Anonymous wrote:

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.

1. Run on time.
2. Inform your patients when they arrive how late you are running and when they can realistically be expected to be seen.

Pick one. Either one, just commit. Or be totally inconsiderate and have your patients waiting an undetermined amount of time without any communication at all, I suppose.

Let's see how that works out for you. Please update when you are happy.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Hey, this isn't my problem. But if you don't want to wait, pay for concierge.

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.

Lovely anecdotes you've got there.
I'd love to see some real statistics by someone other than an organization dedicated to keeping doctors in business.

Okay. Just to clarify -- published academic research showing an increase in negative outcomes would be convincing to you? Or are there other restrictions you have that we can get on the table before someone wastes time on it for you?

There just aren't enough doctors. If there were, doctors couldn't over schedule even if they wanted to.

https://time.com/6199666/physician-shortage-challenges-solutions/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

And there you have it. It is "unrealistic" to expect responsible scheduling from doctors. You will get 10-15 minutes and be scheduled at the same time as 10 other patients. Anything else is unrealistic.
In what other field is this acceptable? Why do we permit doctors to treat their patients so terribly? The lack of respect is a slap in the face.

I see, you'd rather have a 6 month wait for a primary care visit. They squeeze in as many patients as they can see because the need is there. All it takes is one late patient or one lousy medical assistant to throw off the whole morning's schedule. I'm only in my 40s but I'm old enough to know that going to the doctor usually means a long wait. I always try to get the first appointment of the day when possible because these are usually on time.

I needed to take my 16 year old to a specialist earlier in the week, and she was planning when she'd return back to school. She assumed a 20-minute wait time in the exam room.

You all think that's normal and not realistic to be on time. I think it's pathetic.

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.

Listen doctors, your patients are not morons. We know the doctors that run late because they spend time with each patient, listening attentively, and the ones who cannot manage themselves if their practice depends on it. We know when doctors are late for emergencies -- because when it's an actual emergency -- the staff and doctor let you know. We know when are BSing us because you were late due to bad scheduling.

You actually could schedule 30 min appt per patient. You've just decided that it's not financially worth it for you.

The bottom line is that it would have cost the doctor nothing to start with something along the lines of "thank you for your patience" or "I'm sorry that we are running behind".

I had a similar experience with a doctor during my pregnancy who kept me waiting for 45 minutes (with a full bladder so they could do a sonogram) and then was a complete a$$ to me about it. And it turns out his office scheduled the appointment too early in my pregnancy and they couldn't do the test. I walked out of that appointment and never went back to that doctor.

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.

Exactly

Anonymous wrote:

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.

And there you have it. It is "unrealistic" to expect responsible scheduling from doctors. You will get 10-15 minutes and be scheduled at the same time as 10 other patients. Anything else is unrealistic.
In what other field is this acceptable? Why do we permit doctors to treat their patients so terribly? The lack of respect is a slap in the face.

I see, you'd rather have a 6 month wait for a primary care visit. They squeeze in as many patients as they can see because the need is there. All it takes is one late patient or one lousy medical assistant to throw off the whole morning's schedule. I'm only in my 40s but I'm old enough to know that going to the doctor usually means a long wait. I always try to get the first appointment of the day when possible because these are usually on time.

From: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5594520/

This review demonstrates that the involvement of nurses in advanced practice in emergency and critical care improves the length of stay, time to consultation/treatment, mortality, patient satisfaction, and cost savings.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK384613/
This evidence brief discovered little new evidence regarding health outcomes of patients receiving care from an independent advanced practice nurse (APRN) or physician. In primary and urgent care settings, there was no difference in health status, quality or life, mortality, or hospitalizations favoring either APRN or physician care, although the strength of evidence was generally low

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.

And there you have it. It is "unrealistic" to expect responsible scheduling from doctors. You will get 10-15 minutes and be scheduled at the same time as 10 other patients. Anything else is unrealistic.
In what other field is this acceptable? Why do we permit doctors to treat their patients so terribly? The lack of respect is a slap in the face.

I feel bad for doctors. Many work for large organizations that make their money on the number of contacts that their providers have during the day. So they're incentivized to double book patients, book patients over doctors' breaks and lunch, etc. Then the doctors run late because they had to see two patients in one patient slot, take all the sh*t from patients for being late, and make zero extra dollars for having an insane patient schedule.

My friend is a doctor who is currently trying to negotiate into her contract that the organization won't do this to her anymore because it's terrible for patient care. Guess what? The organization is refusing to do that.

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.

1. Run on time.
2. Inform your patients when they arrive how late you are running and when they can realistically be expected to be seen.

Pick one. Either one, just commit. Or be totally inconsiderate and have your patients waiting an undetermined amount of time without any communication at all, I suppose.

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 can probably count on one hand the number of times I've had an interaction with a doctor that lasted more than five minutes. Which is totally fine. I'm not there to chit chat.

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.

Lovely anecdotes you've got there.
I'd love to see some real statistics by someone other than an organization dedicated to keeping doctors in business.