annoying. My doctor's office is good about this and if they are running behind they always tell us how many patients the doctor has in front of us, etc. Last visit I was hooked up to the NST for 30 minutes instead of the usual 15-20 but then it turned out the midwife I was supposed to see had to go to a delivery so a different doctor had to see us. I can't complain, I used to go to an OB/GYN office that had like 10 doctors and they were always way overbooked and sometimes I would wait in the waiting room for an HOUR after my appointment before even being taken back. At my primary care physician's office, I'm frequently in the exam room for at least 45 minutes before a nurse practitioner (not even the doctor) finally makes it in. I always just appreciate being told what's going on.
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@thismustbetheplace: I am glad you posted. I was going to post pretty much the same thing! We always felt so bad when we were running behind.
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15 comments