I feel a lot of appointment-based businesses are like this. They’re trying to slot in as many services into one day as they can. Them making you wait is acceptable because they’re with another customer (Though I’m sure they wanna wrap it up with them quickly too). You making them wait is unacceptable because that’ll throw off their carefully timed appointment schedule.
It ain’t great but that’s the bitch of this damned money world huh
Them making you wait is also often a consequence of earlier patients showing up late or an appointment requiring more time than expected.
The options to solve it are less patients per day, but that leads to even longer delays before you even get to your appointment date, OR more professional staff in the office…but that would cut into profits of the people in charge so is immediately off the table in this damned money world.
In an ER, that’s understandable, but in a general doctor’s office there’s no reason that Docs should extend one patient’s appointment time just because they ended up late:
“Oh, you scheduled a 30 minute consultation because of a sore knee but now you’re asking for an ENT referral and blood work? You’ll have to schedule another appointment to go over that, we’re only covering what you told us the other day.”
You think someone should be penalised by having their diabetes review cut short because the traffic from their minimum wage job was unexpectedly slow?
Hyperbole indeed.
What about the 25 other patients who do not have a really, really important diabetes consultation, but a head cold or are just alone and need to talk?*
What about that one person who had their really, really important diabetes consultation at 6pm but was told to come back another day two hours later at 8pm once the other appointments were all stretched out ad infinitum, but can’t return anytime soon due to their boss not giving them any time off in their minimum wage job, who then DIES of diabetes? Come on, let’s not resort to hyperbole and made up scenarios - improvements are possible, and we should aim for those.
*Loneliness, in particular in elderly patients, is a real problem which I’m not trying to downplay. This needs to be solved, too.
It’s a hypothetical scenario. Penalising people for being late or for missing appointments has a higher adverse effect for people in poverty or with disabilities without actually addressing the cause. It’s why doctors in the UK are generally against introducing fines for missed appointments.
We need more capacity, yes.
Hyperbolic, made up scenario, but yeah pretty much. You get the time slot you scheduled and you should be held responsible for using it. Most offices ask you to check in at least a half hour early for a reason.
I could just as easily switch that around and ask if you believe some poor guy who finally got an extended lunch break from his minimum wage warehouse job should be fired because he had to wait an hour at the doctor’s office because some rich white lady spent 30 minutes past her appointment arguing about essential oils. Painting is pretty easy when it’s all black and white.
That sounds like an employment rights issue. Here we get as much time as required for health appointments.
OK cool don’t care and that didn’t even address half of my comment
Airports work like this. You arrive two hours before takeoff only to find out like half an hour before takeoff that the flight is delayed because there’s no plane.
The best way to fix this is to cancel the appointment if they make you wait. If enough people did this the clinic loses money which should cause change. Unfortunately, patients are largely a captive clientele, having already waited months and canceled work and with few if any alternative providers.
The next best thing is much more realistic. Plaster the internet with reviews complaining of the wait. If your doctor (or more likely your doctor’s employer) does not respect your time, let everyone know.
Many of the other comments are also correct. I have worked in clinics in government, military, academic centers, venture capital, physician owned, and even free community health centers, all in the USA. Doctors running late is going to happen. I’ve kept patients waiting while in the operating room, while telling someone they have cancer or are losing a limb, and by my burnt out underpaid government scheduler incompetently overbooking. I will also tell you that when I have at least a little control over my own schedule, I’ve never made a patient wait an hour, even with the above happening. It can be done, it just isn’t because for decades timeliness has not been a financial incentive.
Make it one. Name and shame on google, yelp, zoc doc, wherever. Do it gracefully and sensitively, recognizing that there is a high chance the delay is not the doctor or nurse’s fault. Done right, you’ll do them a favor when their employer feels the sting of lost patients.
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Our patient visits are set as 15 minute slots standard.
This isn’t enough time to practice good medicine for anything much more than something like a flu or strep throat. How does one squeeze in an entire rooming process followed by a solid HPI, physical, poc testing and then plan review with pt in 15 minutes?
They don’t.
But with how medicine works (in the US) it’s the how clinics make enough money to stay open.
For clarity: I work at a Federally Qualified Health Center, not a for profit clinic.
But with how medicine works (in the US) it’s the how clinics make enough money to stay open.
This is the truth. PCP offices in particular have razor-thin margins and insurance reimbursement goes down every year while supply, fixed, and staff costs go up every year. This is an insurance industry and healthcare system problem. Your doctors’ offices are just doing everything they can to stay open.
Fortunately CMS is rethinking the role of primary care and realizing we can save money if we’re able to provide high quality preventive care like we’re supposed to. PCP service payments (RVUs) are up 18% since 2020 which has been a long time coming. Unfortunately physician pay is down vs inflation over the last few decades but thank Christ administration salaries are way, way up over the same timeframe.
