Doctor was 45 minutes late after appointment time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With all these doctors feeling totally overwhelmed (and I absolutely believe that is true!) why in the universe is the AMA so vocally opposed to "scope of practice" creep.

Get some more NPs and PAs in these offices to treat the vast majority of issues.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Noctor/
Prompt care NP mistreated supracondylar fracture
NP misdiagnosed "dislocated" shoulder
Psychiatric NP gave me serotonin syndrome
etc

Docs miss things too, but it's a matter of the odds and a matter on whether you have a healthy fear/understanding of what you don't know.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Noctor/comments/yb0fjg/perhaps_the_most_crucial_thing_ive_learned_in/
Perhaps the most crucial thing I’ve learned in medical school, is just how much I do not know.

This is dumb statement. There is no data showing NPs/PAs have a higher level of error than MDs. In my family my husband's epilepsy was mismanaged by a provider in a manner that could have killed our entirely family if we had gotten in the car 5 minutes earlier, and my father's cancer was blown off by a doctor as a "sinus infection." So based on those odds I probably should never go to a doctor again, right?

You are incorrect. Did you want a list, or would the research be irrelevant?

[Anonymous]

My gynecologist routinely ran two hours late. bye bye! I left. My eye doctor did the same. Also voted with my feet. Some doctors simply cannot run their practices well - or I should say, ChOOSE not to run their practices well.

[Anonymous]

Orthos are notorious for packing in patients at the rate of one every ten minutes and then treating them rudely. I have been told this even by physicians in other specialties. My endocrinologist said that an orthopedist once left her in an exam room for three hours and her phone died so she couldn’t call day care to let them know that she was running late for pick up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Orthos are notorious for packing in patients at the rate of one every ten minutes and then treating them rudely. I have been told this even by physicians in other specialties. My endocrinologist said that an orthopedist once left her in an exam room for three hours and her phone died so she couldn’t call day care to let them know that she was running late for pick up.

Well, she could have just walked out, let the desk know she couldn’t spend all day there, and gone to get her kid. Sounds like they forgot about her. Happened to me once at GW.

[Anonymous]

I had a doctor’s office call and ask if my appointment could be moved an hour earlier. I said fine, then there was an hour wait when I arrived. Generally don’t mind waiting, but that irritated me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are so many reasons doc run late that have nothing to do with actual appointment times. They really are often doing their very best and skipping lunch to catch up. I’m sorry you had to wait. Someone should have let you know they were behind too. Extend compassion as we often receive the same in kind when having very human moments.

For a doctor who couldn't bring himself to apologize for keeping someone waiting, and who got upset at the idea that someone else's time might be worth something too? Compassion seems a little excessive.

So you wanted him to spend a bunch of time apologizing and getting further behind?

An apology can take less than 5 seconds.

Did you even read the OP? He said “we’re trying our best” which to many would address it. An apology that made the OP happy was not going to be less than 5 seconds.

OP back. All any doctor's office needs to do is let the patient know that doctor is running 30 minutes or more late. I think we all know there is always going to be a 15 minute wait but 45 minutes is inexcusable without the courtesy of advising the patient. "We're doing our best" is not an apology.

My day was also messed up as this made me late for two appointments. My point is that we all have busy schedules and lives. We make other appointments scheduled around medical appointments. The patient's time is also important and has been pointed out if I had been 45 minutes late, my appointment, rightfully, would, and should, have been cancelled.

Change doctors, OP. I feel certain if you ask for a referral to another practice this doctor will be delighted to give it to you.

[Anonymous]

Once, after waiting 45 mins sitting in a paper gown, I purposely opened the door a bit and spoke really loudly into my phone pretending to tell my DH that I would miss daycare pickup b/c the doctor was running so late. I went on and on and made it sound like it was a huge problem for DH to leave work, etc. The doctor heard every word and promptly came into the room apologizing.

I don’t regret it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 8 week old had a well check and the ped was running 90 minutes behind for a 10:30am appointment. How does that happen? When we finally saw her she spent 6 minutes with us and we were on our way. She was even charting during our appointment. I asked several times how much longer but it was always 10 more minutes. I hate having such a tiny baby there for so long with the number of sick kids.

That is inexcusable for a newborn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 8 week old had a well check and the ped was running 90 minutes behind for a 10:30am appointment. How does that happen? When we finally saw her she spent 6 minutes with us and we were on our way. She was even charting during our appointment. I asked several times how much longer but it was always 10 more minutes. I hate having such a tiny baby there for so long with the number of sick kids.

That is inexcusable for a newborn.

A newborn is way easier to wrangle in a doctor's office than any other age.

[Anonymous]

You all need to go concierge if you want a higher level of service than the masses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know they’re often late because they’re helping someone else, right? And that someone else will sometimes be you.

My DC’s psychiatrist is often so crazy late we joke about it, but you know what? I know he’s been late because he is dealing with another patient’s suicide attempt. When he is w/ my DC, he spends whatever time is necessary, so probs we make him late for someone else.

In my DC’s busy, university-teaching clinic pediatrics practice, there have been times when the supervising doctor has had the entire clinic of residents troop into our room to see something unusual and give a mini-lesson on it. I’m sure that made the whole clinic late. But, next time those residents see you, they’ll recognize something they wouldn’t otherwise.

I can think of dozens of times we went to the doc expecting to take care of some illness or sickness quickly and it turned out to be more complicated or require more discussion than I thought.

You know what is required to run a clinic on time - docs who will say “sorry I don’t have time to answer your question” “sorry I don’t have time to do a more thorough exam” “sorry I don’t have time to discuss a referral” “sorry your problem is more complicated than the 15 minute slot you reserved, so you’ll have to make another appointment and come back to finish another time, etc.”

BTW, you have serious anxiety (or entitlement?) problems if you think 45 mins at a doctor’s office is worth blowing a gasket over. Yes, your time is valuable but other people’s lives are also valuable. Either that (anxiety) or you and your children have led an extraordinarily charmed life if your experience has been pediatric visits are all 15 min. pop-in/pop-out never break the schedule things. So far.

Please see a therapist about your anxiety.

Interesting. Sounds like you all have a lot of complex health issues. Am glad you don’t mind the wait, given how often you are in.

Nothing complex about it. I have two almost grown kids and so have been going to the pediatrician/doc with them for 23 years. If you think you will not have complex health issues in the next 18 years, you are delusional - pneumonias, rashes, broken this and thats, emergency room visits, disagreements about treatment plan, need for referral....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are so many reasons doc run late that have nothing to do with actual appointment times. They really are often doing their very best and skipping lunch to catch up. I’m sorry you had to wait. Someone should have let you know they were behind too. Extend compassion as we often receive the same in kind when having very human moments.

For a doctor who couldn't bring himself to apologize for keeping someone waiting, and who got upset at the idea that someone else's time might be worth something too? Compassion seems a little excessive.

So you wanted him to spend a bunch of time apologizing and getting further behind?

An apology can take less than 5 seconds.

Did you even read the OP? He said “we’re trying our best” which to many would address it. An apology that made the OP happy was not going to be less than 5 seconds.

OP back. All any doctor's office needs to do is let the patient know that doctor is running 30 minutes or more late. I think we all know there is always going to be a 15 minute wait but 45 minutes is inexcusable without the courtesy of advising the patient. "We're doing our best" is not an apology.

My day was also messed up as this made me late for two appointments. My point is that we all have busy schedules and lives. We make other appointments scheduled around medical appointments. The patient's time is also important and has been pointed out if I had been 45 minutes late, my appointment, rightfully, would, and should, have been cancelled.

Clearly the problem here is you. Why are you scheduling yourself so unrealistically?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 8 week old had a well check and the ped was running 90 minutes behind for a 10:30am appointment. How does that happen? When we finally saw her she spent 6 minutes with us and we were on our way. She was even charting during our appointment. I asked several times how much longer but it was always 10 more minutes. I hate having such a tiny baby there for so long with the number of sick kids.

That is inexcusable for a newborn.

90 minutes in inexcusable for anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had an Ortho show up 40 minutes late once. I was his first appointment of the day. I saw him arrive while sitting in the waiting room. I asked him why I was kept waiting so long and he lied and said he’d been stuck with another patient. I told him that I saw him walk past me with his coat on his arm and a cup of coffee.. Never went back to him again. This was at CAO Ortho in foxhall.

If he is an ortho surgeon he might have been held up doing rounds prior to going to his practice. Some of you don't seem to understand what doctors do.

So...poor scheduling. Allocate more time for rounds.

Allocate more time from where? They can’t control if 7 new ortho patients got admitted overnight and suddenly they are rounding on 12 patients instead of 5. Or 20 instead of 5.

Start office hours later on hospital days.

It's not that hard to figure out.

Wow. We are a family of physicians who work like dogs, with a no break and through lunch.

No wonder we have less physicians. With the number of lawsuits, lack of insurance reimbursement, and disgruntle patients, it's really a thankless job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 100% with you, OP. I am so tired of the social acceptance that doctors can keep you waiting an hour plus - all because they over schedule the same time slots. It is the sh$ttiest practice model and we all seem to take it over and over again. I have zero sympathy for most practices, as I've yet to have a doctor who was genuinely remorseful or sympathetic that a patient had been left in a waiting room to waste their valuable time.

I'm an attorney. I can promise you that if I left a client waiting for 45 minutes, they'd find another atty - and with good reason. We should not be shelling out money to professionals who disrespects their entire client base day in and day out.

And all of this "but it was an emergency!" BS. No, it is not an emergency every day. It is a culture of overbooking. Period.

I'm sure you are a good attorney. But you clearly don't understand what medical providers' work lives are like. DOCTORS don't "keep you waiting over an hour." They practices they work for create scheduling templates that are simply impossible to keep running on time. And practice managers/administration know this. So you might say - well go work someplace that doesn't overschedule. But outside of concierge practices those systems don't exist. Unless they are solo practitioners the people your beef is with is the administration and practice managers for pretty much every practice out there. I don't know any medical providers who feel their schedule is reasonable, and I know a lot of people in healthcare.

All my siblings are doctors. My parent is a doctor. My siblings' spouses are doctors, and my in-laws are doctors. But sure, I don't know doctors.
I can tell you that doctors - by and large - do not give a #$% about their patients' time. There is an unreasonably acceptable level of arrogance among physicians in our society. They treat us like crap, think we are making everything up and have no respect for their patients time and money. It is a systemic issue. I see it ALL the time. And yes, the managing physicians absolutely can instruct their admin to schedule less patients per block. All they have to do is say the word but they don't. Because gross revenue.

I am doubting you are very close to your parents or your siblings then. Sounds like you don't like them very much, so I think your opinions of them seem quite bias. And no, I do not think you understand the stress in the healthcare field right now.