Doctor was 45 minutes late after appointment time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My sister chooses to make a statement and won’t wait. Then, she has to reschedule! What’s the point in that? Bring your book and relax. Hell, if it’s late in the day, maybe show up with a wine split. Kidding.

OP chooses to piss of the dr after waiting by letting him know her time is valuable. At least wait until the end. Don't wait, then make the appointment awkward and uncomfortable. Some people get in their own way.

[Anonymous]

I had a dr who would always run late like that but she was a great dr and would take as much time with you as you needed so I was ok with that tradeoff (til she went concierge).

[Anonymous]

I definitely have sympathy for one off times when there is clearly an emergency - agreed on all.

But when my kids' dentist was ALWAYS 45 minutes late (after being one of those annoying places that sends a million text and call reminders and charges a no show fee) we left.

New dentist is always on time/within 5 minutes of appointment time. I wish I had switched earlier - there is no reason to deal with that when it's their normal practice.

A one time emergency is obviously fine - it's a medical office.

To minimize, I do try to schedule appointments for early in the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I definitely have sympathy for one off times when there is clearly an emergency - agreed on all.

But when my kids' dentist was ALWAYS 45 minutes late (after being one of those annoying places that sends a million text and call reminders and charges a no show fee) we left.

New dentist is always on time/within 5 minutes of appointment time. I wish I had switched earlier - there is no reason to deal with that when it's their normal practice.

A one time emergency is obviously fine - it's a medical office.

To minimize, I do try to schedule appointments for early in the day.

I think dentists are really a different situation. Everyone is there for a cleaning and check up and there isn't so much variability in treatment. If you need anything additional done, you have to make an appointment. It's just not the same.

[Anonymous]

I used to get around this by booking the first appointment of the day.

[Anonymous]

I am a professional, just like the doctor. I agree that if they are 20 minutes late or more, the doctor should apologize and /or explain. It is respectful.

The irony of them charging when you are late or have to cancel for an emergency is just too much on top of the attitude: “his highness will see you now.”

(Most of my providers are not like this, I will note. And certain types of practice: like peds and ob’s, are harder to time with accuracy, I get that.)

[Anonymous]

Ortho patients seeing their doctor in clinic are subject to any emergencies or surgeries that happened that day or the day before. (No, you’re so far from correct about orthopedic surgeons not having emergency patients hahahahah tell that to the person whose arm got amputated or the kid whose leg got crushed into 28377 tiny bone fragments in a car accident at 4am).

[Anonymous]

It does relate to greed, when you hear 3 people walk in with the same apt time or two appointments booked within 5-10 minutes of yours.

It is like the physician can have no unbillable time, but you should be open to taking the whole morning off from work.

[Anonymous]

I pride myself on running on time at my pediatric office. Last week I had two RSV patient emergencies that required a lot of breathing treatments and monitoring and in one case, oxygen treatment and an ambulance transfer to the hospital.

Guess who chewed me out? The patient who was waiting for their well check up after that one, that well patient who didn’t see me on the phone with the hospital, who didn’t see me giving multiple treatments, who didn’t see EMS come through and transport that really sick kid out of my office after I did everything I could to stabilize them and try to keep them out of the hospital, who didn’t see me coordinating with the father what the plan was because the mom was too upset to do so.

Of course I apologized profusely to my patients who got delayed and briefly explained why I was so late without taking anyone’s privacy away, but for some people it’s never going to be enough if they were inconvenienced. It’s a tough balancing act.

Another mom chewed me out last week because she brought in her three sick kids to a fully booked day and asked my coworker to squeeze in the fourth the previous week. My coworker explained that she was behind and that the fourth kid could schedule with a provider who had availability in 30 min, but the mom took it as a personal offense and interpreted it as the doctor was uncaring and rude and didn’t want to accommodate her, a busy mother.

It’s a tough business right now and it’s not making any of us rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It does relate to greed, when you hear 3 people walk in with the same apt time or two appointments booked within 5-10 minutes of yours.

It is like the physician can have no unbillable time, but you should be open to taking the whole morning off from work.

Small practices are really hard to actually make $. We switched to concierge with a fee and lateness is newrly gone but im paying for it.

[Anonymous]

One Medical is never late.

[Anonymous]

We saw a specialist for my toddler who was a 1 hour drive. The specialist was typically 60 min behind - but we has a time when they were 2 hours!

We needed to leave as we had to get home to pick up older kids from school. Planning for a 2 hour wait is unreasonable - but he was the best on the east coast

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:and he knew that I was upset because when he came in he didn't apologize but said, "we're doing our best.".

I replied, "45 minutes past my appointment time is your 'best'? If you are running this late, then have someone advise patient because my time is also valuable."

He didn't like this and I didn't care. I am so sick of doctors running late because of their greed in overbooking.

Like most medical practices they cancel, and charge, if patient is 15 minutes late.

I have enough Grace if there’s a true emergency.

I have, however, sent an invoice to a doctor who kept me waiting longer than an hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

"We're doing our best" is what someone says to calm someone down who is being an ahole to staff. You need to think about what your doctor has been told about your behavior while you were waiting if that's what you got.

It also sounds like you overbooked yourself and are mad at the doctor who may or may not have overbooked themselves. You don't know, going into a pediatrician's visit, whether someone ahead of you will make you late, or whether you'll be the parent of the patient who makes the next family late. So, scheduling two things right after was irresponsible. How did you apologize to those people?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:and he knew that I was upset because when he came in he didn't apologize but said, "we're doing our best.".

I replied, "45 minutes past my appointment time is your 'best'? If you are running this late, then have someone advise patient because my time is also valuable."

He didn't like this and I didn't care. I am so sick of doctors running late because of their greed in overbooking.

Like most medical practices they cancel, and charge, if patient is 15 minutes late.

I have enough Grace if there’s a true emergency.

I have, however, sent an invoice to a doctor who kept me waiting longer than an hour.

That's so obnoxious. What was the outcome?