[billethkid]

It seems on almost any thread having to do with rating or recommending doctors there is almost always several post about the waiting time.

Doesn't waiting to see the doctor go with having an appointment?
Some are close....few are right on the time.....and some are 20 + minutes.

Are there no waiting for the doctor where some of these folks come from?

Does waiting one appointment day have anything to do with the next day or the next, etc?

I look at it this way; if it is a good doctor that puts me first, takes his time, asnwers all my questions, focuses on me....then it is safe to assume he/she does the same with all patients. Hence the schedule may suffer some.

There is nothing I hate more than a doctor who is on a drum beat to get you out ASAP so he can get on to the next patient.

No Thanx. I will settle for the wait to get to my turn.

I am retired and am in no particular hurry to HAVE to be anywhere.

There. Now I can make the rest of the day!

[raynan]

I think that the complaints are not for a few minutes but rather hours.
Some doctors are consistently overbooking and the waits are in hours, every time. I am a patient patient. I understand emergencies and surgeries taking longer than expected but my luck can't be that bad that it happens for every one of my appointments at certain doctors. When you are waiting and you hear patient after patient signing in for the same appointment time and the same doctor, it is disheartening.

[rubicon]

I do not know if they continue the practice but many of the doctor's offices in Minneapolis had signs posted that if you waited longer than 15 minutes to let them know.

I believe this to be a sign of a well run office. The doctor is only as hood as his/her supporting staff. I made a conscious decision to align myself with the Munroe system because the support staff for my specialist and the hospital are efficient and pleasant. I have not experienced the long waits that members report here on TORV.

However, given the confusion in the marketplace today I am afraid that none of us will escape bad service from here on end

[dillywho]

Originally Posted by billethkid

It seems on almost any thread having to do with rating or recommending doctors there is almost always several post about the waiting time.

Doesn't waiting to see the doctor go with having an appointment?
Some are close....few are right on the time.....and some are 20 + minutes.

Are there no waiting for the doctor where some of these folks come from?

Does waiting one appointment day have anything to do with the next day or the next, etc?

I look at it this way; if it is a good doctor that puts me first, takes his time, asnwers all my questions, focuses on me....then it is safe to assume he/she does the same with all patients. Hence the schedule may suffer some.

There is nothing I hate more than a doctor who is on a drum beat to get you out ASAP so he can get on to the next patient.

No Thanx. I will settle for the wait to get to my turn.

I am retired and am in no particular hurry to HAVE to be anywhere.

There. Now I can make the rest of the day!

I totally agree with you. We all want to be treated with caring and competence without any time constraints because someone else might have to wait longer than they want. I even left one doctor because he was in such a hurry. When he was trying to dismiss us, I told him that I had another question. He informed me that he didn't have time. Absolutely not acceptable! It was a question about the medicine the doctor who had placed a stent for my husband had prescribed and had no refills. I wanted to know if he wanted him to stay on it, and if so, I would need another script. My son happened to be in town and went with us. Needless to say, he was totally appalled and said he had never seen such a thing. He didn't get a new script until we changed doctors, which we did asap. The first thing I told the new doctor was to tell me right then (first visit) if he would ever tell me that he "didn't have time", because if so, then we were out of there. He said absolutely not and apologized that someone else had done that.

Part of the reason they book the way they do is because the nurse has to do all the vitals, get updates on histories, do ekg's etc., and it would really take a long time if the patient wasn't ready when the doctor came in. If they do even a minor procedure, they have to take time to explain and then make sure the patient is ok afterwards. Some people have actually died after undergoing even the simplest of procedures. We are humans, not machinery, and we are all different in every aspect of medical care.

Besides, it is not just the restaurants and golf courses that get overwhelmed this time of year. There are a LOT of people here during our "high" season and some rely on the doctors here, especially if they spend more than 3-4 months here. One of the problems is that they also have to allow for people that make appointments and then don't show, not even bothering to call and cancel.

Many of the doctors, depending on who you are seeing and for what, will ask that you not book any other appointments for that day or plan any recreational activities. This is especially true of dermatologists who do the Mohs procedures. They have no idea how long each one will take until they do it. It could be one hour or many.

With more patients coming on board and fewer people choosing to become doctors, it will definitely never be ideal. Not meaning to be tacky, but it is medicine....not fast food drive thru.

[gemorc]

I often compare waiting time in doctor's offices to flight departures at some airports. Appointment time starts when you are ushered into the examination room. Departure time is when the plane leaves the gate. It just doesn't matter to the powers at be, how long you sit on the cold table, or how long you sit on the tarmac.

[blueash]

Originally Posted by dillywho

I even left one doctor because he was in such a hurry. When he was trying to dismiss us, I told him that I had another question. He informed me that he didn't have time. Absolutely not acceptable! It was a question about the medicine the doctor who had placed a stent for my husband had prescribed and had no refills. I wanted to know if he wanted him to stay on it, and if so, I would need another script.

I want to gently support the practice of that doctor. If I read your complaint, YOU had an appointment, and at the end believed it was appropriate to ask the doctor to manage your spouse who was not at the appointment. You might think the doctor remembers exactly who your spouse it, the details of what meds he takes, what the particulars of his surgery and his stent may be, what labs he has had done, or not had done, what the results of those labs might have been, how long he had been on the medications and the myriad of other details that need to be updated and used in making the decision whether a patient will need a refill. It is not even clear that you were seeing the surgeon who had done the surgery and originally given the medication. So your "one more thing" is not simple and should not have been handled at YOUR visit. Instead your husband who knew he was running out of medication and may or may not have needed a refill should have had his own visit where the doctor would have the needed time to do what needs to be done with caution, not with "one more thing" speed. So yes, perhaps the response you got was unexpected, but it may be because your expectation was not consistent with good medical care.

The doctor would rather loose you as a walk away patient than loose your spouse as a dead patient from a mishandled hurried decision.