Anonymous wrote:
1. "It takes far too long to get an appointment."
--> schedule more patients per day

2. "I have to wait too long for the appointment I made, and it's too short a visit."

Pick one. Either one, just commit. Or go concierge, I suppose.

I'm confused. Most of us have to wait a long time to get an appointment AND rarely actually see the doctor at our appointment time. Totally get that this is because of our dysfunctional healthcare system, but if you are tired of angry patients, find a strategy that is respectful of their time - meaning, explain the wait when they arrive, apologize and offer the option to reschedule - saying "please sit down for an indefinite period of time and the doctor will see you when they are ready and don't complain" is not going to serve you or them well.

1. "It takes far too long to get an appointment."
--> schedule more patients per day

2. "I have to wait too long for the appointment I made, and it's too short a visit."

Pick one. Either one, just commit. Or go concierge, I suppose.

Doctors can have perfectly understandable reasons for running late, but if it's causing you stress to deal with patients that are frustrated at having to wait 45 minutes+ to see the doctor, then maybe you need a new strategy at least for communicating with patients. At this point I am used to having to wait a while to see the doctor but the one time I got angry was when I was left in an exam room for over an hour with zero information about when I might expect to see the doctor. I had to threaten to leave, and then suddenly she was available (I switched doctors after this). Doctors are not the only people who have stressful or packed schedules. You can't expect patients to wait indefinitely when they have an appointment they scheduled and planned for weeks in advance. We have jobs, children and other appointments.

Anonymous wrote:As a provider, I often run late because I actually listen to my patients.

If a patient complains about the timing, I apologize profusely and then do my absolute best to see them in 5 minutes or less. It is what they wanted me to do with the ithrrs, so that is what they can have.

I work in an obgyn field. Every time you read about maternal mortality and morbidity in the USA, or that it takes 10+ years to diagnose endometriosis (takes a 15-20 min detailed interview), I assure you these docs run on time.

I would love to have a scheduled 30 min appt to see each patient, but it is unrealistic.

Your frustration is heard.

Anonymous wrote:As a provider, I often run late because I actually listen to my patients.

If a patient complains about the timing, I apologize profusely and then do my absolute best to see them in 5 minutes or less. It is what they wanted me to do with the ithrrs, so that is what they can have.

I work in an obgyn field. Every time you read about maternal mortality and morbidity in the USA, or that it takes 10+ years to diagnose endometriosis (takes a 15-20 min detailed interview), I assure you these docs run on time.

I would love to have a scheduled 30 min appt to see each patient, but it is unrealistic.

So your response to a justifiably irate patient is to short change them because you book too many appointments to adequately triage each patient? Clinically, you may be competent but overall you are a sh*tty doctor, which isn’t saying much. Let’s drop the facade that the medical profession is in it for the patients. Medical industrial complex cares about profit above all else. So drop the boo hoo saintly act.

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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.

Fewer physicians in the DMV area? I think not but, yes, in rural areas because you can't make the money that you make here. If you think it's a thankless job, quit.

I am fed up with the Doctor as God and how you are doing us a favor by seeing patients. When you start paying me to be your patient then you can treat me like dirt. As long as I am paying you then I expect professionalism.

Or that I should be thankful to have a doctor runs late because that is some kind of indication of better care.

Anonymous wrote:As a provider, I often run late because I actually listen to my patients.

If a patient complains about the timing, I apologize profusely and then do my absolute best to see them in 5 minutes or less. It is what they wanted me to do with the ithrrs, so that is what they can have.

I work in an obgyn field. Every time you read about maternal mortality and morbidity in the USA, or that it takes 10+ years to diagnose endometriosis (takes a 15-20 min detailed interview), I assure you these docs run on time.

I would love to have a scheduled 30 min appt to see each patient, but it is unrealistic.

Wow. Do doctors actually think that poor scheduling gives the impression of better medical care?

If you can’t manage your time how can I expect you to manage my medical care?

Anonymous wrote:As a provider, I often run late because I actually listen to my patients.

If a patient complains about the timing, I apologize profusely and then do my absolute best to see them in 5 minutes or less. It is what they wanted me to do with the ithrrs, so that is what they can have.

I work in an obgyn field. Every time you read about maternal mortality and morbidity in the USA, or that it takes 10+ years to diagnose endometriosis (takes a 15-20 min detailed interview), I assure you these docs run on time.

I would love to have a scheduled 30 min appt to see each patient, but it is unrealistic.

I waited almost 2 hours for a recent appointment. There had been an "emergency." I was very grateful that the doctor spent about a half hour with me.

As a provider, I often run late because I actually listen to my patients.

If a patient complains about the timing, I apologize profusely and then do my absolute best to see them in 5 minutes or less. It is what they wanted me to do with the ithrrs, so that is what they can have.

I work in an obgyn field. Every time you read about maternal mortality and morbidity in the USA, or that it takes 10+ years to diagnose endometriosis (takes a 15-20 min detailed interview), I assure you these docs run on time.

I would love to have a scheduled 30 min appt to see each patient, but it is unrealistic.

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.

good for you for calling him out. im so sick of their god complexes.

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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.

You think it’s unreasonable for patients to be disgruntled if they have very long wait times?

If you chose to have better scheduling your patients would be happier and you could build in breaks for yourself.

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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.

Fewer physicians in the DMV area? I think not but, yes, in rural areas because you can't make the money that you make here. If you think it's a thankless job, quit.

I am fed up with the Doctor as God and how you are doing us a favor by seeing patients. When you start paying me to be your patient then you can treat me like dirt. As long as I am paying you then I expect professionalism.

Actually, you got that backwards. Living out in the middle of nowhere means you can make more as a physician.

It seems like you have a chip on your shoulder against this profession, and apt to complain.

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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.

Fewer physicians in the DMV area? I think not but, yes, in rural areas because you can't make the money that you make here. If you think it's a thankless job, quit.

I am fed up with the Doctor as God and how you are doing us a favor by seeing patients. When you start paying me to be your patient then you can treat me like dirt. As long as I am paying you then I expect professionalism.

My husband is a physician. We can make way more money in the rural areas. Rural areas have to pay more for some specialists to attract them. So, you’re not familiar with the current environment at all. It has nothing to do with the number of patients, it has to do with insurance. Rural areas pay better than DC for many physicians.

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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.

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

It's the doctor who is scheduling patients so unrealistically and, yes, it is just plain greed.

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

Fewer physicians in the DMV area? I think not but, yes, in rural areas because you can't make the money that you make here. If you think it's a thankless job, quit.

I am fed up with the Doctor as God and how you are doing us a favor by seeing patients. When you start paying me to be your patient then you can treat me like dirt. As long as I am paying you then I expect professionalism.