Doctor was 45 minutes late after appointment time

[Anonymous]

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.

[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.

It happens when one of their patients winds up getting admitted to the hospital that morning and they have to go check on them, when they get stuck on the phone with an insurance company that's trying to deny coverage for a procedure the dr is sure the patient needs, when the parent of a patient waits until the dr is walking out to say "Hey is this huge lump a problem? Oh and I know you're not seeing my other kid right now but he has a rash that's been spreading steadily since last night and now is saying he can't breathe - is that a problem?" And then he has a patient puke on him and he has to change all his clothes. And then he's human and needs to take five minutes to eat breakfast because he hasn't eaten yet that morning and is starting to feel lightheaded. That's how that happens.

The thing is... you KNOW all of that will happen. Probably multiple times per week. It should be accounted for in the schedule - yes even if it means on the rare unicorn of a day when none of that happens, you may have been able to see an extra patient or two. You can't plan for a perfect day, and then be shocked when the schedule goes to hell because of things that will almost certainly go wrong.
And yes, I know it's not the doctors who make the schedules in most practices - my ire is at the health care system overall.

[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.

He said that they were doing their best. You were rude in response. Instead, you could have opened dialog about the situation in a productive way. Or ask about their policies if you would have had to leave due to the late start. I once left when the doctor was an hour late and I didn't get charged; I was nursing and needed to get home to my infant because I hadn't pumped.

I also despise such situations, but am not rude to the doctor. If you don't like him, just go elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It happens when one of their patients winds up getting admitted to the hospital that morning and they have to go check on them, when they get stuck on the phone with an insurance company that's trying to deny coverage for a procedure the dr is sure the patient needs, when the parent of a patient waits until the dr is walking out to say "Hey is this huge lump a problem? Oh and I know you're not seeing my other kid right now but he has a rash that's been spreading steadily since last night and now is saying he can't breathe - is that a problem?" And then he has a patient puke on him and he has to change all his clothes. And then he's human and needs to take five minutes to eat breakfast because he hasn't eaten yet that morning and is starting to feel lightheaded. That's how that happens.

The thing is... you KNOW all of that will happen. Probably multiple times per week. It should be accounted for in the schedule - yes even if it means on the rare unicorn of a day when none of that happens, you may have been able to see an extra patient or two. You can't plan for a perfect day, and then be shocked when the schedule goes to hell because of things that will almost certainly go wrong.
And yes, I know it's not the doctors who make the schedules in most practices - my ire is at the health care system overall.

But when there is a shortage of pediatric specialists in almost every discipline, and people are waiting a long time for appointments as is, changing their schedules so that they see fewer patients and people have even longer wait times, isn't the answer.

I would rather wait an hour in an exam room, which I've done, than wait 3 or 4 months for an appointment when my kid is in pain.

[Anonymous]

People should keep this thread in mind when they declare they need to see a neurologist because they had a headache the other day, and refuse to entertain suggestions that they see their PCP first to help tease out of a specialist is truly necessary.

This is what the specialists waiting rooms start to be full of. And then when emergencies pop up, they have no wiggle room. And there are 6 month wait times or more.

Don’t be part of the problem and expect excellent specialty care at a moments notice while at the same time calling doctors greedy while at the same time declaring they should never run late while at the same time complaining that there aren’t enough good specialists in the area. While at the same time stating that the health care worker shortage is not your problem, lololol well it just became your problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It happens when one of their patients winds up getting admitted to the hospital that morning and they have to go check on them, when they get stuck on the phone with an insurance company that's trying to deny coverage for a procedure the dr is sure the patient needs, when the parent of a patient waits until the dr is walking out to say "Hey is this huge lump a problem? Oh and I know you're not seeing my other kid right now but he has a rash that's been spreading steadily since last night and now is saying he can't breathe - is that a problem?" And then he has a patient puke on him and he has to change all his clothes. And then he's human and needs to take five minutes to eat breakfast because he hasn't eaten yet that morning and is starting to feel lightheaded. That's how that happens.

The thing is... you KNOW all of that will happen. Probably multiple times per week. It should be accounted for in the schedule - yes even if it means on the rare unicorn of a day when none of that happens, you may have been able to see an extra patient or two. You can't plan for a perfect day, and then be shocked when the schedule goes to hell because of things that will almost certainly go wrong.
And yes, I know it's not the doctors who make the schedules in most practices - my ire is at the health care system overall.

Look up how much med school costs and think about what it is to pay off those loans with college. There are trust fund babies who go into medicine too. Maybe find another doctor who doesn't need to pay bills and loans and who tends to run on time. I know for the best doctors we see, we sometimes have a long wait so I bring a book and work. Yes, I prefer an apology when the person is late, but will accept no apology in exchange for top notch medical care. We used to see an egomaniac who ran on time for one of our kids. He didn't take insurance. Once we reached the limit where he no longer seemed to know what he was doing, we dumped him. Until then he was useful and we tolerated an out of control ego and huge cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Do you send your receptionist or nurses in and tell the patients that you were running behind because of an emergency? If not that would help a lot of people and manage their expectations. Not just the blanket, “she’ll be in in a couple of minutes”, but some thing a little bit more substantial in terms of explanation (“The doctor is dealing with a couple of emergencies that are taking longer than expected”)would go a long way. Everybody understands that emergencies come up and if your child was the one who needed the extra attention as a parent everybody would be thankful.

Exactly this.
I think the vast majority of people understand that emergencies happen in the medical field.
But the office staff needs to be communicating that!
It's not OK to say "the doctor will be in in a few minutes" when there are multiple patients in front of you!

I actually had a doctor try to charge me for a missed apt when I left after waiting an hour. Needless to say I never went back to that doctor.

[Anonymous]

I forgot to add, for a specialist doctor who is good and takes our insurance, I have waited as long as close to 2 hours in a waiting room. That is medicine these days. You can see the ones out of pocket faster, but you are paying for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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).

Emergencies are a different story. Doesn't sound like that was the case for OP's doctor.

What evidence do you have on that? She didn't even say what type of doctor. You know drs can't disclose other patient's health problems.

OP. I said it was an orthopedic office. My appt. Was 2nd of day. There was no emergency. If there had been, I am sure do. Or nurse would have said so. Once again, just advise patient when doctor, NO, or PA over 15 minutes late and not with "he'll be with you in a minute"!

Did the dr tell you specifically there was no emergency? Or you have assumed that based on the fact it was the 2nd appointment? Many people have pointed out how there could be an early morning emergency. You seem set on being upset (you've probably wasted more than 45 minutes on this thread here!)

[Anonymous]

Part of the issue is that practices have trouble making money because insurances don’t reimburse for so many things patients demand. See the thread about people recommending flu/ strep/ covid/ RSV swabs for a healthy 10 year old with a week of a cough. Do you think insurance reimburses for those tests, which are actually incredibly expensive for the office to run? They don’t! They say there is no medical necessity for a 10 year old to get an RSV test and they do not pay for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It happens when one of their patients winds up getting admitted to the hospital that morning and they have to go check on them, when they get stuck on the phone with an insurance company that's trying to deny coverage for a procedure the dr is sure the patient needs, when the parent of a patient waits until the dr is walking out to say "Hey is this huge lump a problem? Oh and I know you're not seeing my other kid right now but he has a rash that's been spreading steadily since last night and now is saying he can't breathe - is that a problem?" And then he has a patient puke on him and he has to change all his clothes. And then he's human and needs to take five minutes to eat breakfast because he hasn't eaten yet that morning and is starting to feel lightheaded. That's how that happens.

The thing is... you KNOW all of that will happen. Probably multiple times per week. It should be accounted for in the schedule - yes even if it means on the rare unicorn of a day when none of that happens, you may have been able to see an extra patient or two. You can't plan for a perfect day, and then be shocked when the schedule goes to hell because of things that will almost certainly go wrong.
And yes, I know it's not the doctors who make the schedules in most practices - my ire is at the health care system overall.

But when there is a shortage of pediatric specialists in almost every discipline, and people are waiting a long time for appointments as is, changing their schedules so that they see fewer patients and people have even longer wait times, isn't the answer.

I would rather wait an hour in an exam room, which I've done, than wait 3 or 4 months for an appointment when my kid is in pain.

But...but..OP's time is VALUABLE and they waited 45 minutes!!
If OP's tolerance is this low, he/she needs to consider paying for concierge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

And? Did they pay? Did you keep seeing them?

Of course not x2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

And? Did they pay? Did you keep seeing them?

Pleeeeeaaaaase answer this whoever you are. Did you get a response?

[Anonymous]

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.

The person you are responding to has no idea. None.

[Anonymous]

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.

If appointment time means nothing then why not just have open House and walk in patients.

Ding, ding, ding we have a winner